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Incidence of “cherelle wilt” and fungal diseases in cacao pods “CCN-51” in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador

Abstract:

The presence of “Cherelle wilt” and pod diseases in cacao are the main limiting factor of production in this crop. This study was done with the objective of evaluating the incidence of “Cherelle wilt” and fungal diseases in cocoa pods ‘CCN-51’ in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador. In the towns of Puerto Limon and Luz de America, two commercial cacao plots ‘CCN-51’ (planted at 3.5 x 3.5 m = 816 pl/ha), five years old, were selected. In each plot, 25 plants were randomly marked and the incidence of “Cherelle wilt”, “Frosty pod rot” and “Black pod rot” was recorded at harvest time and throughout the year. With the incidence data, a Simple Regression Analysis was made, with each of the monthly climatic variables. The “Cherelle wilt” had the highest incidence, with practically similar values in the two localities and higher than for “Frosty pod rot” and “Black pod rot”. These last two had their greatest incidence in Luz de América, the “Frosty pod rot”, it was three times greater than in Puerto Limon. Simple linear regression analysis did not show a clear relationship between the incidence of pod damage with climatic variables and in most cases, the correlation indices were not statistically significant. However, the maximum temperature was positively and significantly correlated with “Frosty pod rot” and “Black pod rot” in Luz de America.