Ascochyta Blight

Whether you call them chickpeas, Bengal grams, Egyptian peas, or garbanzo beans, you definitely do not want them infected with this fungal disease. Ascochyta [ask-uh-SHOO-tuh] blight, also known as blackspot, is a major disease of garbanzo beans.

Ascochyta blight on chickpea pods (PlantVillage) CC BY-SA 3.0 US

Not to be confused with the other black spot (Diplocarpon rosae), which primarily affects leaves, Ascochyta blight can infect any aboveground portion of your chickpea plants, as well as your lawn. Lawns infected with Ascochyta blight suddenly develop brown patches of dead-looking grass. Ascochyta blight is caused by Ascochyta rabiei (formerly known as Phoma rabiei).

Ascochyta blight symptoms

Brown lesions that start at the base of seedlings may start out looking like damping-off disease, but these lesions continue to move up the plant, eventually affecting everything aboveground. ​

Ascochyta blight symptoms on chickpea leaf (PlantVillage) CC BY-SA 3.0 US

Infection may also first appear on leaves and work its way elsewhere on the plant. Foliar infections start out as light brown spots. Once the fungi start reproducing, you will be able to see tiny black, raised dots within these brown spots. These black dots will appear in circles of their own.

​Stem lesions can cause the plant to fall over. Pod lesions reduce seed production and can cause seed shrinkage and discoloration.

Stem lesion caused by Ascochyta blight (PlantVillage) CC BY-SA 3.0 US

Ascochyta blight lifecycle

In California, garbanzo beans are generally planted in November. This sets them up for Ascochyta blight because the spores grow best in cool, damp weather. Temperatures between 68°F and 77°F are ideal for this disease to develop. There are different forms of this fungi. One form is airborne, while the other is spread by rain and irrigation water. When these two forms meet under optimal conditions, the disease begins.

Leaf lesions caused by Ascochyta blight (PlantVillage) CC BY-SA 3.0 US

Ascochyta blight lesion on chickpea flower (PlantVillage) CC BY-SA 3.0 US

Ascochyta blight management

Ascochyta blight can be spread by infected seeds, so always start your garbanzo bean crop with certified disease-free seeds. Do not use that bag of garbanzo beans from the grocery store. The price might be appealing and those seeds are safe to eat, but they may also carry any number of pests and diseases that might take years to get rid of. You can also select disease resistant varieties. According to UCANR, the following varieties of garbanzo are currently resistant to Ascochyta blight: Sierra, Dylan, Sutter, San Joaquin, and the Airway Farms (AWF) series. That resistance can and will change because fungi evolve faster than plants.

At the first sign of infection, the affected plant should be removed and tossed in the trash. You don’t want to leave infected plant material in the garden or compost pile because this can simply spread the disease to more plants. Ascochyta blight does not survive in the soil, so crop rotation is a good way to break the disease cycle. 

If Ascochyta blight has been a serious problem in past years, space plants out more for better air flow, and plant seeds as late in the season as possible.

Fungicides can be used at the first sign of disease and reapplied according to package directions.