Powdery mildew damage to the production of BRS 189 cashew plants

• Autor(a) principal: Lima,Joilson Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Martins,Marlon Vagner Valentim, Cardoso,José Emilson
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Ceres
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-737X2019000200132
• topic: Anacardium occidentale; incidence; Pseudoidium anacardii; severity.

ABSTRACT Powdery mildew, caused by the fungus Pseudoidium anacardii, is currently the most important cashew disease, affecting leaves, inflorescences, and fruits. However, there is a lack of detailed reports associating the effects of P. anacardii to cashew yield. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the damage caused by powdery mildew to BRS 189 cashew clone nut, kernel, and peduncles. One experiment was conducted at the Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical Experimental Field in Pacajus, state of Ceará, Brazil, from July to December 2014, with BRS 189 cashew clone, with eight sulfur doses needed for achieving a disease gradient, distributed in a randomized block with four replications. The incidence (%) and severity of powdery mildew in cashew plants were estimated in a scale ranging from 0 to 4, and then correlated with plant yield and biometric characteristics of cashew nuts, kernels, and peduncles. The results showed that powdery mildew did not reduce productivity of nuts on this clone, although it caused a reduction in the mass and size of the kernels. On the other hand, powdery mildew affected mass, size, and quality of cashew peduncles at the lack of control.