IDENTIFICATION OF NIGROSPORA SPHAERICA AS A CAUSAL AGENT OF FRUITS ROTS DISEASE IN BASRAH GOVERNORATE-IRAQ

The date palm is infected with many fungal pathogens that cause a problem in the quality and quantity of date production. The fungus Nigrospora sphaerica was isolated from date fruit that show symptoms of fruit rot in the orchards of Abu Al-Khaseeb and Al-Hartha in Basrah Governorate, southern Iraq. The results of this study showed that the fungus can infect the fruits of ten date palm cultivar such as (Zahdi, Barhi, Bream, Khadrawi, Shukar, Khasab, Sayer, Hillawi, Leilwi and Deri) and cause fruit rot disease during the Kimri and Khalal stages of date palm fruits, with the highest infection severity in the cultivar Shukar 37.33 % during the Kimri stage, and it reached 33.67 % in the Khasab cultivar during the Khalal stage. While the lowest rate of infection severity was 13% in the Barhi cultivar during the Kimri stage, while it reached 11% in the Barhi and Khadrawi cultivars during the Khallal stage. During the study, it was found that the moisture content of the date fruit has an important role in increasing the severity of infection during the Kimri and Khalal stages, where the percentage of moisture at its highest levels reached 83.67 and 72.67 %, respectively, in the Shukar cultivar, followed by the Leilwi and Khasab cultivars, where the severity of infection increased with the high moisture content of the fruits. The total tannin content ranged from 0.46 to 0.96 mg/100g for date palm fruits in Kimri stage and ranged from 1.06 to 2.56 mg/100g in Khalal stage.The results of fungicides screening that the fungicide Score was the best fungicide in decreasing the disease index as it reached 1.67 compared with control which reached 77.33 %.