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Mango anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) Photo: RGimilio · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

Mango anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides)

Mango anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. (teleomorph Glomerella cingulata), is the most widespread fungal disease of mango worldwide and the principal panicle, fruit and post-harvest pathogen of mango in humid years across south India. In the Rayalaseema mango cluster (Mango Banganapalli Beneshan, Mango Neelum, Mango Mallika), it is especially damaging in seasons where unseasonal rain or heavy dew coincides with panicle emergence and fruit development.

Identification and symptoms

The pathogen produces dark brown to black necrotic lesions on flowers, panicles, tender leaves and fruit. On panicles, small black specks coalesce into elongated streaks that kill the inflorescence and prevent fruit set ("blossom blight"). On young leaves, irregular brown patches develop, often with a yellow halo; severe infection causes leaf shedding. On fruit, infections initiated in the field stay latent until ripening, after which sunken black lesions appear and expand rapidly; under humid conditions, salmon-pink conidial masses ooze from the lesions. Post-harvest anthracnose is the major cause of fruit rejection in transit and storage.

Hosts and life cycle

C. gloeosporioides is highly polyphagous; on mango it persists as quiescent infections on twigs, mummified fruit and dead inflorescence remnants. Conidia are dispersed by water splash during rain and dew, and germination requires free water on the host surface. Temperatures of 25-30 deg C with relative humidity above 95% and prolonged leaf wetness for 8-12 hours are optimum. Latent infections established on fruit during development resume growth at ripening, producing the classic black post-harvest lesions even on fruit picked from apparently clean orchards.

Damage and economic impact

ICAR-CISH and IIHR estimate yield losses of 10-30% in the field in seasons with heavy unseasonal rain at flowering, and additional post-harvest losses of 20-50% in long-distance shipments when fungicide cover at fruit development was inadequate. Anthracnose, along with stem-end rot, is the single most cited cause of rejection of Indian mango export consignments.

Management

ICAR-CISH Lucknow, ICAR-IIHR Bangalore and the Mango Package of Practices recommend:

  • Sanitation: prune and burn dead inflorescences, mummified fruit and dead twigs after harvest; this reduces inoculum at the next flowering.
  • Cultural: orient orchards for free air movement; avoid overhead irrigation during flowering; harvest fruit dry, not wet.
  • Chemical: pre-flowering and pre-fruit-set sprays of carbendazim 50% WP at 1 g/L or thiophanate-methyl 70% WP at 1 g/L; protective sprays of copper oxychloride 50% WP at 3 g/L or mancozeb 75% WP at 2 g/L during fruit development. Pre-harvest hot water dip (52 deg C for 5 minutes) followed by carbendazim 0.05% reduces post-harvest losses.
  • Cultivar selection: among major Indian cultivars, Banganapalli and Totapuri are moderately tolerant; Neelum, Mallika and Dasheri are more susceptible under heavy disease pressure.
  • Biological: foliar sprays of Trichoderma viride (5 g/L) and Bacillus subtilis formulations during the flowering window in low-pressure orchards.

See also: Mango Powdery Mildew, Mango Malformation Fusarium, Mango Hopper Amritodus Idioscopus, Mango Flowering Management, and the major mango variety entries.

Sources

  1. Mango diseases. ICAR-CISH Lucknow.
  2. Anthracnose of mango. ICAR-IIHR Bangalore.