Role of nutrients in management of mango sudden death disease in Punjab, Pakistan.
Asad Masood, Shafqat Saeed, Asif Mahmood, Malik S. A., Nazim Hussain
Author Affiliation: University College of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
Pakistan Journal of Zoology 44 : 675-683
Abstract : Nutrients play a major role in the tolerance by the strength and integrity of the cell walls which is first line of defense against fungal diseases like mango sudden death. This study aimed to evaluate the positive effects of nutrients in management of mango sudden death. Leaf and soil analysis were found significant among all the treatments which indicated nutrients status in soil as well in plant leaves. The progress of disease indicating symptoms, i.e. oozing, and canker, curling or drying of leaves and rotting sign on root and stem on different portions of tree appeared to be non significant but overall 18.61% reduction in disease severity was calculated after application of different nutrients. The maximum reduction in disease severity reached 30.69% with nutrients ZnSO4+CuSO4+NP+humic acid followed by ZnSO4+FeSO4+NP+humic acid and CuSO4+NP+humic acid as 19.51% and 19.37%, respectively. Only the application of nitrogen and phosphorus without micronutrients was found to reduce the minimum disease severity of 8.39% followed by 9.35% when combined all nutrients i.e. Zn SO4+FeSO4+CuSO4+NP+humic acid. The results indicate that balanced use of micronutrients i.e. zinc, copper and iron in combination with humic acid as soil conditioner have significant effects in reduction of severity on infected plants. Therefore, nutrients application is highly encouraged by improving tree vigor against the management of sudden death of mango.