Covered kernel smut 

(Sporisorium sorghi)

Symptoms

• Normally in an infected panicle individual ovules are replaced by conical to oval smut sori (teliospores or chlamydospores) that are covered by persistent peridia that are larger than normal grain.
• Initially each sorus is covered with a light pink or silver-white membrane, which later on ruptures to reveal the brownish-black smut spores.
• The infected kernels (smut sori) break open, and the microscopic spores adhere to the surface of healthy seeds where they overwinter.

                                                                                                  Fig. 1: Smut sori as slightly longer than grain

     Control measures

• Seed treatment with Carboxin 2g kg-1 seed.
• Grow disease resistant cultivars