Investigation of current status and disease progress of bronzing on “Thai” jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) in Tien Giang province

Tien Giang is one of the Mekong Delta's largest jackfruit-growing provinces, with a total cultivation area of jackfruit of approximately 13,141.09 ha. Bronzing of jackfruit appeared on Thai jackfruit and caused significant damage to growers, however, the information about the disease is still limited. In this study, we assessed the status of bronzing diseases on Thai jackfruit in Tien Giang province via direct interviews with farmers, mapped the disease distribution by Google Earth, and recorded the disease appearance on Thai jackfruit during the year's two main seasons. Bronzing of Thai jackfruit occurred in all growing areas in Tien Giang during both rainy and sunny seasons, causing damage with an average disease prevalence in inquired regions from 5.29% to 10.19% in sunny season, and from 25.43% to 33.05% in rainy season. The disease prevalence was higher in the rainy season. Most farmers showed that bronzing of jackfruit could be identified by external symptoms of the fruit, such as abnormalities in the left stalk, fruit color, shape, and spines, and confirmed by the result of appearance investigation of bronzing on Thai jackfruit during rainy and sunny seasons of the year 2022. Fungicide application and fruit selection at the early stage of fruit development could prevent the disease. According to the disease progress, bronzing of jackfruit appeared from fruit set to harvest and the disease prevalence reached 55.56% in sunny season and 88.89% in rainy season at 20 days after fruit set.