POSTHARVEST DISEASE: EFFECTS OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AGE OF BANANAS (MUSA SPP.) ON THEIR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO WOUND ANTHRACNOSE DUE TO COLLETOTRICHUM MUSAE

M. Chillet, O. Hubert, L. De Lapeyre De Bellaire
Wound anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum musae, and early ripening is the main problem affecting the quality of export bananas (Musa spp.) from a lot of countries in the world. In the case of Guadeloupe (French West Indies), these problems generally concern bananas harvested in lowland plantations during the rainy season. Three experiments were carried out to study the influence of the physiological age of bananas, calculated on the basis of mean daily temperature sums, on their susceptibility to anthracnose. Stressful growing conditions, especially soil flooding, slowed fruit growth but had no direct effect on fruit susceptibility to C. musae or on the green life. However, fruit that had accumulated lower temperature sums were less susceptible to wound anthracnose. By varying the source-sink ratio, we show that bananas of the same grade but different physiological ages had markedly different susceptibility to C. musae. Bananas with the same temperature sum accumulation but grown in different soil and climate conditions had different levels of susceptibility. Fruit grown in cooler, highland areas were less susceptible to C. musae than fruit of the same physiological age from lowland plantations. Our results suggest that the temperature sum accumulation rate is a critical factor affecting the susceptibility of bananas to the pathogen.
Chillet, M., Hubert, O. and De Lapeyre De Bellaire, L. (2010). POSTHARVEST DISEASE: EFFECTS OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AGE OF BANANAS (MUSA SPP.) ON THEIR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO WOUND ANTHRACNOSE DUE TO COLLETOTRICHUM MUSAE. Acta Hortic. 879, 419-424
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.879.46
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.879.46
cultural stress, Musa acuminata, postharvest pathogen, wound disease
English

Acta Horticulturae