Evaluación de los métodos de mitigación de brotes de bacteriosis en el cultivo de banano.

Abstract

This descriptive research with an experimental design was conducted on a banana farm located in El Guabo canton, El Oro province (Ecuador), with the objective of evaluating the effectiveness of three mitigation methods applied to plants infected with Ralstonia solanacearum Race 2, the causal agent of Moko disease in bananas. Initially, plants with compatible symptoms were identified through phytosanitary field inspection, and tissue was extracted from the pseudostem. Subsequently, bacterial isolation was performed in the laboratory using the TTC selective medium (triphenyl tetrazolium chloride), which allowed confirmation of the pathogen's presence through the analysis of characteristic pigmented colonies. Once the infected plants were diagnosed, three different treatments were applied: (1) chopping the plant and applying 5 kg of agricultural lime with a soil cover, (2) chopping and placing the biomass in a plastic bag with the application of urea in a 1:1 ratio relative to the fresh weight of the biomass, and (3) direct injection of glyphosate into the pseudostem. A field follow-up was carried out within a 100-meter radius in each case to identify potential spread of the infection focus. The results showed that the method based on urea was the most effective, as no new infected plants were detected. The glyphosate treatment showed intermediate effectiveness, with one symptomatic plant found, while the agricultural lime method was less effective, with two new infected plants identified. These findings support the use of urea as an effective strategy to contain localized outbreaks of bacterial wilt in musaceae under tropical conditions.