KELLY-LOGO-2023

5 Common Crop Diseases and How to Treat Them?

Crop diseases pose a serious threat to the entire agricultural industry. Therefore, farmers must treat them appropriately and monitor them through immediate prevention. This tax can severe depending on the size of agricultural land, especially since the list of serious crop diseases is quite long. 

Plant diseases include fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes, which can harm plant components above and below the ground. For producers of cereals (wheat, barley, oats, and triticale), legumes (field peas, chickpeas, and beans), canola, and lupine, identifying symptoms and knowing when and how to effectively control crop disease is a constant struggle. 

If your plants aren’t at their best, it can be heartbreaking. Adding extra water or moving to a sunny place can sometimes help restore plant health. If it doesn’t work after exhausting all other possibilities, it could indicate a bigger problem. It is possible that your plant is infecting or there is some plant disease. Here we need some crops technologies to get rid of diseases.

Following are some common crop diseases:

1. Downy Mildew

This is the most common crop disease. Downy Mildew is different from powdery mildew, so it is important to know the difference. Powdery mildew is a fungus that causes a white powdery substance to appear on the upper leaves. Late blight, on the other hand, is more closely relating to algae and produces greyish fuzzy spores on the underside of the leaves. 

Look for pale green or yellow spots on the upper surfaces of older leaves to diagnose late blight. The fungus has a white to grayish material on the lower surfaces, similar to cotton. Late blight thrives in cool, humid environments such as early spring or late autumn. Temperatures below 65°F and high relative humidity are ideal for spore development.

Treatment

Water is needed for late blight to survive and spread. The disease cannot spread if there is no moisture on your leaves. Keep as much water as possible on the leaves. Because the disease survives the winter with dead plant waste, clean around your plants in the fall to help prevent the disease in the spring.

2. Black Spots

Black spot is a disease that mainly affects roses, although it can also affect other ornamental and garden plants. On the tops of the leaves, this fungal disease develops black circular dots. The lower leaves are often the first to affecting. 

Infested leaves turn yellow and fall off the plant in case of heavy infestation. Black spot is a problem in wet weather for long periods or when the leaves are wet for more than 6 hours. Spores of black spots survive the winter in leaves that are dry.

Treatment

Plant in soil that drains properly. Regular feeding with organic fertilizer keeps your plants healthy. This will help in the prevention of fungal diseases in plants. Spores of the fungus survive the winter in plant remains. 

Remove dead leaves or infected sticks from the area around the plants and discard them. Do not put anything in the compost pile. Disinfect your pruning shears with a household disinfectant after each use. Ethanol or isopropyl alcohol can be used directly from the bottle.

5 Common Crop Diseases and How to Treat Them

3. Powdery Mildew

Powdery mildew affects the leaves, stems, and flowers, leaving a dusty white coating. It affects a variety of plants, including lilacs, apples, grapes, cucumbers, peas, phlox, daisies, and roses, and is caused by a fungus. This fungus grows in conditions of low soil moisture mixed with high moisture content on the top of the plant. Plants kept in shady places are more likely to be damaged than those kept in full sun.

Treatment

To stop the spread of spores, rake and destroy contaminative leaves. Also, make sure that the plants have enough drainage and air circulation. Avoid watering at night; Instead, water in the middle of the day so that the leaves can dry before the evening. 

Powdery mildew can be treated with commercial fungicides or by spraying with a solution of a teaspoon of baking powder and a liter of water, as suggested by George “Doc” and Katy Abraham, authors of The Green Thumb Garden Handbook. Powdery mildew is a typical victim of lilac, a fragrant shrub.

4. Mosaic Virus

Mosaic viruses come in various forms, but gardeners are more likely to encounter two: tomato mosaic virus and tobacco mosaic virus. Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, apples, pears, and cherries are infected with the former; tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, beets, petunias, and, of course, tobacco are infected with the latter. 

Yellowing, stunted growth, fruit deformation, and reduce production are all symptoms of some plants. In warm conditions, the mosaic virus is more common.

Treatment

Although there is no chemical control, resistant varieties are available. The virus can survive for a long time in dry soil. Infected plants should remove and destroy, roots and everything, and susceptible plants should planting in the same area for two years. Tobacco is a carrier, so smokers should wash their hands thoroughly before handling plants.

5. Blight

The blight of crops is one of the widespread crop diseases that affect many plants. Do you remember the lack of potato hunger of the 1840s? However, one million people die due to sepsis. Rot often affects other plants, especially tomatoes, in addition to potatoes. Sepsis is a fungal disease that multiplies with wind-borne seeds. 

As a result, spores can quickly transmit the virus to wide areas. Rotting can only spread in hot, humid conditions, especially if temperatures are above 50 °F for two consecutive days and humidity is above 90% for eleven hours or more. However, there is no cure. The only option is to avoid it in the first place.

Treatment

If you produce potatoes, choose early types because the scourge strikes in the middle of summer, and you will be able to harvest your crop before the scourge hits. Varieties resistant to plants: Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona are two examples of resistant varieties. 

Maintain proper hygiene of the garden. Moreover, discard any plant components contaminated with a scourge. Clean any fallen debris from your unhealthy plants and throw them in the trash. Don’t put anything in the compost pile.

Conclusion

Crops and diseases are normally walk side by side because normally our crops are infected by crop diseases. The disease is usually caused by the unfavorable Physico-chemical composition of the soil. The latter is often the result of low-quality herbicide spraying of crops. These examples show the need for sustainable agriculture not only for environmental protection but also for economic profitability.

Farmers benefit from modern technologies. Crop monitoring allows you to identify potentially at-risk sites and treat them individually, resulting in a significant increase in the effectiveness of disease management.