Thecaphora frezii

Symptoms of the disease are characteristic and easy to identify in the field. As the aerial part of the plant is asymptomatic, it is necessary to open pods at advanced stages of development to detect the pathogen (Rago et al., 2017). Disease assessment is performed when a given field is to be harvested of mature pods (R8). It is only in this phenological state that it is possible to estimate the severity of the disease in samples. Infection can be seen in immature pods, but it is difficult to estimate severity. One of the tools for monitoring the disease is based on the quantification of spores in the plot to be planted. This is done through sampling and observing soil suspensions under the microscope. Oddino et al. (2010) related the amount of inoculum present in a plot with the incidence of the disease.