Mango Malformation : Things Scientists Wouldn't Tell - barefoot farmbooks

A look into one of Mango's most dreaded diseases that has been puzzling scientists since 1891:

Introduction

In today's modern era,mankind is touching the intangible, he is clutching the inapprehensible  and making it a reality. We have reached the Moon, our space rovers have traversed the distance of the solar system and we have synthesized intelligence artificially in the last few decades.

With his bold strides in the field of Science and technology,the intelligent ape, might sometimes get a very wrong notion that he has discovered everything in this universe.

Well, to be honest, we aren't even close!!There are billions of unsolved mysteries in our planet itself, (let alone the Universe) that cannot be comprehended or explained by even the Earth's mightiest brains.

One such burning question, which needs to answer, is that of Mango Malformation

It was first reported in India in 1891, and has been troubling farmers and scientists alike ever since.It is an extremely serious disease(or disorder) that leads to humongous decrease in Fruit production (almost no fruit is produced in most cases)

Mango is a very economically remunerative crop of the tropical world and export of Mango contribute significantly to the GDP of nations like India, Thailand and China.  Hence Mango Malformation is a grave problem for mango growers worldwide.

Symptoms of the disease (/disorder):

Mango Malformation is characterised abnormal development of vegetative shoots and inflorescence.

Vegetative Malformation:

•  Malformation of vegetative shoots is more prominent in young seedlings, but might also occur in young trees
• Terminal vegetative  buds of affected plants swells up and gives rise to small shootlets bearing rudimentary, abnormally small and scaly leaves
• Sprouting of numerous buds occurs and leads to abnormal growth
• The shootlets have short internodes and the leaves are extremely crowded
• Due to the abnormal surface pattern of leaf, photosynthesis rate is too less
• Twigs, shoot lets and leaves, all are deformed in structure and are hardly distinguishable from one another
• The lanky shootlets, Scaly leaves and weak twigs give a bunchy appearance to the plant.
•  Note that : These are leaves(not inflorescence)

Floral Malformation:

 When flowers emerge in such plants, floral Malformation is noticed

• The diseased flowers are much larger than normal
• These flowers are devoid of any functional ovary and hence are fruitless
• The inflorescence in such cases are hypertrophied and very crowded and colour is much greener than normal.

Probable Causes of Mango Malformation:

While there is no consensus in the Scientific Community regarding the cause of Mango Malformation, there exists a plethora of hypotheses that aims at doing so. Some of the popular ones are illustrated below-

Fungal attack Hypothesis

According to this theory Fungi belonging to genus Fusarium is responsible for this

While Fusarium mangiferae, is the most widely accepted species, many researchers have held other fungi like Fusarium subglutinans, Fusariumequiseti and Fusarium pallidoroseum responsible.

Acarogical Hypothesis

While the majority of the  traditional plant pathologists blame F.mangiferae,a large number of researchers actually think Mites are the casual organisms  behind the Mango Malformation disease.

Aceria mangiferae is the most widely commonly observed  mite associated with mango Malformation.

Hypothesis of Temperature

 Mango Malformation might also be controlled and influenced by rise and fall in temperature

Multiple Experiments have suggested that Malformation occurs on an extreme severity when temperature is around 10-15 ℃.The disease's intensity gradually decreases with increase in temperature and is absent all together at 30℃.

Hypothesis of Soil Conditions

It has been observed that soils poor in nutrients, especially in Nitrogen and Potassium are more prone to Mango Malformation, as compared to highly fertile soils.This has lead some Scientistd to draw a correlation between the two.

Hormonal Imbalance Hypothesis

Some scientists claim that Malformation occurs in mango due to a severe Imbalance of hormone in the plant body.This speculation is fuelled by the fact that malformed mango plants have low Auxin and Gibberellin and very high levels of Ethylene and HCN.

Remedies of Mango Malformation:

Since, we aren't sure of the very cause of the disease, it’s sure-shot remedy is not available. However there are a number of suggested practices which might be practiced for protection

• Spraying of 200 ppm NAAduring October followed by 500 ppm Ethrel at bud inception stage

• Deblossoming at Bud burst stage, to prevent the spread of Malformation to normal plant
• Improving the Nutritional condition of the soil. Increasing the dosage of Nitrogen might reduce floral Malformation.

• Trunk injection of a mixture of an insecticide (preferably monocrotophos), any potent acaricide and Potassium Sulphate is found to be effective

• Severely malformed plants have to be pruned and after pruning the area is treated with a mixture of fungicide and acaricide to prevent the spread of the disease

Despite adopting each of the above steps, mango Malformation can wreck it's havoc on the crops. As we are completely unaware of the exact mechanism of the disease spread and development, we cannot exactly prevent it from happening with a great accuracy. All we can do is adopt the safety measures mentioned and keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

This sheer helplessness of the 21st century human is a bloody of shame and failure of the modern Agricultural sciences.

Let's hope that modern researches will be able to predict the exact reason of this disease in the near future.

So, what do you think, how long will it take for unveiling of this mystery?

Let us know in the comments below!

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