Posts Tagged: Verticillium wilt

Lawn-pocalypse! Surviving Drought

Ah, summer! The season of sunburns, pool parties, and… lawn droughts. If your once lush, green carpet now looks like a crunchy brown doormat, you're not alone. Let's dive into why your yard is staging a dramatic death scene and what you can do to...

Bermuda grass and weeds overtaking drought stressed turf grass.

A patch of former lawn, mostly dead, with a few green weeds and Bermudagrass

Verticillium and Fusarium Wilt Diseases in Tomatoes

Do your tomato plants suffer from lack of vigor, yellowing leaves, and poor fruit production? These symptoms are associated with many different problems, including lack of soil nutrients, excess salts in the soil or irrigation water, poor drainage or waterlogged soil, or a variety of plant diseases.

Trying to figure out what has gone wrong in your garden may not sound like much fun, but it is a necessary and important part of gardening. The more information we have, the easier it is to diagnose the problem when our hopes for a bountiful garden turn to disappointment. A gardener may change how they care for ailing plants by applying more or less water, fertilizing, or even spraying with pesticides or fungicides. Often nothing they do makes a difference, the plants continue to fail, and many eventually wither and die.

If this describes your experience growing tomatoes, you may find that a wilt disease could be the culprit. Armed with the information in this article, you can determine whether a wilt disease is a problem in your garden.

What is a wilt disease?

Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt, also called vascular wilt diseases, are soil-borne fungal diseases that infect susceptible plants through the roots, growing into and plugging the water-conducting (vascular) tissues. This causes the plant to be unable to take up sufficient water needed for healthy growth. Verticillium and Fusarium cause similar symptoms in their hosts.

Once these pathogens are in the soil, they are difficult to manage as they can survive in the soil for many years and possibly decades without living host plants. There is nothing that can be done for plants that are already infected with either Verticillium or Fusarium wilt. There are no fungicides available for application to the plants that can be used to control these diseases.

Verticillium wilt is widespread and very destructive and is common in our area. It is estimated that over 300 plant species throughout the world are susceptible. The pathogen responsible for the disease in tomato plants is Verticillium dahliae. This fungus favors moist soil and relatively cool (55–75° F) soil temperatures.

Early symptoms include a progressive yellowing of older leaves and wilting of shoot tips at the top of the plant during the warm part of the day.

Later, leaf margins curl upward, and leaves often drop off. Any fruit produced is usually small. The wilting becomes progressively worse, and although plants may not die, their condition can be so poor that it is not worth the effort to try to keep them going. Verticillium wilt will also infect several other common garden plants.

The list is a long one, and includes many garden vegetables as well as shrubs, trees and ornamentals. Below are links to lists of plants that are susceptible to Verticillium and Fusarium wilt.

Fusarium wilt presents with symptoms that, while not identical, are quite similar to Verticillium wilt. Although it is not as widespread as Verticillium, Fusarium is also a common disease in tomatoes. It differs from Verticillium wilt in that the Fusarium oxysporum pathogen has several forms which are host-specific. This means that the specific Fusarium fungi, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, only causes disease in tomato plants.

Unlike Verticillium wilt which has a very wide host range, the strain of Fusarium that infects tomatoes will not cause disease in other plant species. It can infect many different non-tomato crops, including melons, pepper, and sunflowers without causing any symptoms, and will persist in both tomato and non-tomato plant residue in soil. Infection and disease development in Fusarium wilt are favored by warm soil temperatures (80° F) and low soil moisture.

The symptoms of this disease are bright yellow leaves that commonly appear first on just one side or one branch of a plant. The leaf symptoms will also often appear as yellowing on just one side of a leaf, delineated by the central vein. These symptoms are distinctive and can be very helpful in making a diagnosis. The foliage yellows, wilts, then turns brown and dies. Older leaves are affected first, followed by death of the entire plant.

