APP 644

DISEASES OF VEGETABLE AND SPICE CROPS

GOVIND BALLABH PANT UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
AND TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
PANTNAGAR

TITLE
“DISEASES OF BLACK PEPPER & THEIR MANAGEMENT”

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. L. B. Yadav (Professor) Abhay Sharma
Dept of Plant Pathology I.d No. 59852
G.B.P.U.A&T, Pantnagar. M.Sc. (1st year)
Plant Pathology
 DISEASES OF BLACK PEPPER & THEIR MANAGEMENT

Introduction
 Black pepper, scientifically known as Piper nigrum, is a flowering vine in the family
Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and
seasoning.

Crop description
 Black pepper is a plant of humid tropics requiring high rainfall and humidity.
 It grows successfully at an elevation 1500 m above sea level.
 Optimum temperature for root growth is 26-28°C.
 A well distributed annual rainfall of 125-200 cm is considered ideal for black pepper.
 Black pepper can be grown in a wide range of soils with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5, though in its
natural habitat it thrives well in red laterite soils.
 Planting season: June-Dec
 Harvesting: Pepper vines start yielding usually from the 3rd or 4th year.
 The vines flower in May-June. It takes 6 to 8 months from flowering to ripening stage.
 Harvesting is done from the November to February in the plains and January to March in
the hills
 Yield: 2 to 3 kg/vine/year

Major diseases of black pepper

S. No. Disease Causal organism
01 Phytophthora foot rot/ quick wilt Phytophthora capsica
02 Root knot nematode Meloidogyne spp.
03 Burrowing nematode Radopholus similis
04 Slow decline Disease complex
05 Anthracnose Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

Phytophthora foot rot/ quick wilt

 The disease was first reported in 1902 from Wynad district of Kerala.
 The crop losses due to foot rot of black pepper have been reported to be 119 to 905
tonnes per annum in Kerala.
 It is a major disease of black pepper and it may cause excessive mortality of cuttings
(Anandaraj and Sarma, 1995).
 The infection initiates with the onset of south-west monsoon.
 Up to 25-30 per cent of crop loss and 44-48 per cent of the vine have been reported in
Kerala and Karnataka.
Symptoms
 The symptoms start as water soaked lesions on the lower surface of the leaves and
these lesions later enlarge rapidly, involving 25-70 per cent of the leaf lamina .
 With the onset of south-west monsoon during May –June, runner shoots arising from
the base of the vine are also infected.
 The leaves later become flaccid and droop and the plants show die-back symptoms.
 The foot rot infection occurs as wet patch at the collar region of the vine resulting in
varying degree of rotting of the main stem.
 There is yellowing and gradual drying of the foliage leading to sudden death of the
plant and hence the disease is also called quick wilt.

Pathogen
 The disease is caused by Phytophthora palmivora (Butler) Butler but now it is changed
to P. capsici Leonian.
 Mycelium is hyaline, branched 3.3-8.6 µm wide and non-septate but few septa are
found in case of old hyphae, typically hyphal branches arise at right angles, often
variously swollen and tuberous and of abnormal diameter.
 Sporangia are rarely produced or almost absent in culture, the sporangia are hyaline,
ovoid to pyriform or sometimes round to lemon shaped, non-pedicilate with a
predominant, hemispherical papilla at the apex.
 The zoospores are reniform to oval, biflagellate and remain motile for 20-30 minutes,
then shed flagella and become encysted and germinate by means of germ tubes.
 Oospores are formed abundantly in aerial as well as submerged mycelia in the
medium.
 The oogonia are hyaline, circular to spherical, the oogonial stalk is encompassed by
persistant amphygynous antheridium.
 The oospores are circular to spherical, the oospores are found to germinate either by
germ tubes or by the rupture of oosporic walls.
 The fungus does not produce chlamydospores.

Epidemiological conditions
 The disease generally prevails during the southwest monsoon season in India (Sarma et
al., 1996).
 Day and night temperature ranging between 19-23 degree Celsius during the wet season
is reported to be optimum for pathogen.
 Soil moisture plays a very important role in the survival of the pathogen.
 The pathogen is soil borne and infected plant debris serves as the major source of
inoculum.
 A temperature of 23-29o C, relative humidity of 81-99 per cent, daily rainfall of 15.8-
23 mm and sunshine of 3.5 h /day favours aerial spread.
 Vertical and lateral spread of the disease is noticed due to rain splashes during foliar
infection.
 The disease gradually spreads to the upper region of the bush with intermittent rain
splashes.
Disease cycle

Management
1. Phytosanitation and cultural practices
 Phytosanitation involves, planting disease free cuttings in new plantations, destruction of
infected plant materials by burning, treatment of basins with fungicidal drenching(copper
oxychloride @0.2% or 2g/l), etc.
 Cultural practices involve timely tying or pruning of runner before south west monsoon,
mulching the basins to prevent rain splash, prevention of water stagnation and facilitating
proper drainage in the plantation.
 Establishment of cover crop and minimum tillage to avoid root injury are also found to
reduce the incidence of foot rot.
 Cultivated varieties such as Naryankodi, kalluvally, Uthirankotta and Balancotta which
are tolerant to quick wilt.
 Panniyur 8 & 9 - field tolerant to Phytophthora foot rot.

