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Symptoms:
Very early symptoms of ascochyta blight are small (1-2 mm),
reddish brown spots on the leaves and stems (Fig. 1 and 2).
The spots enlarge gradually and turn light or dark brown and
necrotic. These lesions often have a darker margin
surrounded by a yellow (chlorotic) area (Fig. 3 and 4).
Severely affected leaves eventually wilt. On stems, the
lesions are dark brown and elongated (Fig. 5). Small, black
fruiting bodies (pycnidia) are produced in the stem lesions
and can be seen with a hand lens (Fig. 6). When lesions
girdle a stem the portion of the plant above the lesion
wilts or the stem becomes weak and breaks easily. If the
main stem is girdled at the stem base, the whole plant dies.
On pods, the lesions are usually circular with a dark margin
(Fig 7). The small, black fruiting bodies are arranged in
concentric rings (Fig. 8). Chickpea seed infected by
ascochyta blight are shriveled, spotted and dark discolored. |
