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Symtoms

  • Middle aged palms are more fatally affected
  • Palms bear profusely just prior to and at the initiation of symptoms
  • Outer whorl of leaves wither and droop with yellowing and browning.
  • The outer whorl of leaves remaining suspended vertically around the stem for a long time to form a skirt of dead leaves around the trunk
  • Leaves break or buckle very close to their bases
  • Successively produced leaves are smaller and the crown is reduced to a mere handful of short erect yellow leaves
  • Apex of the trunk tapers
  • Drooped leaves fall off one by one leaving only a few smaller leaves at the apex
  • The newly formed leaves are pale and smaller in size
  • Finally smaller leaves wither and bud decays
  • Crown is easily blown off by wind
  • Rotting of the basal portion of the stem is very characteristic
  • Brittle bark often gets peeled off in flakes leaving open cracks and crevices
  • Bleeding of reddish brown viscous fluid with the decayed tissues beneath. It is restricted to basal portion of the stem (0.1-1.5 m) from the base
  • The internal tissues are discoloured, disintegrated and emitting a bad smell
  • Bole decays rapidly resulting in the formation of large cavities
  • Extensive damage of the root system following rotting and disintegration of cortical tissues
  • Necrosis of male flowers and poorly developed few female flowers in the inflorescence, arrest the development of bunches and barren nuts
  • Bracket shaped shiny waxy brown frutification of the fungus at the base of the trunk after the death of the palm

Control Measures

  • Completely remove dead palms and palms in advanced stage of the disease. Burn the boles and root bits of the palms
  • Isolate the affected palm from the healthy ones by digging a trench of 1m deep and 50cm wide at 2.0m away from the bole of the infected palm
  • Add 50 kg farmyard manure or green leaves per palm per year
  • Apply 5 kg neem cake per palm per year
  • Reduce fertilizer application to one fourth of the recommended dose
  • Drench the basin with 40 litres of 1% Bordeaux mixture after soaking soil, at quarterly interval for one year
  • Root feeding of 2 g Aureofungin-sol + 1g of Copper sulphate in 100 ml of water or Calixin 2ml in 100 ml water at quarterly interval
  • Avoid flood irrigation or ploughing in infected gardens to prevent spread of inoculums
  • Regularly irrigate basins during summer months or conserve moisture by coconut husk burial
  • Avoid growing leguminous crops in and around the garden
  • Apply Trichoderma harzianum fortified in neem cake /compost / vermicompost / other organic wastes