• Symptoms vary and include rapid death of young succulent plants.
• Discoloration of taproots, longitudinal cracks of the stems, stunting, wilting and poor yields.
• Complete control of root rot and damping off is difficult, and no variety of cowpea is resistant to root rot.
• Persistent damp weather prior to development of the first true leaf and also the crowding of seedlings due to poor seed spacing may increase damping off.

Management

• Roguing out of cowpea mosaic virus diseased plants in the early stage of growth up to 30 days and spraying twice at fortnightly intervals with Methyldemeton 25 EC 500 ml/ha.