2. Raising single node cutting by bamboo method

 A simple, cheap and efficient technique for propagating black pepper from single nodes
of runner shoots taken from field grown vines has been developed at IISR Calicut.
 A pit of 2.0 m × 1.0 m × 0.5 m size is dug under a cool and shaded area.
 Single nodes of 8-10 cm length and with their leaf intact are, taken from runner shoots of
field grown vines.
 They are planted in polythene bags filled with a mixture of sand, soil, coir dust and cow
dung in equal proportions with their leaf axil exposed above the potting mixture.
 After keeping the bags in the pit, the pit should be covered with a polythene sheet.
 The cuttings should be irrigated at least five times a day with a rose can.
  Cuttings in poly bag are drenched 2-3 times with copper oxychloride (2 g/litre).
 After about 1 month, new shoots start emerging from the leaf axil.
 The cuttings can be taken out of the pit after two months of planting and kept in a shaded
place and watered twice a day.
 These cuttings will be ready for field planting after about 2 ½ months.
 By this method 80-85% success rate can be obtained.

3. Organic amendments
 Application of nitrogenous organic matter like urea and poultry manure are known to
suppress Phytophthora in soil through the formation of ammonia and nitrous acid which
are toxic to the fungus.
 Organic amendments also increase the activity of microorganisms antagonistic to
Phytophthora.
 Application of bio- pesticides like neem oil cake at the rate of 1 kg/vine during May-June
is recommended for suppression of Phytophthora apart from its use as organic manure.

4. Biological control
 Trichoderma and Pseudomonas may be applied to all the vines at the rate of 50 g/vine
during May – June and again during August – September.
5. Chemical control
 After the receipt of few monsoon showers (May-June), all vines to be given a foliar spray
of Bordeaux mixture 1% accompanied with drenching of soil around the vines with
copper oxychloride 0.2% @ 2-5 litres/vine (pre-monsoon).
 Spraying and drenching are to be repeated just before the northeast monsoon (post-
monsoon).
 A third round of drenching may be given during October, if the monsoon is prolonged.

Nematode problems
1. Root knot nematode
 The root knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.) was the first nematode to be recorded on
black pepper by Delacroix in 1902.
 Later, Butler (1906) reported RKN infestation on black pepper in Wyanad, Kerala.
 Two species of RKNs, M. incognita & M. javanica infest black pepper.
 Root systems of infected plants slow varying degrees of galling due to hypertrophy &
hyperplasia.
 Typical galls or knots are seen on secondary or fibrous roots and elongated swellings on
thick primary roots.
 Leaves of such plants turn yellow (interveinal chlorosis) and drop off easily.
2. Burrowing nematode
 Association of burrowing nematode with black pepper was first reported in India by
D’Souza et al. (1970).
 High population of R. similis (more than 250 nematodes/gram of roots) were found in
black pepper gardens throughout the year, except during summer months (April to June)
 The build up of nematode population starts from June/July and reaches maximum during
September/October.
 The population level in black pepper gardens is influenced by rainfall, number of rainy
days and their subsequent effects on soil moisture, soil temperature and root proliferation
in the host plant.
 R. similis feeds on cortical tissues and produces elongate, brown to dark brown necrotic
lesions on roots at the point of entry.
 These are more visible in white feeder roots.
 Subsequently, they merge together & encircle root cortex leading to disintegration of the
distal portion of roots.
 The aerial symptoms are foliar yellowing & defoliation.

Difference between root knot nematode & burrowing nematode

Integrated management of nematodes

1. Cultural practices & Phytosanitation:
 Remove infected and dead vines along with root system from the plantation and burn to
check the population build up of these pathogens.
 Practice minimum tillage concept to avoid injury to root system.
 Tagetes petula, a known nematode antagonistic plant, were grown along with nematode
infested black pepper plants inhibit RKN development
2. Host resistance
 Piper colubrinum, a wild related species of black pepper, is highly resistant to both the
nematodes.
 Cv. Ottaplakal-1 is resistant to M. incognita.

3. Organic amendments
 Apply neem oil cake as a soil amendment @ 1 kg/vine during May-June, which has a
suppressive action on nematodes apart from its source as nutrient.
 In addition, organic manure application before planting, apply 50 g Azospirillum + 50 g
PSB + 200 g VAM per plant at the time of planting.
 For large scale production of nematode free planting materials, nursery soil mixture
should be sterilized with solar heat, steam or soil fumigants.
4. Chemical control
 Granular nematicide carbofuran @ 3g a.i. twice a year.
 Spray the vines with Ridomil-Ziram (2.5ml/) or Ridomil-MZ 72 WP (1.25g/l) (Annon.,
1991.)
 Soil drenching with copper oxy-chloride can be done during October, if north-east
monsoon continues (2g/l).

Slow decline
Symptoms
 General yellowing of lower leaves which progress upwards.
 The affected leaves become flaccid and fall off.
 Tip burn of leaves and die-back of twigs appear. Root knot, can be seen in the vine
showing the yellowing of leaves. The affected vines gradually die.

