The influence of shade, fertilization and genotype on leaf-chewing insects’ foliage damage of young cacao saplings in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Cacao was domesticated in the Ecuadorian Amazon, but despite having excellent fine-flavor genotypes, they are being replaced by bulk-quality genotypes because of the higher resistance to pests and diseases of the later. The Ecuadorian Institute on Agriculture and Livestock Research has recently released two fine-flavor genotypes, EETP800 and EETP801, with promising results in coastal production areas, but they need to be tested in Amazonian conditions to assess how some management practices might affect their sensitivity to pests. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of shade and fertilization on foliar damage made by leaf-chewing insects in three genotypes of young cacao saplings in the Ecuadorian Southern Amazon. A completely randomized design was applied, with twelve treatments and three replicates per treatment, to determine the percentage of foliar damage and identify damage patterns. A significant effect (p < 0.05) was observed between the genotype and the interaction of treatments without shade and without nutrition, with the EETP800 and EETP801 genotypes suffering the highest herbivorous insect damage, in the absence of both shade and nutrition. Damage patterns consistent with Orthoptera represented about 70% of the total foliar damage.