delonix87

Any idea on how to best treat this? It's coming into winter now here (Sydney) and the underside of the leaves are showing this rust which eventually consumes the entire leaf. On another forum it was identified as sigatoka, and the solution proposed was deleafing them (which I am reluctant to do as they won't regrow till Winter has passed). Has anyone successfully got rid of this before?

Reminosys

As unfortunate as the situation is, deleafing may be required if the disease has gone past a certain stage. Fungicide might work if you caught it early, but isn't guaranteed to fix it. Here's a guide on combating Black Sigatoka, it's functionally the same treatments for Yellow Sigatoka:
https://cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/wangkh/.../CHPT6-IPM-BLS

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delonix87

Thank you; that link is interesting - it says Cavendish are prone to sigatoka which makes sense as I have a few other varieties (lady finger ect) right next to them which aren't affected.
I'm wondering - is Gran Nain a Cavendish variety? I am going to trial that one and am hoping it's more resistant to Sigatoka

rachel green12

thanks for the info

Reminosys

Assuming your Gran Nain in Australia is the same as in the USA, yes, it is a Cavendish clone. Sometimes different clone lineages react differently to the same disease, so it's worth trying if you can get one cheap. As an example, there's an institute in Taiwan currently developing TR4 resistant Cavendish with some success, but it's at an industrial scale.

Maybe you'll get lucky and get a Sigatoka resistant Cavendish clone, but it's better to look into the many other varieties known to be Sigatoka resistant.

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PR-Giants

For the past 5 decades I've watched the banana farm across the street go out of business and restart under new ownership multiple times because of sigatoka.

There are many options that makes Sigatoka easy to deal with and it's never been a problem for me. Mixing cultivars with different resistance levels is helpful along with appropriate spacing for the different microclimates and proper leaf management should eliminate most problems.

Sigatoka can be a problem but it shouldn't be.

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delonix87

Thanks I'm curious - which varieties are resistant? I have a large Lady fingers plant which doesn't seem to be affected

Reminosys

You are more likely to see success with following PR-Giants' advice, they're one of the most experienced growers on here. They're so skilled at growing plants others consider difficult, I sometimes wonder if witchcraft is involved.

That said, here's a link to an article from University of Florida, it has a brief section on Sigatoka resistant cultivars: UoF IFAS factsheet
Do also note the mention of there being multiple varieties called "ladyfinger". The name is so catchy, it gets applied to many cultivars and is useless for identification.

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