Gomez 1
Christopher Gomez
Dr. Kulbhushan K. Grover
Ms. Harpreet Kaur & Mr.Seyed Nourbakhsh
Principles of Crop Production
21 October 2021
Plant Disorders Diagnostic Lab
A plant disorder diagnostic is the process of determining the cause of abnormality in a plant. This
can be done by observing the plant, growing the disease in culture, performing Koch's postulates, and
among other factors. Plant disorder diagnosis is important to crop production because it allows a farmer to
combat the disease by applying fungicides, pesticides, rotating their crops, and knowing what is causing a
decrease in their crops. Without knowing what is happening to their crop, he or she has the potential to
lose everything if the diagnosis is not complete.
The important steps involved with plant disorder diagnosis vary on the type of disease they are
dealing with. If a fungus is causing problems, they can perform Koch's postulates to ID the disease. If a
bacteria or virus is causing harm, they can follow steps that are similar to Koch's postulates. The most
important part is knowing the three factors in the disease triangle: who your susceptible host is, knowing
the conducive environment, and combating the virulent pathogen.
If I was a grower and wanted to send a Plant disorder diagnostic to the lab I would have to contact
my county extension agent and fill out a form to get my samples diagnose for free, but if I wanted to go
directly to the university, I could pay a $30 fee in addition to sending my forms and plant samples.
I learned that it is important to take precautions about sending samples because if the sample is
not an accurate version of how your other crops may look, the plant diagnostician may not be able to
make an accurate report or can give you the wrong advice on how to combat disease.
The most important lesson that I learned today was the disease triangle. If the disease triangle is
missing one factor (conducive environment, susceptible host, and Virulent pathogen), it allows a farmer to
combat the disease that may be causing harm to their crops.
