Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis)

Bark rot (Phytophthora spp.)

Symptoms

  • During rainy season, when trees are tapped, depressions are formed in the tapping panel due to localized rotting and drying of bark.
  • Black vertical lines running downward into the tapping bark and upwards into the renewed bark are noticed.
  • The bark when renewed becomes highly uneven.

Management

  • The tapping cut and nearby bark should be washed with mancozeb (3.75 g/l) or phosphoric acid (0.08 per cent) at weekly intervals.
  • The rotten bark may be scraped off and applied with fungicide and then covered with petroleum wound-dressing compound.
  • Other diseases are patch canker, dry rot, Colletotrichum leaf spot disease, bird’s eyespot, shoot rot, brown rot etc.