Bacterial Fruit Blotch is a serious threat to the Watermelon farmers. It affects different organs of the plant at different stages. The bacterium is a seed borne disease & its life cycle begins with contaminated seeds.
Symptoms
Seedlings initially includes dark water soaking on the lower surface of the cotyledon.
Fruits will have small water-soaked lesions on top of their sides of fruit which enlarge over surface.
Lesions on fruits may turn reddish or brown and Crack.
Damage
The bacterium leads to rotting of the fruits and very low quality fruits due to the lesions on the fruit surface.
The crops are also stunted producing very small fruits. All this leads to heavy losses to the farmer.
Remedy
Use certified seeds from a reputable seed dealer. Greenlife Crop Protection has two varieties of water melon seeds namely Uwezo F1 & Dream F1.These are the only watermelon seeds which have been reported tolerance to Bacterial fruit blotch and other diseases like Water Melon Mosaic Virus. They mature early & yield more.
Use multiple sprays using copper based fungicides. At Greenlife Crop Protection, we have several copper based products for ultimate control of Bacterial Fruit Blotch.
- Greencop 500WP (50g/20L).
- Pyramid 700WP (50g/20L)
We advise for alternation between the two products until the disease is contained.
Copper is a bactericide that works well by coating the leaf surface with minute particles of copper that react with acid & moisture on the leaf surface to release copper ions that kill the bacteria.
Immune Booster
When your Melon crop is attacked by this bacterium, boasting the immunity of the plant will assist to keep the disease under control. Alternate between this products for ultimate crop immune boosting.
- Optimizer (10ml/20l). It has hormones which are used in bio stimulation and growth boasting
- Plant Soul (30ml/20l).It has Zinc Phosphate whose combination results in an intrinsic system which results in immune Modulation and boosting.
Sticker/Wetter/Spreader
When mixing the mentioned products, include Integra which enhances the efficacy of the products used. Integra breaks the surface tension of water making the products to spread to all corners of the leaf and stick to the leaf for better working of the products.
