A diagrammatic scale of black-spot in papaya fruit was elaborated and validate in order to standardize disease severity assessments. The proposed scale showed disease levels of 0.1; 0.3; 0.6; 1.2; 2.5; 5.0; 10.0 and 20.0% of fruit superficial area with lesions. Without the scale, most of the evaluators overestimated the disease severity. When the scale was applied, better accuracy and precision levels were obtained, with absolute errors around 5%, that can be acceptable in this kind of work. The evaluators presented good repeatability and high reproducibility estimations when the scale was used. The diagrammatic scale was suitable for black-spot severity evaluation in papaya fruits.
Carica papaya; Asperisporium caricae; assessment; severity
