Managing tobacco leafcurl

THE VIRUS may attack the plant at any stage. When young plants are infected the entire plant remains very much dwarfed.

The leaf argins curl downward towards the dorsal side and show thickening of veins with enations on the lower surface. Crinkle form shows curling of whole leaf edge towards dorsal side with enations on the veins and the lamina arching towards the ventral side between the veinlets.

The transparent system shows the curling of leaves towards the ventral side with clearing of the veins and enations are absent.

The virus is spherical and measuring 35 um n diameter. The virus is Nicotiana virus 10 or ruga tabaci. The virus has wide host range of 63 crops species belonging to fourteen families.

The virus is not transmissible through sap or seed. It is graft- transmissable. The white fly, bemisia tabaci is the vector responsible for transmission in the field.

Management practices- Remove and destroy the infected plants

- Rogue out the reservoir weed hosts which harbour the virus and white flies.

- Avoid growing solanaceous rops like tomato near tobacco fields.

- Install 12 yellow stick traps (castor oil coated) per hectare to monitor the white fly population.

V.Shanmugam & Kumaresan

TNAU, Coimbatore-3.

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