Sugarcane SmutIdentification & Treatment Guide 2026
Sporisorium scitamineum · Family: Ustilaginaceae
Sugarcane smut (Sporisorium scitamineum) produces a diagnostic black whip-like structure from infected shoot tips. The fungus converts the growing point into a mass of black spores. Yield losses reach 30-75%. Manage with resistant varieties, hot water treatment of setts (52°C for 30 min), roguing infected stools, and avoiding planting material from smutted fields.
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highSugarcane Smut
- Affects
- growing pointshootsbuds
- Peak Season
- Year-round; whip emergence peaks during active growth, teliospore release highest in dry weather
- Spread Risk
- Moderate
- Spread By
- Airborne teliospores, infected planting setts (seed cane), rain splash, soil-borne
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Symptoms: What does Sugarcane Smut look like?
Visual identification guide — tap each stage for details
Thin pencil-like tillers with small narrow leaves
Infected stools produce thin, erect, pencil-like tillers with unusually narrow leaves and short internodes. These grass-like shoots are easily overlooked among healthy canes.
Black whip emergence from shoot apex
The diagnostic black whip (sorus) emerges from the top of the shoot — a curved structure 20 cm to 1 m long, initially covered by a silvery membrane that ruptures to release masses of black powdery teliospores.
Multiple whips and stool deterioration
Infected stools produce numerous whipped shoots from successive ratoon crops. Cane quality and tonnage decline progressively. No millable cane is produced from infected tillers.
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