Today in history – 150 years ago.

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What does Abraham Lincoln and 30,000 acres have to do about this day in history? July 2, 1862: 150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant College Act into law. It was this act that donated 30,000 acres of public land to “several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts”.   It was this act that provided for the establishment of colleges such as Texas A&M College (now Texas A&M University). Now you know what the A… Read More →

Diplodia blight (Training at the Plant Clinic part2)

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Blog article #2 by Marissa McCarthy (for partial fulfillment of BESC 484 requirement)   Diplodia is most often parasitic fungus, can be found to be saprophytic, that is extremely host specific on pine hosts or other conifer species.  This Diplodia was found on a Juniper from a private residence that was submitted to the lab. Chief complaint was new growth and tip yellowing and necrosis. Diplodia is found across the vast majority of the United States including Hawaii and California, and affects most species of pine or conifer…. Read More →

Training at the Plant Clinic

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One of the functions that the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab is to be a training ground for our students at Texas A&M University.  We have had a somewhat open-door policy for student from the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and the associated undergraduate BioEnvironmental Science (BESC) program.  In addition to that, we have hosted an international Borlaug Fellow who came for short term training in plant pathology & diagnostics.  This summer, a undergraduate student worker is parlaying her work at the Plant Clinic into an internship to… Read More →

Oak Wilt information

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Things are starting to heat up (weather wise) and we are beginning to see more influx of samples for oak wilt pathogen detection.  Oak wilt is a disease cause by a fungus and  can kill trees.  The Texas live oaks and various red oaks are susceptible to this disease.  There has been so many question asked, such as “Why is my tree dying?”, ” How did it get infected?”, or ” Why is my neighbor’s tree healthy but mine is dying?”. Then we also have the question, “How… Read More →

Look out for Impatiens downy mildew

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Apologize for the long silence, but been spending many days answering emails and phone calls.  Things have been busy at the clinic with many different issues. Unfortunately, there is one that prompted me to write this blog entry. Several weeks ago, I received a couple of photos of bad looking impatiens.  One of those leaves show symptoms which was suspicious of downy mildew. So I requested that a physical sample be sent to the Plant Clinic. Sure enough, we were able to find the water mold (Plasmopara obducens)… Read More →