Disease confirmation

To confirm the diagnosis of a wilt disease, cut open one of the lower stems of the affected plant. If the vascular tissue inside the stem has turned brown or darkened (in contrast to the white or pale green color inside a healthy stem), it is a good indication that the plant has one or the other of these fungal diseases.

If you confirm the presence of the disease, you should remove the infected plant (including as much of the roots and plant debris as possible) and dispose of it in the garbage or your green waste bin. Don't compost it yourself since home compost piles rarely reach and maintain temperatures hot enough to kill the disease pathogens.

How did this disease get into my garden?

Both Fusarium and Verticillium fungi can be introduced on infected transplants, seeds, and tubers, or spread on equipment contaminated with infected soil. Wood chip mulch that comes from an infected tree can also spread the Verticillium fungi from one area to another. Because it can also survive in the digestive tract of horses and other animals who have consumed infected plant material, animal manures can sometimes be another source.

What steps can I take to keep these diseases from spreading throughout my garden?

• Do not transplant plants from one area to another. Moving soil, even a very small amount, can spread the disease.
• The fungi can also be transported on equipment such as shovels, trowels, etc. Thoroughly clean and disinfect tools used in the infected garden bed before using them in other areas of your yard or garden. First wash or brush off any soil or plant debris, then disinfect your tools with alcohol. You can either wipe or dip them in a solution that is 70–100% alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is widely available and can easily be found in many stores.
• More on products used to sterilize garden tools, and their pros and cons: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/care/tools-and-equipment/disinfecting-tools.html

I suspect that I may have a wilt disease in my garden. Will I still be able to grow tomatoes and other vegetables?

Choosing disease resistant tomato varieties is a way for gardeners to prevent the losses due to wilt diseases. Many disease-resistant hybrid tomato plant varieties have been developed and are available to the home gardener. They can be found at our yearly Great Tomato Plant Sale, in seed catalogs, and at local garden centers. The letters V and F following the variety name in seed catalogs, on seed packets, or plant labels denote varieties that are resistant to Verticillium and Fusarium wilts.

It is unfortunate that nearly all heirloom tomato varieties are susceptible to wilt disease. Heirloom tomato varieties would be better grown in containers with fresh potting mix or in a garden area that has not developed the pathogens (for example, an area in which you have never previously grown tomatoes or other crops that are vulnerable to the wilt diseases).

In addition to tomatoes, several vegetable plants including peppers, eggplants, potatoes, squash, and melons can suffer from Verticillium wilt. The Fusarium fungus specific to tomatoes will only affect tomatoes and will not cause disease in other vegetables. If you plan to grow other vegetables in the same garden bed where a tomato plant suspected of having Verticillium wilt has grown. Check the links below or do an internet search to determine whether the variety you want to grow is susceptible to the wilt diseases. For example, you can search “is broccoli susceptible to Verticillium wilt?”

Soil solarization is another method that can be used to reduce the amount of these pathogens in the soil. It involves heating the soil by covering it with clear plastic for four to six weeks during the summer. It is most effective when day length at its longest, and temperatures are high.

Links to additional information:
• Soil solarization: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html
• Verticillium wilt: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/DISEASES/tomvertwilt.html
• Fusarium wilt: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/DISEASES/fusariumwlt.html
• Plants resistant or susceptible to Verticillium wilt: https://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/resources/ucdavis_verticillium.pdf
• Plants susceptible to Fusarium wilt: https://extension.usu.edu/pests/research/fusarium-verticillium-wilts

To find great gardening info, a list of previous blog postings, and information on our Great Tomato Plant Sale go to our website: https://ccmg.ucanr.edu/

Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County (SMH)

 

Climate-Change Resources

University of California UC ANR Green Blog (Climate Change and Other Topics) https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/index.cfm?tagname=climate%20change (full index)

Examples:

     -  Save Trees First: Tips to Keep Them Alive Under Drought https://ucanr.edu/b/~CdD 

     - Landscaping with Fire Exposure in Mind: https://ucanr.edu/b/~G4D

     - Cities in California Inland Areas Must Make Street Tree Changes to adapt to Future Climate  https://ucanr.edu/b/~oF7

