Cauliflower is one of the main winter vegetables in Bangladesh. To grow this nutritious vegetable successfully, diseases must be controlled correctly and at the right time. Curd rot does serious damage to cauliflower, and now is the right time to take the necessary measures.

The disease is caused by the fungi Fusarium equiseti and Alternaria species and by the bacterium Erwinia carotovora. It can spoil the whole cauliflower head or make it unfit to eat, causing farmers heavy losses.

• Brown, round spots usually appear first on the curd of a cauliflower infected by the fungus.
• Several spots later merge into large patches and the curd rots.
• When bacteria attack, the curd rots quickly.
• Very few florets emerge from an infected curd or head, and it becomes inedible.

• To avoid the disease, first collect seed from healthy plants.
• Treat seed with 2.5 grams of Provax or carbendazim per kg of seed.
• Do not grow cabbage-family crops again and again on the same land used for cauliflower.
• Do not collect seed from an infected field.
• On red or acidic soil, apply dolomite lime at 4 kg per decimal once every three years.

Spray an Agben fungicide of the carbendazim group or a Mona fungicide of the azoxystrobin plus cyproconazole group, each mixed separately at 0.2%, every 12–15 days. Do not harvest the crop for five days after spraying. If needed, apply pesticides as advised by agriculturists at the upazila agriculture office.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.