Pathogen
 The disease is caused by Fusarium solani Sacc. f.sp. piperi.
 Mycelium is septate and hyaline at first and becoming cream coloured with age,
however, some isolates produce blue or red pigment.
 Micro conidia are ellipsoidal, straight to curved, one to two celled and hyaline.
 Macro conidia are hyaline, 3-5 septate, falcate having gradually pointed and curved
ends and appear on sporodochia.
 Chlamydospores, both rough and smooth walled, characterized by thick walls are
terminal or intercalary.

Disease cycle and epidemiology

 The pathogen is soil borne in nature.
 It perpetuate in the form of chlamydospores in the soil.
 It requires high temperature for infection.
 More damage is done by the organism in association with Meloidogyne incognita than
individually.
Management

1. Cultural practices & Phytosanitation:

 Remove infected and dead vines along with root system from the plantation and burn to
check the population build up of these pathogens.
 Practice minimum tillage concept to avoid injury to root system.
 Tagetes petula, a known nematode antagonistic plant, were grown along with nematode
infested black pepper plants inhibit RKN development

2. Host resistance
 Piper colubrinum, a wild related species of black pepper, is highly resistant to both the
nematodes.
 Cv. Ottaplakal-1 is resistant to M. incognita.

3. Organic amendments
 Apply neem oil cake as a soil amendment @ 1 kg/vine during May-June, which has a
suppressive action on nematodes apart from its source as nutrient.
 In addition, organic manure application before planting, apply 50 g Azospirillum + 50 g
PSB + 200 g VAM per plant at the time of planting.
 For large scale production of nematode free planting materials, nursery soil mixture
should be sterilized with solar heat, steam or soil fumigants.
4. Chemical control
 Granular nematicide carbofuran @ 3g a.i. twice a year.
 Spray the vines with Ridomil-Ziram (2.5ml/) or Ridomil-MZ 72 WP (1.25g/l) (Annon.,
1991.)
 Soil drenching with copper oxy-chloride can be done during October, if north-east
monsoon continues (2g/l).

Anthracnose
The disease is also known as “Pollu’. Spike shedding due to this disease can go upto 10 per cent.
In early infection, there is up to 77 per cent weight loss of berries while late infection causes 56
per cent infection.

Symptoms
 Circular or irregular grey spots appear in the leaves.
 Concentric rings of acervuli appear on upper surface of the leaves. On the stem the
infection appear at the tips spreads downwards and kill the entire vine.
 When infections occur in leaf axils the spikes become affected and fall off.
 Berry becomes brown in colour and extends downwards from upper portion.
 On the berries, the infected berries get dry, later become hollow (Pollu) and shed in
large numbers.
Pathogen
 Three species of genus Colletotrichum like C. gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. &
Sacc., C. necator Masse and C. capsici (Syd.) Butler & Bisby have been reported to be
associated with this disease.
 The mycelium of C. capsici is septate, intercellular as well as intra-cellular and aerial
mycelium appears light to dark grey in colour.
 Acervuli are round and elongated in shape, setae are scattered, brown, 1-5 septate,
rigid and swollen at base and acute at apex.
 Conidiophores are short, hyaline to faintly brown, cylindrical, septate or aseptate.
 Conidia are falcate, fusiform with acute apices and narrow truncate base, one celled,
hyaline and uninucleate.

Disease cycle and epidemiology

 Since the vines are perennial, the disease symptoms appear throughout the season and
thus the life cycle of the pathogen continues.
 Dioscorea triphylla is a collateral host.
 The pathogen require high humidity in the form of dew, the maximum disease
incidence i.e. 28-34 per cent occur during the months of August and September.

Management
 Irrigating black pepper vines during summer months has been found to substantially
reduce the disease symptoms.
 Adequate shade regulation is a must for managing this disease.
 Provide irrigation 4-5 times an interval of 5-7 days@ 40-50lit/plant commencing from
22nd March followed by shade regulation (provide 40 % shade using shade net) .
 Remove and destroy all fallen leaves and spikes.
 In India, the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon spray with Bordeaux mixture (1%) or
carbendazim + mancozeb (0.1%) is recommended to check the anthracnose.
References
 Rajan, P. P., Sarma, Y. R., & Anandaraj, M. (2002). Management of foot rot disease of
black pepper with Trichoderma spp. Indian phytopathology, 55(1), 34-38.
 Sarma, Y. R., & Anandaraj, M. (1997). Phytophthora foot rot of black pepper.
 Diseases of black pepper by IISR Calicut.
 Management of black pepper diseases by IISR Calicut.
 Ramana, K. V., & EAPEN, S. J. (2000). 5.2. NEMATODE INDUCED DISEASES OF
BLACK PEPPER. Black pepper: Piper nigrum, 269.
 Ramana, K. V., & Mohandas, C. (1987). Plant parasitic nematodes associated with black
pepper (Piper nigrum L.) in Kerala. Indian Journal of Nematology, 17(1), 62-66.