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Soil mineralogy in relation to the spread of fusarium wilt of banana in central America

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Summary

A correlation has been established between the spread of Fusarium wilt of banana and the mineralogical composition of 67 soils from banana plantations in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. A swelling 3-layer silicate component that expanded beyond 14Å when made homoionic with K+, air dried, and then saturated with glycerol is present in all soils, except one, in which disease spread has been slow, but this component is absent in all soils, except one, in which it was rapid. The effective banana-producing life of the soils could not be related to the presence or absence of other clay minerals, nor to the chemical and physical properties of the soils. The results of this study indicate that the potential banana-producing life of soils planted with wilt-susceptible bananas can be predicted on the basis of their clay mineral composition.

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Author notes

  1. G. Stotzky

    Present address: Kitchawan Research Laboratory of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Route 134, Ossining, New York, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Research Laboratories, United Fruit Company, Norwood, Massachusetts

    G. Stotzky & R. Torrence Martin

  2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

    G. Stotzky & R. Torrence Martin

Authors
  1. G. Stotzky
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  2. R. Torrence Martin
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Stotzky, G., Torrence Martin, R. Soil mineralogy in relation to the spread of fusarium wilt of banana in central America. Plant Soil 18, 317–337 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01347232

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01347232

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