Diseases of Oil Palm
The diseases that often occur to the oil palms are as the follows;
- Crown disease It is still unclear what the cause of this disease is. It may be from heredity, or unbalanced nutrition, in particular nitrogen and magnesium. This disease mostly found in oil palms that are 1-3 years old. However, when the palms are older, the disease will disappear by itself.
The disease symptoms include rot on the tip of young leaves. When the leaves are older, the rotten part will be dry, and ripped, and only the leaf stalks that curve downward will be left. When new leaves sprout, the symptoms will reoccur. Sometimes, the leaves rip from the trees without any symptoms.
- Spear rot 32 It is still unclear what the cause of this disease is.The diseased cells contain fusarium sp. and erwinia sp. This disease mostly happens to 1-3 year- old oil palms. It spreads in the fall season and mostly found in stagnant water.
The disease symptoms include rot on the tip of leaves which begin with brown color and then expand. After that, the rotten leaves will be dry and able to remove from the trees.
Keeping the leaves out of bugs is a way to protect the oil palm trees. If initial symptoms are found on the leaves, cut the infected areas off and spray pesticides such as triram, aliette.
- Marasmius ruch rot causes by marasmius sp. The symptoms occurs on the palm bunches before they are ripe. White fiber-like is found between the fruits in the bunches, and also inside the fruits. It increases the percentage of free fatty acids. The fruits will be soft and rotten and change the color to brownish black. If the environment is humid, mushroom will be formed on the bunches.
If the symptoms are found on the trees, thenget rid of all the infected bunches includingunpollinatedflowers and dry male pollen. Antigroterzan and antracol should be sprayed after that.
- Trunk rot caused by fungi which include philinus sp. and ganoderma sp. The symptoms found that the upper trunk, about 0.5 meter from the tip, is broken on 9 year-old tree. When dissecting the trunk, it is found that the fungi spreads through the stalk base and infects the truck while the root and bark don’t have any symptoms.
To cure the symptoms, burn down the infected trees. The infected tree must not be moved to other patches. If new symptoms are found, cut the particular infected areas out and use pesticides on those area.
