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🔬 Disease & Pest Management
Protect Your Investment

Comprehensive guide to identifying, preventing, and treating diseases and pests that affect White and Red Sandalwood.

🦠 Spike Disease (No Cure)🍂 Root Rot🌿 Heart Rot🍃 Leaf Spot🐛 Pest Control🛡️ IPM Guide
🦠
Spike Disease
⚠️ MOST DEVASTATING — NO CHEMICAL CURE
Cause: Phytoplasma (Candidatus Phytoplasma santalum) | Affected: White Sandalwood ONLY
🚨 Critical Alert: Spike disease has devastated Karnataka's wild sandalwood population. Once a tree is infected, it CANNOT be saved. The ONLY strategy is prevention through certified disease-free planting material and vector control. Remove infected trees immediately to prevent spread.

🔍 Symptoms

  • Shortened internodes — branches look like spikes
  • Leaves small, narrow, pale yellowish-green (chlorotic)
  • Abnormal flowers — virescent (green) petals
  • Roots lose haustorial capacity — host connections fail
  • Slow decline over 2–3 years
  • Eventual death of entire tree
  • Infected roots remain infectious even after tree death

🔬 Cause & Spread

  • Cause: Phytoplasma — bacteria-like obligate parasite
  • Vector: Leafhopper insects (Nephotettix sp., Cicadella sp.)
  • Also spreads via infected planting material
  • Spreads rapidly in plantations with high leafhopper populations
  • No soil transmission confirmed
  • Can remain latent for months before showing symptoms

🛡️ Prevention (ONLY Strategy)

  • Use ONLY certified disease-free seedlings from KFDC/IWST
  • Never source planting material from unknown nurseries
  • Control leafhoppers with Imidacloprid 17.8SL @ 0.5ml/L — twice/year
  • Apply systemic insecticide spray in April and September
  • Inspect plantation monthly — detect early
  • Remove suspect trees before disease confirmed by lab

🚫 Management of Infected Trees

  • REMOVE infected tree within 2 weeks of identification
  • Uproot completely including root system
  • BURN the entire tree — do NOT compost
  • Drench the pit with Formalin 2% solution
  • Keep pit empty for 6 months before replanting
  • Quarantine surrounding trees — monitor closely
  • Report outbreak to Forest Department (mandatory in some states)
🚫 NO chemical cure exists for infected trees
🍂
Root Rot
⚡ HIGH SEVERITY — Treatable if caught early
Cause: Phytophthora cinnamomi, Fusarium oxysporum | Affected: White & Red Sandalwood

🔍 Symptoms

  • Sudden wilting despite adequate soil moisture
  • Yellowing of leaves from base upward
  • Leaves drop prematurely without wilting
  • Blackish-brown discoloration of fine roots
  • Foul (rotten) smell from root zone
  • Tree falls easily in wind (root failure)
  • Bark at base turns dark and soft

🔬 Cause & Conditions

  • Phytophthora cinnamomi — most common oomycete
  • Fusarium oxysporum — true fungal pathogen
  • Pythium species in waterlogged conditions
  • Triggered by: Waterlogging, poor drainage
  • Hot-wet conditions accelerate infection
  • Spreads through infected soil and water

💊 Treatment

  • Drench root zone with Metalaxyl (Ridomil) 0.2% solution
  • Copper Oxychloride 0.3% as soil drench (2L/tree)
  • Apply Trichoderma viride 5g/kg soil (bio-control)
  • Improve drainage immediately — create furrows
  • Remove affected roots and apply Bordeaux paste
  • Fosetyl-Al 0.2% as preventive spray in monsoon
✅ Treatable if caught early — within 2 weeks of symptom onset

🛡️ Prevention

  • Never plant in waterlogged or low-lying areas
  • Install drip irrigation — avoid flood irrigation
  • Add organic mulch to improve soil structure
  • Apply Trichoderma at planting (bio-prophylaxis)
  • Raise planting bed 30cm if drainage is marginal
  • Monitor root zone after heavy rainfall events
🌿
Heart Rot
⚡ HIGH — Reduces wood quality; preventable
Cause: Trametes versicolor, Ganoderma applanatum | Affected: Both species

🔍 Symptoms

  • Hollow cavities visible when trunk is cut
  • Discoloration of heartwood — dark brown/black (NOT yellow)
  • Bracket fungi appearing on trunk (advanced stage)
  • Wood becomes spongy and soft
  • Reduced oil content and fragrance
  • Structural weakening — tree breaks in storms
  • Detected by sounding trunk with hammer (hollow sound)

🔬 Cause

  • Trametes versicolor (Turkey tail fungus)
  • Ganoderma applanatum (Artist's conk)
  • Enters through wounds, pruning cuts
  • Promoted by poor air circulation
  • Moisture trapped in bark or wound sites

