Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab-
WHAT Wednesday Videos
Author Archives: kevo
Fellow pathologist in the news
One of the most devastating diseases of cotton is a disease commonly known as Cotton Root Rot, caused by the fungus Phymatotrichopsis omnivora. This pathogen is one that can attack many different plants and is quite aggressive on many. In the landscape, this disease have done much damage to ornamental pears, lacey elms, pittosporiums and others. The devastating effect of this disease is noted in history of Texas. In Northeast Texas (around the Dallas-Fort Worth area and some parts of the blacklands (along the I-35 corridor) in Central… Read More →
Additional option for Golf Course managers to deal with nematodes.
Plant parasitic nematode are little tiny “worms” that attack plants. Mostly are soil inhabitants, therefore roots are the usual target of plant parasitic nematodes. On the golf course, plant parasitic nematode can be a huge problem. On golf greens, their effect on the grass can reduce the quality of the grass, in terms of growth and vigor. This could affect playability. Several years ago, products that are available as nematicide were removed from the market. One such product that had been the standard chemical treatment on golf greens… Read More →
Much ado about trees
Howdy folks! It the time of the year that trees are starting to bud and live oak leaves are starting to drop. So let’s talk about trees. First, if you see your oak tree that stayed green through the winter turning yellow and dropping leaves – DO NOT PANIC! Check out the tree carefully. Chances are that it is a Texas live oak, and dropping leaves in late winter/early spring is NORMAL as new leaves are coming in shortly. Here is a link to a factsheet that I… Read More →
Plant Clinic activities
The Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab is some what obscure in many aspects. Lots of people do not even know we exist. Much more does not even know what we do. There are many aspects to the activities of the Plant Clinic. The primary function of the Plant Clinic is to provide plant diagnostic support. This include confirmatory diagnostic services as well as educational services. On the education side, as a part of Texas AgriLife Extension Service, we help out with Master Gardener volunteer training. We also help… Read More →
Really long week and a half.
A week ago I was sitting in meetings in Florida. This was a trip with other researchers, extension personnel and citrus growers from Texas to the University of Florida Citrus Research & Extension Center in Lake Alfred. The discussion included various lesson learned from the situation in Florida. These information were shared by their research, extension personnel and the Florida citrus growers. Their situation was unique in that Citrus Greening (CG) first hit Florida in 2005. At that time, they did not know much about the disease and… Read More →
