The following plant disease highlights from the University of Kentucky Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratories represent recent sample submissions from field crops, fruit, vegetables, and ornamentals.
Diseases diagnosed during the past two weeks have included Septoria leaf blotch on wheat (Figure 1); Botryosphaeria dieback on blueberry; cane blight on blackberry; Pythium root rot on tomato and pepper; cold injury on sweetpotato vine; and powdery mildew on calibrachoa.
Figure 1. Wheat leaf blotch – spores of Septoria tritici emerging in curling tendrils or “cirri” from infected wheat leaves. (Photo: Brenda Kennedy, UK).
Additional landscape ornamental samples included Volutella blight on pachysandra; black root rot on holly; black knot on plum; Dothistroma needle blight and Ploioderma needle cast on pine; and winter drying on magnolia and arborvitae.
By Julie Beale and Brenda Kennedy, Plant Disease Diagnosticians
Kentucky Pest News 