Azhukal, thrips, capsule rot — telling them apart

Yellowing leaves, marked capsules, a wilting plant — most cardamom troubles look alike from outside. What decides which one it is is not the colour. It is where it is, when it came, and how fast it is moving.

Azhukal (capsule rot)

It arrives with the rain. Water-soaked patches on capsules and stems, which then darken and go soft. Press one and it smells rotten. It starts on one plant and reaches the ones around it within days, and that spread is the clearest sign you have.

First thing to do: cut out the affected part, carry it out of the plot and burn it, open the drains so water leaves the base, clean the knife.

Rhizome rot

The leaves yellow and the whole plant wilts, but there is nothing much to see on the leaf itself. Take hold of the base and it lifts easily; cut it and the rhizome is brown and rotted inside. It shows up first in the low, wet corners of the plot.

Thrips

Not a disease — an insect. They sit on the undersides of leaves and on young capsules, barely visible. The evidence shows on the capsule: silvery curling patches, then a rough, corky skin. The plant does not die, but the price at auction drops.

Spraying when you are not sure which one it is is the most expensive mistake available: the wrong product, at the wrong time, and the money gone with it. Do the things that cost nothing first — cut out, burn, drain.

If you are not sure, photograph it

In the Thottam app you can photograph the leaf or the capsule and ask. The app answers straight away — it says on the screen that the answer is a guess and not a person — and from the same screen you can ask for a person to look, or to come and see the plot. Take one photo close up and one of the whole plant, and turn a leaf over.