Evaluación de métodos de inoculación de hongos asociados a la pudrición de corona en la fruta de banano

Abstract

Banana is considered a primary fruit in the diet of human beings, therefore its commercialization is carried out worldwide, being part of the main economic income of all exporting countries, Ecuador is considered the first and one of the main banana exporting countries, contributing with 60% of export bananas throughout Europe, positioning, after oil, as the second most important activity in the country's economy, it is also mentioned that banana production within the country is sufficient to meet the third part of the global banana exports, because its commercialization ranges between 80 and 85 million boxes reaching 40% of the world production of this fruit this crop is characterized by its rapid and perennial growth However, this need for mass production brings with it the development of different complications such as diseases throughout In the whole cultivation process caused by various phytopathogenic agents such as fungi, viruses, insects, bacteria, etc., one of these diseases is the crown rot of the banana produced by fungi, which is generated in the post-harvest stage at When the cluster clusters are cut, this disease causes the superficial softening of the fruit, either in the crown or in the spine, which turns dark brown to black with whitish or pinkish spots, the one that as it progresses affects the pedicel them and in severe cases to the individual fingers causing their detachment of the crown. In the present study, it was proposed to identify the fungus at the genus level causing said disease by developing the inoculum in optimal conditions for its development within the Plant Health Laboratory of the Academic Unit of Agricultural Sciences, belonging to the Technical University of Machala , this allowed to demonstrate the presence of Fusarium spp, that genus of fungi is highly related to the rot of crown of the banana and other multiple fruits, the one that can naturally lodge in dry leaves or the soil, given this process it was inoculated said fungus in the bananas of the Cavendish subgroup - cultivating “Williams”, previously harvested in the banana farm “Tara del Sur” located in the rural parish Tenguel of the Guayaquil canton, within the aforementioned laboratory, five mycelium disc inoculation treatments were developed ( no wound, with wound, in the banana crown, by spray and testi treatment go), each of them had 15 repetitions, and then be characterized by the level of symptoms presented after 21 days of inoculation, the scale that was considered for this characterization was: without symptoms, mild symptoms and marked symptoms, this scale contributed to determine that the treatment 2 of wound inoculation, is the most effective for the evaluation of the development of crown rot in the banana since 73%, that is, 11 bananas from the 15 tested tested showed marked symptoms.