I have the coolest job on the planet.  Everyday, I get to help people with their plant disease problems.  This may entail helping someone learn how to grow healthy, nutritious vegetables to feed their family or assisting a grieving family select the just the right tree to plant to serve as a lasting memorial for a recently lost loved one.  On occasion, I get to help Wisconsin farmers avoid severe economic losses due to plant diseases or help prevent the introduction of federally regulated plant pathogens that potentially can have negative impacts nationwide  This month, I’d like to share with you a diagnostic case where a proper diagnosis had the potential to save someone’s life.

I recently received photos from a home gardener who was growing tomato transplants indoors.  She was concerned that her plants were not doing well and losing leaves.  Her photos showed plants with leaves that were cupping downward and showed twisted petioles and other growth distortions.  I was immediately suspicious that the plants had been exposed to ethylene.  Ethylene is a gas that is a plant growth hormone that can be very beneficial for proper plant development; in particular, ethylene is important in fruit ripening.  But in other situations, when plants are exposed at the wrong time or at too high of a concentration, ethylene can have negative effects, in fact exactly the sort of symptoms I was seeing in my client’s photos:  distorted plant growth and premature leaf loss.

After an exchange of several emails, the puzzle pieces started to fall into place.  My client had been growing her tomatoes in the basement (not uncommon for many gardeners) next to the boiler that provided heat for her home.  As the weather warmed up, she moved the plants to her garage where she parks her car and where she has a full kitchen.  She had been cooking in this kitchen recently to provide a bit of additional warmth for her plants.  Both her boiler and stove burn propane.

At this point, alarm bells were going off.  If propane burners malfunction and don’t burn propane completely, one of the breakdown products of this incomplete combustion is ethylene.  You can also find ethylene in exhaust fumes from motor vehicles, in the smoke produced by wood-burning stoves and as a contaminant in natural gas.  I suggested to my client that she should have her boiler and stove checked immediately for problems.  One or both of these (and possibly also fumes from her car) were likely the source of ethylene that was causing problems for her tomatoes.  She emailed back to tell me that what I had told her made perfect sense as her tomatoes nearer the boiler had more severe symptoms than those farther away.  Another sentence from this email became the inspiration for the title of this article:  “So the tomatoes plants in the basement acted like a canary in a coalmine.”

I told her that she was spot on with her analogy, and at that point, I gave potentially even more serious news.  In addition to producing ethylene, malfunctioning propane burners (and other types of heating systems) also can produce carbon monoxide, a potentially deadly gas.  According to the CDC, approximately 50,000 people visit hospitals with carbon monoxide poisoning each year and at least 430 of these people die from this poisoning.  Luckily, my client had a carbon monoxide detector near the boiler and it hadn’t gone off.  But, the unit was old, and my client indicated that our conversation had made her realize that she needed to replace that unit.

What if she hadn’t had a carbon monoxide detector?  Then, those distorted tomatoes would have been her first hint that a potentially deadly carbon monoxide situation was developing.  Similarly, if she had had distorted tomatoes growing near a natural gas-fueled furnace, that could have indicated a natural gas leak, another potentially lethal situation.

Ah, the power of a lowly vegetable and a bit of knowledge about how they grow!

For additional information on the PDDC and its activities

Check out the PDDC website.  To learn about new PDDC education materials and programs, follow the clinic on Twitter or Facebook (@UWPDDC) or contact the clinic at pddc@wisc.edu and ask to be added to the PDDC’s listserv (UWPDDCLearn).

As the temperatures begin to warm and the snow melts, gardeners are chomping at the bit to be outdoors working away.  Thoughts tend towards “What should I plant this year?” and “When should I plant and seed?”  Those are great questions, but there are other aspects of gardening that I think are important to consider.  This month, I’d like to share what I think about at this time of year as I try to prepare for a successful growing season.

Garden clean-up

I often talk about the importance of fall clean-up for plant disease management.  Plant pathogens often overwinter in debris from infected plants left over from the previous growing season.  Removing this material from a garden helps eliminate a source of pathogens that can reinfect plants during the current growing season.  While fall is a great time to do this removal, there are a variety of reasons why gardeners might choose not to do clean-up in the fall.  Some people just don’t have the time.  Some like to use leaf litter to insulate flower beds.  Others like to maintain plants that have died back for winter visual interest in their gardens or as overwintering sites for beneficial insects.  If you’re one of the people who likes keep plant debris around for the winter, spring is the time to take care of this material.  Try to remove the debris before plants begin to produce new growth, and burn (where allowed), bury or hot compost it.

