Ocorrência da resinose do cajueiro afetada pelas condições edafoclimáticas.

Abstract

The cashew plant is an anacardeaceae commonly found all over tropical regions of the world. The cashew crop is a highly important source of income and social development in northeast Brazil. Cashew nut production have been oscillating in recent years mainly due to heterogeneity of population, climatic variations and the lack of inadequate cropping practices. Disease epidemics also play a very important role in this scenery. The cashew gummosis, caused by Lasiodiplodia theobromae, is recognized as the most important disease of cashew plant in northeast Brazil, which may bring about the complete decline of orchards within few years. The knowledge of environmental conditions associated with gummosis occurrence will surely contribute to the understanding of host-pathogen interaction. Based on that, this work aimed to establish the relationship among the environmental factors in regions characterized by different levels of gummosis with disease incidence. Data of rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature, temperature range, soil, and altitude of 13 regions characterized by four different levels of gummosis incidence (0 = no report, 1 = rare, 2 = frequent, 3 = always present) were used in this study. The Mann-Whitney test was used in addition to correlation analyses, admitting 5% significance level. Maximum, minimum, temperature range, altitude, and deep and well-drained soils were associated with high incidence of gummosis.