Study of the effect of Fusarium dimerum on fruits of date palm ( Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruit drop of sayer cultivar and the effect of chemical fungicide and propolis on the infection

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Shatt Al-Arab region – Basrah province during the growing season of (2011) . Fusarium dimerum was isolated and identified as a pathogenic cause of date palm fruit dropping disease , it was the first record . Results of pathogencity test showed that, the fungus caused a disease in percent of (74.67%) on the strand compared with (15.55%) for the healthy strand. Results also explained that the optimal temperature of growth was( 25 ºC) followed by (30 ºC) , the radial growth were (90 and 88.34 mm). respectively.The study revealed the capability of the fungus for producing cellulose , the enzyme activity zone was( 5.5mm) .The study of infected and non infected tissues elucidate the incidence of the fungus of F. dimerum in infect strand tissue and cause a cell wall degradation compared to healthy tissues. The dropping fruit percentage was affected by F.dimerum , it was( 52.5 and 78.6%) compared to control treatment which was ( 9.2%) . It was also found that the fungicide benlate inhibited the raided growth of the fungus in a percent of ( 91.11 %) , whereas propolis when used as alcoholic extract in concentration of 30% reduced the full growth of the pathogenic fungus .