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Case Study Banana - Worlds Best
Practice Sigatoka Control.
The following chart shows Sigatoka levels in a banana plantation
from 1998 through until 2004. The curve represents early lesion
development, and refers to the left axis. The bars on the bottom
of the chart represent visible Sigatoka as the percentage of non-flowering
plants with a fully developed stage 5 lesion. There is a massive
disease outbreak in Late 2000, at this time fungicide was being
applied at 7 day intervals, the plant health problems continued
despite this program.
Towards the end of 2001 the soil chemistry was amended with calcium
and other ions required for calcium availability and uptake. The last
18 months of the curve no fungicide applications were made, despite
this the plant health was far superior than that obtained under an
intensive fungicide program. This has been repeated on over 40 other
farms.
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