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Writer's pictureA. N. Ganeshamurthy

How to control Arecanut diseases using cheap and organic methods?

Updated: Jul 1, 2020

In this video, we describe about the Arecanut band disease, how to manage the Band disease (or Hudimundige) with our methods and get benefited. The pre-monsoon season is the right time to manage Band disease and do share this video with others.


Arecanut Band or Hidimundige

Namaskar Welcome to Soulofkrishi. We are presenting this video for arecanut farmers on how to manage band disease.

Before starting, I request you to click on the subscribe button and the bell icon next to it for future notification of our new videos. If you like this video please share with others so that maximum people can benefit from it.

Band disease is a physiological disease caused due to soil problem. It is not caused by any bacteria, fungi or virus. If the soil condition is bad in the garden then the entire garden trees will get this disease. Or it can also be due to adverse soil condition of the individual tree in particular spot where the palm is standing

this disease is called by different names in different regions

  • It is known as Band in Maharashtra= barren.

  • It is known as hudimundige disease in Karnataka

  • In Sri Lanka = Pencil point disease and

  • In Austrelia = Rosette disease

Where it occurs: These days arecanut farmers all over India and particularly in Konkan Karnataka and Maharashtra have intensified cultivation practices shifting more towards chemical based methods. Farmers have stopped regular digging which is normally done in areca nut gardens during summer months. They have Stopped using tank silt in the gardens and stopped or reduced application of organic manures. This is creating adverse effect on the health of the soil. Soil is becoming hard with a hard pan below the roots, because of which water do not drain well during rainy season and the roots do not get sufficient oxygen for its normal growth functions. Soil fertility is also affected due to indiscriminate and imbalanced use of fertilizers and other chemicals. Under such situations areca palms suffer from band disease.

We can identify its first symptoms when we see reduction in leaf size which turns brittle and crinkled with wavy margins. With time the trees nodes do not expand and intermodal length gets reduced. The stem starts tapering and leaves fail to open naturally. Next symptom is that the tree starts bending towards one side near the crown and produces small unproductive malformed bunches. If we open the roots then we see very poor development of the roots which are crinkled and brittle.

How to manage this disease

Soulofkrishi suggests not to apply or spray any chemicals, fungicides or antibiotics to control band disease as it is not caused by any pathogens.

We recommend digging of arecanut gardens during summer months to provide good drainage for water and to increase air supply to roots.

Apply arka microbial consortium(AMC) at the rate of 50 grams per tree during the beginning of first showers in May and mix well with the soil. Apply sufficient organic manures to each of the trees, about 50 kgs. After 15 days apply 50 grams of boric acid to each tree and mix well with the soil.

During July-August apply about 25 grams of bordo mixture to each tree.

Apply recommended amount of fertilizers not more nor less. But reduce nitrogen application by 50% till trees recover

If these practices are followed band disease or hudimundige can be effectively managed and you will get the trees back to normal and satisfactory yields.

So that’s all in this video. You can contact us if you need any further information about this or would like to purchase AMC. Thank you.

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