Effect of Foliar Fertilization by Certain Microelements on Disease Severity of Pokkah Boeng on Sugarcane, Yield Cane and Juice Quality Under Field Conditions

A Field experiment was performed using artificial infection with a highly pathogenic isolate of Fusarium subglutinans the causal agent of sugarcane pokkah boeng (PB) disease. The effects of foliar spray of plants by certain microelements on PB disease severity (DS), cane yield and juice quality of sugarcane at two consecutive seasons were studied. The foliar spray sugarcane variety G.T. 54-9 with each of zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe) individually or in mixture (Zn + Mn + Fe) significantly reduced the DS compared to the control plants. Applying each microelement individually was less effective in the reduction of the DS compared to microelements mixture application. The incidence of the disease decreased with increasing the spray frequency. Three foliar sprays gave the highest reduction of DS compared to one or two sprays. Spraying with the tested microelements either individually or in mixture significantly increased the net cane yield, the sugar yield and recovery percentage in sugarcane juice, as well as raised the values of reducing sugar percentage. The greatest increase of reducing sugar percentage was obtained by mixture applications followed by single application in both seasons. According to our results, microelements spray holds a great promise to enhance resistance in sugarcane plants against PB disease and to increase both cane yield and quality of sugarcane juice.