Sooty Blotch of Apple

ଲକ୍ଷଣ

There are brown to dull black sooty blotches with an irregularly shaped outline on the surface of the fruit, which may be 5 mm in diameter or larger. The blotches may come together to cover the entire fruit. Sooty blotch appears as sooty or cloudy blotches on the surface of the fruit. The blotches are olive green with an indefinite outline. The blotches are usually one fourth of an inch in diameter or larger and may coalesce to cover much of the fruit. The 'smudge' appearance results from the presence of hundreds of minute, dark pycnidia that are interconnected by a mass of loose, interwoven dark hyphae. The sooty blotch fungus is generally restricted to the outer surface of the cuticle. In rare cases, the hyphae penetrate between the epidermal cell walls and the cuticle.