Banana Thirty-fifth to thirty-sixth week practices

Give a second spray of 2% Potassium Sulphate (20g/litre of water) solution with surfactant by thoroughly drenching the bunch. Provide casuarina pole or bamboo support to the plants for tall and heavy bearing bunches.

Fruit rust thrips, Chaetanaphothrips signipennis

Symptoms of damage

• Rusty reddish discolouration on the fingers
• Yellowing of leaves and rusty growth over fruit.

Identification of pest-

• Adult – Yellowish white with shaded wings.

Management

• Destroy all volunteer plants and old neglected plantations
• Use healthy and pest free suckers for planting
• Hot water treatment prior to planting.
• Bunch covers (which cover the full length of the bunch) protection applied very early.
• Regular checking of fruit under the bunch covers is essential to ensure that damage
• Bunches, pseudostem and the suckers should be sprayed chlorpyrifos
• Soil application fipronil and bifenthrin
• Field release of coccinelid predators like lacewings, ladybird beetles