Development of a portable model of heat treatment tent with bottom black cover for the control of citrus greening disease in Brunei

Abstract

 Citrus Greening Disease is a serious bacterial disease in citrus plants which causes loss of production of citrus fruits all over the world, including Brunei. A portable and thermal effective heat treatment tent was developed as an attempt to control and manage this disease. A 1.4 meter tall tent with opaque canvas was fabricated to test for a 1.2 meter tall lime tree. The testing involved heat treatment tests for three days with tent having black plastic sheet bottom cover and without bottom cover over the soil surface around the plant . Overall, the results proved that the plant was not damaged during the heat treatment, and the fabricated tent frame was light and portable with minor folding and stability problems. The tent was unable to maintain the desired temperature 38 - 42 ^oC for more than 5 hours due to the sun position and changing weather conditions, but the heat treatment test with tent having bottom black colour plastic sheet was able to maintain the temperature of the bottom part of the plant more effectively. Hence, the tent can be used in agricultural sites at full scale to treat infected plants with supplementary heat in order to maintain the desired temperature inside the tent and compensate for the heat loss due changing weather.

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