Pacific Pests, Pathogens and Weeds - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds

Coffee brown-eye spot (142)

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Photo 1. Coffee seedlings showing small brown spots of Cercospora coffeicola.

Photo 2. Circular brown spots, mostly 5-10 mm, with bright grey centres and yellow haloes, typical of brown-eye leaf spot, Cercospora coffeicola. Spores of the fungus form in the grey centres.

Summary

  • Worldwide distribution. On arabica and robusta coffee. An important disease.
  • Spots on leaves, light brown (sometimes grey), with brown outside and yellow margins, up to 15 mm, sometimes a blight. Small irregular spots on berries.
  • In nursery, can cause leaf fall and dieback; less a problem in field, unless poor nutrition and shade.
  • Spores spread by wind and rain; germinate in water.
  • Cultural control: spacing, and N and K nutrition in nursery and field; shade in field (35-65%); prune to improve air movement; collect prunings and burn.
  • Chemical control: copper (protectant); triazoles (systemic).

Common Name

Coffee spot, berry blotch, coffee brown eye spot

Scientific Name

Mycosphaerella coffeicola; this is the name of the sexual form of the fungus; the disease is also known by the asexual form, Cercospora coffeicola.

AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from Gerlach WWP (1988) Plant diseases of Western Samoa. Samoan German Crop Protection Project, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) Gmbh, Germany; and Diseases of fruit crops in Australia (2009). Editors, Tony Cooke, et al. CSIRO Publishing; and from Liberato JR, Shivas RG (2006) Brown Eye Spot of Coffee (Cercospora coffeicola): PaDIL - http://www.padil.gov.au. Photos 1&2 Kohler F, et al. (1997) Diseases of cultivated crops in Pacific Island countries. South Pacific Commission. Pirie Printers Pty Limited, Canberra, Australia.

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

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