Physiological disorders are caused by non-pathological factors such as lighting, irrigation, nutrients, climate. These factors affect the functioning of the plant metabolism and expresses itself in either the fruit, leaves, stem or roots. The part affected are usually malformed and easily identified.
It is often quite difficult to identify a deficiency or toxicity symptom in the field because they never really occur as a single element deficiency...
Physiological disorders caused by low temperatures Low temperatures injury only occurs with fruit that are in storage (either in transit or in storage rooms). Small...
Cat-face tomato fruit Symptoms Fruits have a long scar at the blossom end that extends inwards and renders the fruit unmarketable and disfigured (abnormal). There are...
Hollow fruit description Hollow fruit, also called puffy fruit or boxy fruit are angular in shape instead of round, however one should be careful since some...
Zippering symptoms Zippering are thin scars running from the top of the shoulder of the fruit down the length to the blossom end. These longitudinal...
Blossom drop Symptoms Blossom drop (flower buds abscise) occurs prior to anthesis under stress conditions. The early indications of blossom drop are the yellowing of the...
Blossom-end-rot (BER) Symptoms This physiological disorder looks like a typical fruit disease. The symptoms generally occur at the blossom-end of the fruit and begins with...
Sunscald or sunburn causes Sunscald may appear on foliage and fruits. The disorder is caused when the temperature of the fruit exceeds 40°C. An imbalance...