Watering concerns

This can be a tough time of year for many evergreens (particularly yews and boxwoods), as they tend to be prone to winter burn.  Sometimes winter burn develops during the winter months, but spring is a prime time for symptoms to develop as plants start to photosynthesize and thus lose more water through stomates on needles and leaves.  So, as the ground begins to thaw and new needles and leaves begin to emerge, make sure evergreens are receiving sufficient water.  Established plants (those planted three years or more) require approximately one inch of water per week from rain or from supplemental watering with a drip or soaker hose placed at their driplines (i.e., the edges of where the branches extend).  Newly transplanted plants (those planted within the past three years) require roughly two inches of water per week.

Decontaminating pots

If you grow plants in pots or other containers, and particularly if you have issues with root rots or other diseases caused by soil-borne pathogens, you should seriously consider decontaminating your containers before reusing them this year.  Empty any soil from the containers and discard the soil (especially if the plants previously grown in the containers have had disease issues), wash the containers thoroughly to remove any remaining soil, then soak the containers for 30 minutes in a 10% bleach solution (one part of a disinfecting bleach and nine parts water).  Rinse the containers thoroughly to remove any bleach residues and you’re ready to plant.  Note that this techniques works best for clay or ceramic pots, but may not be reliable for plastic pots.  Sometimes the best way to decontaminate plastic pots is to throw them away.

Mapping vegetable gardens

For long-term success with vegetable gardening, crop rotation is a must.  Growing the same (or related) vegetables in the same spot in your vegetable garden year after year is a great way to build up disease-causing organisms in the soil.  These pathogens can cause problems for years, if not decades, to come.  So, if you haven’t been mapping out where you plant your vegetables each year, make this the year when you start doing that.  Buy some graph paper, draw your vegetable garden space to scale and preplan where you will plant your various vegetables this year.  Keep this plan as a reference so that next year when you create your 2022 map, you can properly rotate your vegetables to new areas in your garden.  If possible, don’t grow the same (or related) vegetables in the same area for a period of at least three to four years.

Keeping a garden journal

Also, make this the year that you start documenting what goes on in your garden.  Record information on when plants emerge or begin to leaf out, and when they flower.  Keep track of the weather including temperatures, rain (and snow), significant storm events (hail, high winds, driving rains) and note when you see particular insects and diseases in your garden.  This sort of information can be very useful (particularly after you have several years’ data) in predicting insect pest and disease activity and thinking ahead about how to fend off these sorts of problems.

Need help?

I hope these pointers help you have a successful 2021 gardening season.  For additional information on the PDDC and its activities, check out the PDDC website.  To learn about new PDDC education materials and programs, follow the clinic on Twitter or Facebook (@UWPDDC) or contact the clinic at pddc@wisc.edu and ask to be added to the PDDC’s listserv (UWPDDCLearn).

In this month’s Plant Disease Pointers, I discussed the advantages of pruning trees and shrubs in the winter to increase structural soundness and overall aesthetics.  Winter is also a great time to inspect trees and shrubs for certain diseases and, where needed, prune out these problems.  Diseases that can be corrected, at least in part, by winter pruning include canker and gall diseases.

Canker diseases

There are a wide range of fungal and bacterial pathogens that infect branches and eventually lead to branch dieback.  With some of these diseases (e.g., Diplodia shoot blight and canker, white pine blister rust), the pathogens initially infect through needles.  With others (e.g., fire blight), the pathogens enter through flowers.  Once in the plant, these pathogens work their way relatively rapidly down branches and can cause significant damage.  Catching these diseases early and pruning out affected branches can reduce the overall damage that they cause.  If not managed properly and removed, these pathogens can eventually reach and girdle the main trunk, thus killing the tree.

