Evaluation of the Biostimulant Banzaï’s Effect and the Previous Fertilizer on the Control of Cocoa Black Cherries Disease in N’Gouamoinkro, in the Department of Toumodi, Côte d'Ivoire

The overall objective of this study was to compare the effect of the biostimulant Banzai and fertilizer on black cherries disease. More specifically, the aim was to evaluate the effect of the number of applications of the biostimulant Banzai and to evaluate the cumulative effect of the previous fertilizer and Banzai. The experiment was conducted in N'Gouamoinkro in the department of Toumodi. The design consists of a Fischer block with six treatments repeated three times and each treatment contained 20 test cocoa trees. This design was replicated on two sites, one with previous fertilizer (DAE) and the other without previous fertilizer (DSE). Banzai was applied for three or four consecutive months depending on the treatment at each site. The SUPERCAO fertilizer was applied twice during the experiment. The data collected included the total number of cherries produced and the number of black cherries. The results obtained revealed that at both sites (DAE and DSE), the plots treated with Banzai had better control the black cherries disease than the control plots. At DAE site, the control of black cherries disease was independent of the number of Banzai biostimulant and fertilizer applications. At the DSE site, the three applications of Banzai combined with the SUPERCAO fertilizer had a better control effect than the three applications of Banzai without fertilizer. The cumulative effect of the previous fertilizer, and the Banzai, did not have a positive impact on the control of black cherries disease.