Disease control: root and stem rots of flowering annuals
25 May, 2004 By: Landscape Management Staff LM Week in ReviewWith the Midwest slogging through a particularly wet end to spring, readers may want to review management strategies for root and stem rot problems of flowering annuals.
John Hartman, a plant pathologist with the University of Kentucky's Kentucky Pest News, writes that although some root rot fungi get carried from the greenhouse, some are already living in landscape bed soils, ready to attack even healthy plants.
Hartman gives an overview of Rhizoctonia root and stem rot, Black root rot, Phytophthora root rot, Pythium root rot and abiotic causes of root rot. Abiotic causes include flooding, drought, freezing, excess heat, excess fertilizer and soluble salts, and toxic chemicals in the soil.
Check out Hartman's management tips in "Root and stem rots of flowering annuals in landscape beds," Kentucky Pest News, May 17, 2004.
See also:
"Fungicides for Rhizoctonia Control on Ornamentals - 1993 Results," A. R. Chase, Professor of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, IFAS, 1993.
"Controlling Rhizoctonia Diseases on Ornamentals with Fungicides," by A.R. Chase and T.A. Mellich University of Florida, IFAS, Central Florida Research and Education Center - Apopka, CFREC-Apopka Research Report, RH-92-8, 1992.
"Black root rot of ornamentals," by John Hartman and Paul Bachi, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension, 1994.
"Guide to selected plants and the key times to control diseases," by Gary W. Moorman, professor of plant pathology, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, 2000.
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