Being able to recognize the symptoms of abiotic stress or disease is critical in beginning to resolve the issue .”
growers know
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Being able to recognize the symptoms of abiotic stress or disease is critical in beginning to resolve the issue .”
We routinely look at our plants and crops to see if they are doing well and if they are healthy . When we see signs of stress or disease , are we looking at a biological infestation or not ? What we do next depends on the answer to this question . A plant disease is generally understood to be any ongoing internal process that adversely affects the health and growth of a plant . So , it is therefore possible that a plant disease may not actually involve living parasitic organisms . A plant that is in decline due to something other than biological infestation ( abiotic ) would be considered a plant disease . Even in this case , it would not be unusual that a biological disease is indeed present , but that presence is actually due to an abiotic pathological process . Diseases that are not biological , known as abiotic , are typically the result of reactions and interactions between the plant and its surrounding environment . Extreme heat or drought will bring on many diseased plant symptoms . Flooding or poor drainage will also do this . These are only a few of the environmental conditions that will begin serious decline of production and plant vigor and health . Most abiotic diseases cause symptoms to develop over specific portions of the plant , or they may often affect the whole plant . Causes like poor irrigation distribution over the root zone will usually cause a portion of plant , where adequate water is missing , to burn and then decline while the other portions of foliage look fine . Many other causes affect the whole root system and therefore the whole plant is affected .
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SYMPTOMS ?
Being able to recognize the symptoms of abiotic stress or disease is critical in beginning to resolve the issue . Yellowing across most of the plant foliage is common when the root system has been stressed through this type of action . The yellowing is caused by lack of proper nutrition , which in this case occurs from poor root health . Wilting of the leaves is generally caused by failure of the roots to take up water . If this condition continues , of course , the plant will eventually die . Though root rot is certainly a frequent culprit here , even this fungal disease may be caused initially by poorly draining or overwatered soil . Slow growth or smaller than normal leaves are other symptoms that are caused by thin or constrained roots . Most root systems , if placed into the soil too deeply , will struggle to absorb the oxygen needed to allow the plant to respire properly . This , in turn , denies the plant the ability to convert sugars into energy . This is the basic cause behind the slow growth . Branch dieback will often be the result of stress . Fruit trees are subject to this . There are a number of biological and abiotic causes for this disease . The dieback generally starts at the tips of branches and if the condition is not corrected quickly , it will spread throughout the plant and may eventually kill it . Often , even when the original condition is corrected , branches affected do not recover . Heavier than normal seed production is another indicator of stress . Plants tend to produce a heavier amount of seed when their health is threatened . The plant , sensing danger , attempts to procreate . There are still other indications of abiotic factors that are involved in damaging plant health .
ABIOTIC DISEASE BECOMES BIOLOGICAL DISEASE
Plant decline from an abiotic cause opens the door for a biological infestation of the plant . Too often , this new biotic infection is the only problem recognized and diagnosed for the plant . The treatment for this infection may seem successful at first , but it does not cause general health to return . The abiotic cause is still in place and the biological disease can come back .
142 grow cycle