Hi dear researchers,
I've been working just 9 months with avocados, and a colleague sent me a picture about a kind of disease or plague, and I don´t really know what to say because this is really new for me.
Does somebody have information about this?
*Attached image
Dear Daniela Garces, The principle fruit diseases or avocado are anthracnosis and stem end rot by Colletotrichum and Lasiodipodia respectively. Otherwise the biggest issue by far is Phytophthora cinnamon which causes devastating root rot. I would recommend you isolate from the seed lesion and also incubate the seed in humid chamber and investigate the fungi which come out then isolate identify and do a pathogenicity test. Let us know what you discover. Sincerely, PRH
Dear Paul Reed Hepperly, I appreciate your answer.
I'll try to make a test.
Dear Daniela,
If convenient take some pictures of the outside of the fruit. Humid chamber would be recommended there also.
Anthracnose are black sunken lesions on the fruit with acervuli with orange masses of spores and sterile setae in the acervuli.
Lasiodiplodia is a dark fluffy myceliume with knobby pycnidia and the pycnidiospores are dark with one septa and wrinkled.
Phytopthora is cottony and show sporangiosphores on broad coencytic mycelium.
The seed damage is the best place to get the pathogen affecting the avocado fruit. The damaged area at the advancing lesion margin gives the best result. Generally the tissue is surface disinfected with 1 min 70% ethanol followed by 4 minutes of 10% chlorox bleach and washed in 3 changes of sterile distilled water. The tissue is then air dried in a sterile transfer hood. Used flamed forceps and dissecting knives to cut small pieces at the lesion margin. Aseptically plant the small pieces into sterile potato dextrose or potato carrot dextrose agar. Incubate at 25C for a week and characterize the colonies and start to work on identification using the morphology and structures. Good luck.
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