A revolution in Cercospora Management
Cercospora is a challenging disease. CR+ offers a tool to get back in control.
Cercospora Leaf Spot is by far the most destructive disease of sugar beet – by reducing yield by up to 50%. Furthermore cercospora leads to reduced processing quality of roots, reducing productivity.
Cercospora is of growing concern in the UK. In the 2020/21 campaign we saw devasting effects in the Wissington factory area, paired with bad Virus Yellows.
In the 23/24 campaign albeit there was no bad outbreak of cercospora, patches of the disease were easy to find in fields, across a large acreage of the beet growing area. This shows the disease has spread and this will unfortunately be providing an inoculum bank for future years.
Symptoms
The disease appears as small (2 – 3 mm) round grey spots with reddish margins. Under humid conditions and with the use of a hand lens, black spots (spore producing structures) can be seen in the centre of the lesions, which helps to distinguish it from Ramularia.
![](http://mediamaster.kws.com/02_Consulting/KWS_CULTIVENT/KWS-schadbilder-zr/cercospora_2.jpg)
Severe infections result in death of leaves.
![](http://mediamaster.kws.com/01_Products/UK_UnitedKingdom/Sugarbeet/Variety-photos/Cercospora.jpg)
"CR+ management goal is green leaves until harvest"