Other canker diseases tend to be more localized in their effect.  For some, like Nectria canker, the pathogens often enter through wounds (e.g., pruning wounds, wounds from storm damage).  For others, like Thyronectria canker of honeylocust or Cytospora canker of spruce, direct infection of branches appears to be the norm.  With these diseases, the pathogens progress somewhat slowly, causing localized sunken areas (a “classic” canker symptom) around the point of infection.  Eventually these diseases will progress to the point where the entire circumference of the branch is affected, which leads to branch death.  Movement of these pathogens into the main trunk tends to be a slower process, although if left unchecked, these organisms can eventually cause significant damage as well.

Gall diseases

The classic diseases in this category include black knot of Prunus species (particularly plum and cherry) and the Gymnosporium rusts like cedar-apple rust and cedar-hawthorn rust.  These diseases typically do not cause branch dieback but can reduce the aesthetic appeal of infected trees and shrubs.  In the case of black knot, you will see fairly large black masses (what I call “poop-on-a-stick”) on infected branches.  These are particularly visible in the winter when there is no foliage to hide them.

Galls associated with Gymnosporium rusts are much smaller and more subtle.  They look like tiny brown brains that form on the branches of junipers, particularly Eastern red cedar.  In the winter, if you don’t look carefully, you might miss these.  In the spring however, the galls reach the pinnacle of their visual glory when they sprout gelatinous, orange arms/masses that produce spores.  These spores infect certain trees and shrubs in the rose family (e.g., apple, crabapple, hawthorn, quince, pear and serviceberry) leading to brightly-colored leaf spots (in the case of cedar-apple rust and cedar-hawthorn rust) or spiny fruits and branch galls (in the case of cedar-quince rust).  Spores produced in these diseased leaves, fruits and branches eventually infect junipers completing the life cycle of the pathogen.

Pruning tips

Once either canker or gall diseases become established, pruning is the method of choice for management, and wintertime is a great time to do this pruning.  Symptoms are often more visible during the winter months, and pruning in colder, drier winter weather tends to reduce the risk of infections through pruning cuts.  For diseases caused by fungal pathogens, I suggest pruning four to six inches below where you see obvious symptoms.  For diseases caused by bacteria, I suggest pruning more aggressively, roughly 12 inches below where symptoms are visible.  When pruning in the winter, it may seem that decontaminating tools is not necessarily.  However, I recommend decontamination no matter when you prune.  Treat pruning tools between cuts for at least 30 seconds with 70% alcohol (e.g., rubbing alcohol straight out of the bottle), a commercial disinfectant that contains roughly 70% active ingredient or 10% bleach.  If you decide to use bleach, be sure to thoroughly rinse your tools after you are done pruning and oil them to prevent rusting that can be caused by bleach use.  You can dispose of branches by burning (where allowed) or burying them.

Summary

So, as temperatures start to hover in the upper 20s or lower 30s this winter, think about pruning your trees.  Remove diseased branches, and at the same time, prune out healthy branches to improve the structural integrity and aesthetic appeal of your trees.  All of this said, please do not prune when it is excessively cold:

• Pruning diseased branches in winter:  Good!
• Frost bite and freezing to death:  Bad!!

Need help?

For additional information on the PDDC and its activities, check out the PDDC website.  To learn about new PDDC education materials and programs, follow the clinic on Twitter or Facebook (@UWPDDC) or contact the clinic at pddc@wisc.edu and ask to be added to the PDDC’s listserv (UWPDDCLearn).

2021 has arrived and I can’t say that I’m sad to see 2020 gone.  Last year was incredibly challenging for everyone due to COVID-19.  I am very grateful to still have job and to be able to do the work that I love.  Here’s how things shook out in 2020 at the PDDC.

Clinic staff processed a whopping 2381 samples, up 58% from 2019 and an all-time record for my tenure at the PDDC.  Samples came from 69 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, as well as 21 additional states (AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, IL, IA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, NV, NM, NY, ND, OH, SD, TN and WA) and three foreign countries (Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom).  Much of the increase in sample numbers resulted from the clinic formalizing and substantially promoting digital diagnostics for the first time.  This was necessitated by COVID-19, which limited clinic staffing (specifically student hourly help) and curtailed the clinic’s capacity to process physical samples.  In addition, having several wet seasons in a row prior to 2020, as well as a wet early 2020 season, helped promote a wide range of plant diseases.  People, sequestered at home for much of the year, seemed to take notice of and were curious about the diseases in their gardens and landscapes and as a consequence asked for more help with identifying the problems they observed.  No matter what the cause of the increase in sample numbers, I was certainly kept busy (and out of mischief) for the year.

