RESEARCH reveals that Puyat durian variety is tolerant of Phytophthora palmivora, a common disease caused by fungi and molds in durian plants.
In a study conducted by Marilou Infante, Myrna Cantila, and Gloria Vida Liwanag of the Regional Crop Protection Center Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office Davao Region, the Puyat durian variety can be a good durian rootstock material as it is tolerant of the disease as compared to other varieties like Monthong.
Infante said this research study was funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Research and Development – Department of Science and Technology (Pcarrd-DOST) which costs around P900,000.
As for their study, they conducted field collection of durian fruits and tagging of sampled areas, as well as seed extraction, sowing, and transplanting and tagging.
“Collected fruits from the field were carefully removed from individual sacks and each correspondingly tagged with masking tape to assure proper documentation. The fruits were characterized for its morphology such as length, weight, color of the fruits’ shell, weight and number of good and aborted seeds as well as sugar content,” Infante said during her presentation at the 2017 Regional Symposium on Research and Development Highlights at the Abreeza Ayala Malls last Thursday, August 24.
She said 11 months after inoculation there is a relatively noticeable difference in the rootstock of Puyat as compared to Monthong.
As per the pictures presented by Infante, Monthong’s scion when opened has a defined black lining, which according to her is one of the signs of Phytophthora palmivora. However, the Puyat variety has a very minimum trace of the lining which makes it an ideal rootstock material as part of strengthening of Integrated Disease Management (IDM) strategies.
Other durian samples noted to be tolerant of P. palmivora include those of Balodo 3, Benelayo 1, Galbizo, Balodo 2, Ramos 1, rala 3, Pineda 2, Pineda 1, BPI 4, BPI 5, Rala 4 and Catiempo.
Durian samples that were recognized to be susceptible to the disease just like Monthong were Balodo 6, BPI 2, BPI 1, Bacus, and Rala 2.