Diseases of Fruit Plantation Medicinal and Aromatic Crops

Diseases of Pineapple

Introduction
Pineapple (Ananas comosus Linn.) Merrill is native to tropical America and it is cultivated in many parts of the world including India for its delicious fruit having pronounced flavour and also for fibre. The pineapple is a herbaceous, perennial plant which generally grows to 1.0 to 1.5 meters (3.3 to 4.9 ft) height with 30 or more trough-shaped and 30 to 100 centimeters (1.0 to 3.3 ft) long pointed leaves, surrounding a thick stem. The pineapple is an example of a “multiple fruit”. These multiple, helically-arranged flowers along the axis each producing a fleshy fruit that becomes pressed against the fruits of adjacent flowers, forming what appears to be a single fleshy fruit.
The fruit of a pineapple are arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number.[4]
The leaves of the cultivar 'Smooth Cayenne' mostly lack spines except at the leaf tip, but the cultivars 'Spanish' and 'Queen' have large spines along the leaf margins
MAJOR DISEASES

1. Heart rot: Phytopthora cinnamomi and Phytopthora parasitica.
2. Base rot: Ceratocystis paradoxa
3. Wilt: pine apple wilt virus
4. Pink disease: -Pantoea citrea

MINOR DISEASES

1. Fruit let core rot: Penicillium spp
2. Bacterial fruit rot: Pantoea ananas pv. ananas.