In 2020, as in previous years, the PDDC expanded its molecular (i.e., DNA-based) diagnostic offerings.  One disease of note that was detected this year using molecular diagnostics was Potato mop top virus (a first report for Wisconsin).  This virus is transmitted by the organism (a type of slime mold) that causes powdery scab.  As always, whenever I discuss the PDDC’s molecular efforts, I have to give a shout out to Sue Lueloff, the PDDC’s Assistant Diagnostician.  Without Sue, molecular diagnostics at the PDDC would not exist.  As in 2019, Sue not only tested routine clinic samples but also worked with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WI DNR) to test tree samples from around the state for phytoplasmas.

In other 2020 diagnostic highlights, Ralstonia wilt reared its ugly head once again in the US with an initial detection in Michigan.  The last occurrence of this disease in the US was in 2004.  The pathogen that causes Ralstonia wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum race 3, biovar 2) was introduced on contaminated geranium cuttings brought into the US from Guatemala and is of concern because of its potential to spread and cause severe disease on potatoes.  In fact, this bacterium is so destructive that the US government has listed it as a select agent, with potential to be weaponized by terrorists and used against US agriculture.  In 2020, potentially contaminated geranium cuttings were shipped to 650+ greenhouses in 44 states, with 19 greenhouses in Wisconsin involved.  Luckily there were no positive detections the disease in Wisconsin greenhouses.  My involvement with testing for Ralstonia wilt came in the latter half of 2020 through collaborative work with Dr. Caitilyn Allen, the UW-Madison’s world expert on Ralstonia wilt.  She was contacted by the geranium producer in Guatemala (through USDA APHIS) who was involved in the 2020 outbreak, to test current stock (for 2021 geranium production) for Ralstonia solanacearum race 3, biovar 2 contamination.  Dr. Allen’s group had insufficient staffing/resources to process the 1500 samples requested and ended up partnering with the PDDC to use the clinic’s Maxwell automated nucleic acid extraction system.  Using this equipment allowed Dr. Allen’s group to quickly obtain DNA samples from the plants that were subsequently tested for the bacterium.  Fortunately, all of the materials tested negative.

Other PDDC outreach activities were somewhat curtailed due to COVID-19.  I did end up giving 70 talks/presentations/workshops in at least 16 Wisconsin counties.  Many of these presentations were provided via Zoom with participants coming from multiple counties and sometimes the entire state.  My biggest outreach event in 2020 was Wisconsin Public Television’s Garden and Landscape Expo.  I spent three days at the event, gave three talks and helped answer questions with Lisa Johnson at two Q&A sessions (one hosted by WPR’s Larry Meiller).  I had a steady stream of visitors to the PDDC booth (newly redesigned and rebranded given Extension’s merger with the UW-Madison) and talked with and answered questions for visitors the entire time.  I distributed 4,023 University of Wisconsin Garden Facts fact sheets, brochures and other informational materials at the event.  Across all outreach programs in 2019, I interacted with almost 223,737 people (interestingly just a slight decrease from 2019).  As always, a big thanks goes out to Larry Meiller for having me on his radio show with its awesome listenership.

And finally, I can’t emphasize enough that the accomplishments of the PDDC are not a solo effort.  I have amazing help, including Sue Lueloff (molecular diagnostician extraordinaire mentioned above) Ann Joy (data entry expert who keeps federal funds flowing from the National Plant Diagnostics Network), Dixie Lang (IT support wizard who makes the PDDC website look beautiful and keeps the PDDC database running and up to snuff), Laurie Ballentine of the Russell Labs Hub staff (who never says no and happily prints, folds and otherwise produces all of the written handouts I use for my outreach efforts), and Alex Mikus (an undergraduate here at the UW-Madison who was able to help process samples in the clinic prior to the onset of COVID-19).

2020 is over – Phew!  Let’s see what 2021 has in store!

For addition information on the PDDC and its activities, check out the PDDC website, follow the clinic on Twitter or Facebook (@UWPDDC) or contact the clinic at pddc@wisc.edu.