🛡️ Prevention

  • Minimize pruning — avoid all unnecessary wounds
  • Seal all wounds with Bordeaux paste (5%) immediately
  • Proper plant spacing (4×4m minimum) for air circulation
  • Remove dead branches promptly
  • Avoid mechanical damage to bark during weeding
  • Apply neem oil spray on trunk — preventive antifungal
🛡️ Preventable — no effective cure once advanced

🪓 Action if Detected

  • Use increment borer to assess extent of rot
  • If <30% of trunk: Remove brackets, seal with Bordeaux paste
  • If >50% of trunk: Harvest immediately (salvage heartwood)
  • Remove bracket fungi before they sporulate and spread
  • Apply Trichoderma to soil around affected tree
🍃
Leaf Spot / Blight
🟡 MEDIUM — Manageable with fungicides
Cause: Cercospora santalicola, Alternaria sp. | Affected: Both species

🔍 Symptoms

  • Small circular to irregular brown/black spots on leaves
  • Yellow halo around spots
  • Spots coalesce in severe infection
  • Premature leaf drop in heavy infection
  • Reduced photosynthesis → slower growth
  • Usually appears after heavy monsoon rains

💊 Treatment

  • Mancozeb 75WP @ 2.5g per liter water — spray
  • Copper Oxychloride 0.3% — 2 rounds, 10 days apart
  • Carbendazim 0.1% for severe infection
  • Spray in morning or evening — not in hot sun
  • 3 rounds: June, August, October
  • Add wetting agent (Triton B-1956) to improve adherence
✅ Easily manageable with standard fungicides

🛡️ Prevention

  • Proper spacing for air circulation
  • Avoid overhead irrigation
  • Prophylactic Mancozeb spray before monsoon
  • Remove and destroy heavily infected leaves
  • Balanced fertilization — avoid excess nitrogen
Pest Management

Common Pests & Control Methods

🦗 Leafhopper (Spike Vector)

  • Primary vector for Spike Disease phytoplasma
  • Active during monsoon season (June–October)
  • Control: Imidacloprid 17.8SL @ 0.5ml/L — spray preventively twice/year
  • Alternate: Thiamethoxam 25WG @ 0.2g/L
  • Apply before rains (April) and post-monsoon (September)

🪲 Bark Borer (Zeuzera coffeae)

  • Larvae bore into bark and heartwood — most damaging to young trees
  • Signs: Small circular holes in bark; frass (sawdust) at base
  • Control: Insert Monocrotophos-soaked cotton into bore holes, seal with mud
  • Swab trunk with Carbaryl 50% wettable powder paste
  • Remove heavily infested branches

🐛 Root Weevil (Myllocerus maculosus)

  • Adults eat leaf margins (notch symptoms); larvae damage roots
  • Worse in dry soil conditions
  • Control: Chlorpyrifos 2ml/L as soil drench around root zone
  • Neem cake 250g/tree mixed in soil as preventive
  • Carbaryl dust in soil furrows

🐞 Scale Insects

  • Appear as white/brown crusty patches on stems and branches
  • Suck sap, causing yellowing and dieback
  • Control: NSKE (Neem Seed Kernel Extract) 5% spray
  • Dimethoate 0.05% for severe cases
  • Remove heavily infested branches by pruning

🐜 Termites

  • Attack roots and sapwood, especially in dry seasons
  • More common in dry, sandy soils
  • Control: Chlorpyrifos 2ml/L soil drench at root zone
  • Mix Neem cake 500g/tree with soil at planting
  • White-wash base of trunk with lime to deter

🦌 Deer & Cattle

  • Young trees (Year 1–5) are highly palatable to deer and cattle
  • Can destroy entire young plantation in one night
  • Prevention: Install barbed wire fencing 1.5m high around plantation
  • Apply livestock repellent sprays on bark
  • Thorn hedges (Acacia) as living fence

🗓️ Annual IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Calendar

January–February

Weed control; apply neem cake to soil; inspect for scale insects; prune if needed

March–April

Apply fertilizers; Imidacloprid spray (leafhopper prevention); bark borer inspection

May–June (Critical)

Prophylactic Mancozeb spray; Imidacloprid spray; Metalaxyl soil drench (root rot prevention)

July–August (Monsoon)

Inspect for spike disease symptoms; Mancozeb spray for leaf spot; check for root rot signs

September–October

Second Imidacloprid spray; second fertilizer dose; Mancozeb spray; root rot check

November–December

Plantation census (count trees, note mortality); update registration records; plan for next year

🌱 Cultivation Guide → 🪓 Harvesting Guide →