Diseases of Fruit Plantation Medicinal and Aromatic Crops

Root diseases

There are four types of root diseases infecting coffee plants viz., brown root disease, red root disease, black root disease and santavery root disease.
Brown, red & black root disease are observed both on Arabica & Robusta, while santavery root disease is noticed only on Arabica.
Brown root disease

Causal organism: Fomes noxius
Classification:

Class-Basidiomycotina,
Order-Polyporales
Family- Polyporacea.

This disease also known as stump rot , is mostly associated with the rotting stumps of shade trees. Disease spreads to neighbouring plants through root contact of infected stumps or plants.
Symptoms

• Infected plants show gradual yellowing of leaves and defoliation followed by death of the entire plant.
• Stem near the ground level becomes spongy and soft. Root system shows development of thick brown encrustation adhered with small stones.
• The brown fungal encrustation gives the name brown root disease.
• Interior of the roots show dark brown to black wavy lines.
Collateral hosts

The pathogen has also been reported to infect shade trees like dadap & silver oak, apart from other commercially important plantation crops such as citrus, tea, cocoa, nutmeg, oil palm & rubber.