Sugarcane being one year crop is being affected by different diseases e.g. red rot, whip smut, top rot, pokkah boeing, wilt and grassy shoot diseases. Pre-sowing seed treatment with MHAT is effective for management of few diseases. Kindly suggest any non chemical method for management of diseases after appearance of disease for organic cultivation of sugarcane.
Dear Mehar,
The success of disease and pest control in organic agriculture is heavily skewed towards prevention rather than treatment. The fungal pathogen you referred to may indicate (in my opinion) a loss of microbial diversity due to several years of cultivation of the same crop. If this is the case, it may be necessary to rotate sugar cane cultivation with a different crop or crops for a couple of years before planting sugar cane again. When planting sugar cane again intercropping this species with a mixture of cover crops would foster the diversity of soil biota and with this approach the outbreak of disease is controlled and preventable.
- Following good cultural practices such as clearing fields of excessive trash and ensuring efficient drainage.
- Healthy setts only are to be planted to avoid poor plant stand due to rotting.
- Affected fields should be isolated through bunding to prevent movement of water to adjacent fields.
- Rattooning of infected fields should be strictly avoided.
- Crop rotation in the affected fields could reduce disease inoculum.
- Hot water treatment of setts before planting at 52 degree C for 30 minutes is also recommended.
https://www.daff.gov.za/daffweb3/portals0/brochures%20and%20production%20guidelines/sugar%20cane%20prodocution%20%20guideline.pdf
Most of non chemical treatments are good for prevention of plant diseases not for cure. If you can use Peracetic acid (0,15%) solution - try it. We have good results on many different crops. In our experiments it kills pathogens and increase plant vigor and immunity
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