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    Graft­ing purple & yel­low pas­sion fruit erad­ic­ates deadly fusarium wilt

    grafted passion fruit seedlings kenya

    Farm­ers can con­trol the lethal fusarium wilt dis­ease with a 100 per cent deadly rate by graft­ing purple and yel­low pas­sion plants to ob­tain a hy­brid.

    The dis­ease, which is caused by a fungus, at­tacks stems and leaves and causes death of the en­tire plant within four to 14 days.

    In Kenya, the dis­ease has led to drop in pro­duc­tion of pas­sion fruits from 46,628 met­ric tonnes in 2015 to 31,571 met­ric tonnes as of 2018 ac­cord­ing to the Hor­ti­cul­tural Crops Dir­ect­or­ate.

    Mor­ris Koome, a farmer in Meru for in­stance found out that the yel­low pas­sion fruit more tol­er­ant to the dis­ease than the purple one and through graft­ing he found out that they hy­brid is less sus­cept­ible to wilt­ing.

    The dis­ease com­monly at­tacks adult plants with the first sign being slight with­er­ing and dry­ing of the branch tips. The plant will die within 14 days. Root rot as well as cracks at the stem bases are evid­ences of the dis­ease at­tack.

    Re­lated con­tent

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    Ex­porter look­ing for farm­ers to grow French beans and Pas­sion fruits

    United Na­tion's Food and Ag­ri­cul­ture Or­gan­isa­tion de­scribes the dis­ease, which also at­tacks ba­na­nas, as one of the most de­struct­ive in­fec­tion. It is hard to con­trol even with the avail­able cop­per-based fun­gi­cides and can last for more than 10 years in the soil. 

    Be­sides using dis­eases free seed­lings, the agency re­com­mends re­stric­tion of move­ment of soil from one place to an­other. High stand­ards of field hy­giene may help com­bat fur­ther spread.

    “Fusarium wilt loves pas­sion fruits. This vari­ety is loved most by con­sumers be­cause of high con­tent of juice be­sides ap­peal­ing ap­pear­ance. But it is over­whelmed quickly. I am com­bin­ing yel­low and purple vari­et­ies to get a hy­brid,” said Koome.

    While graft­ing, Koome uses the yel­low root stalk and the purple vari­ety scion.

    "One pas­sion stem gives between five and 10 kilos per week when the plant is at its peak. With proper man­age­ment prac­tices such as weed­ing and graft­ing, I har­vest up to 15 kilos a week from the same stem," said Koome.

    Koome, who propag­ates and sells the seed­lings to farm­ers at Sh50 each says that one re­quires at least 1,000 stems to cover one acre.

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