Panama Disease (Fusarium Wilt of Banana)
Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense
Symptoms
Older leaves yellow from the margins inward, then collapse and hang down around the pseudostem like a skirt. Splitting the pseudostem reveals reddish-brown discoloured vascular strands; this is a soil-borne relative of fusarium wilt specific to banana.
Prevention
Plant clean tissue-culture suckers and resistant cultivars; never move soil or suckers from infected fields. Maintain drainage and avoid replanting banana on known infected ground.
Treatment
Organic
There is no cure once a plant is infected. Remove and destroy infected mats, drench planting holes with Trichoderma, and rest the land from banana for several years.
Chemical (last resort)
No fungicide reliably cures the disease in the field. Soil fumigation is costly and only partial; management relies on resistant cultivars and strict sanitation rather than chemicals.
Affects 1 crop
Sources
MARDI Banana Production Guide; DOA Plant Quarantine Bulletin