Apple (Malus domestica), is one of the most important fruit trees cultivated in temperate regions but, newly introduced in Uganda for its income and nutritional importance. However, apples are found to be susceptible to arthropod pests, some known to cause damages on both the plant and fruits. Some of these insect pests are known while others are still unknown and could be effectively managed through integrated pest management methods. For any effective Integrated insect Pest Management, it is necessary to have enough information about the biology and ecology of a given pest, including, spatial distribution and factors that affect pest species’ distribution. Therefore, in this paper, systematic information on insect pests damaging apple fruit trees was reviewed. Different recent literature on insect pests hosted by apples under different agroecological systems of the world was reviewed. The review focused on classifying common insect pests, preferred varieties and their ecological distribution. This was achieved by using the ISI Web of Science bibliographic database and search terms such as apple entomofauna and insect pests were used, with specific keywords of [apple*] AND [insect*] AND [pest]. It was found out that, insect pests in apples belong to several groups of invasive pests which include Coleoptera and Polydrusus (beetles, weevils), Diptera (leaf, seed, fruit flies), Hemiptera (aphids, psyllids, bugs and scales), Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps ants, bees), Thysanoptera (thrips), Trombidiformes (mites) and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) that are of economic value. This work, again reveals dramatic rates of appearance of isect pests in orchards in Africa and elsewhere, which have compromised apple industry’s growth. The review pieced together known information about the insect pests that occurs in apples in different geographical locations. But, information on insect pest in Uganda’s apple orchards remained scanty, which calls for an immediate detailed study on the same.
Carissa edulis is a plant of 5m high at maturity. It grows in the Savannah woodlands of Uganda and is commonly found on ant-hills. Carissa edulis is used as a remedy for treatment of headache, chest complains, rheumatism, oedema, gonorrhea, syphilis, sickle cell anaemia, cough, ulcer, tooth-ache, and worms. Poor harvesting methods of Carissa edulis for medicine such as uprooting the whole plant threatens its existence. Its seeds are scarce because ants, birds and animals eat them hence propagation by seed is a challenge. Carissa edulis has not been in cultivation therefore its most suitable propagation method is unknown. These create the need to explore the most appropriate propagation method for Carissa edulis as a means of capturing its germplasm from the wild for purposes of its domestication, conservation and continuous availability to the communities. An experiment was conducted at the National Forestry Resources Research Institute, Uganda with an objective of investigating the best method of propagating Carissa edulis using stem cuttings. The cuttings were categorized into softwood, semi-hardwood and hardwood cuttings and 50 of each treated with Indole-butyric acid (IBA) in concentrations of 0.6 w/w and 0.8 w/w plus a control and replicated 3 times.The rooting media used included: sterilized sand and soil and milled Pine bark (soaked in water for a night). Results showed the best method for propagation of Carissa edulis is by use of softwood stem cuttings treated with IBA rooting hormone of 0.8 w/w and placed in sterilized Sand as propagation medium.
This study examined mistletoes in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in South Western Uganda. In 6.4 ha, comprising 64 plots, divided between disturbed and less disturbed forests, spanning on an elevation range of 1160 to 2607 m a.s.l. 1,496 mistletoescounts were recorded, comprising of 21 species in seven genera and two families. These were hosted on 542 host trees comprising of 45 species in 18 unique mistletoes –host families. These mistletoes showed a preference for stems growing in open conditions with the mean density of 356 ha-1 versus 129 ha-1 in denser forest. The most abundant mistletoe species were found in the altitudinal range of a1000.5-1500m and 1500.5-2000.5m a.s.l with minimum numbers of counts dominated by Englerina woodfordiodes (with a count of 151 contributing to 23.18 %.) and Phragamenthera usuiensis (with155 counts contributing to f 42.8% of mistletoes in Bwindi forest).Mistletoe abundance differed significantly between altitude ranges (P < 0.001) although it was similar between the forest edge and interior sites (P= 0.565).Nevertheless, six mistletoe species were recorded over one hundred times each and another six species were recorded only once implying that the species list is incomplete. Application of Chao’s estimator indicated that mistletoe species richness is likely to exceed 40 species suggesting that mistletoes represent a significant component of the forest’s botanical diversity.
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