Drought, Climate Change and California Water Management Ted Grantham, UC Cooperative Extension specialist (23 minutes) https://youtu.be/dlimj75Wn9Q

Climate Variability and Change: Trends and Impacts on CA Agriculture Tapan Pathak, UC Cooperative Extension specialist (24 minutes) https://youtu.be/bIHI0yqqQJc

California Institute for Water Resources (links to blogs, talks, podcasts, water experts, etc.) https://ciwr.ucanr.edu/California_Drought_Expertise/

UC ANR Wildfire Resources (publications, videos, etc.) https://ucanr.edu/News/For_the_media/Press_kits/Wildfire/ (main website)

      -UC ANR Fire Resources and Information https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/ (main website)

            -Preparing Home Landscaping https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Prepare/Landscaping/

UC ANR Free Publications https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/ (main website)

- Benefits of Plants to Humans and Urban Ecosystems: https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8726.pdf

 -Keeping Plants Alive Under Drought and Water Restrictions (English version) https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8553.pdf

  (Spanish version) https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8628.pdf

-  Use of Graywater in Urban Landscapes https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8536.pdf

-  Sustainable Landscaping in California https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8504.pdf

 

Other (Non-UC) Climate Change Resources

Urban Forests and Climate Change. Urban forests play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Active stewardship of a community's forestry assets can strengthen local resilience to climate change while creating more sustainable and desirable places to live. https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/urban-forests

Examining the Viability of Planting Trees to Mitigate Climate Change (plausible at the forest level) https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2927/examining-the-viability-of-planting-trees-to-help-mitigate-climate-change/

Reports and other information resources coordinated under the auspices of the United Nations and produced through the collaboration of thousands of international scientists to provide a clear and up to date view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change. United Nations Climate Action

Scientific reports, programs, action movements and events related to climate change. National Center for Atmospheric Research (National Science Foundation)

Find useful reports, program information and other documents resulting from federally funded research and development into the behavior of the atmosphere and related physical, biological and social systems. Search and find climate data from prehistory through to an hour ago in the world's largest climate data archive. (Formerly the "Climatic Data Center") National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA)

Think tank providing information, analysis, policy and solution development for addressing climate change and energy issues (formerly known as the: "Pew Center on Global Climate Change"). Center for Climate & Energy Solutions (C2ES)

Mapping Resilience: A Blueprint for Thriving in the Face of Climate Disaster. The Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) was launched in July 2010 and is managed by EcoAdapt, a non-profit with a singular mission: to create a robust future in the face of climate change by bringing together diverse players to reshape planning and management in response to rapid climate change. https://www.cakex.org/documents/mapping-resilience-blueprint-thriving-face-climate-disaster

Cal-Adapt provides a way to explore peer-reviewed data that portrays how climate change might affect California at the state and local level. We make this data available through downloads, visualizations, and the Cal-Adapt API for your research, outreach, and adaptation planning needs. Cal-Adapt is a collaboration between state agency funding programs, university and private sector researchers https://cal-adapt.org/

Find reports, maps, data and other resources produced through a confederation of the research arms of 13 Federal departments and agencies that carry out research and develop and maintain capabilities that support the Nation's response to global change. Global Change (U.S. Global Change Research Program)

The Pacific Institute is a global water think tank that combines science-based thought leadership with active outreach to influence local, national, and international efforts to develop sustainable water policies. https://pacinst.org/our-approach/

Making equity real in climate adaptation and community resilience policies and programs: a guidebook. https://greenlining.org/publications/2019/making-equity-real-in-climate-adaption-and-community-resilience-policies-and-programs-a-guidebook/ 

Quarterly CA Climate Updates and CA Drought Monitor Maps (updated each Thursday) https://www.drought.gov/documents/quarterly-climate-impacts-and-outlook-western-region-june-2022

 

 

 

 

Drought focus of Water Resources IMPACT magazine special issue

UC ANR experts address emotional toll of drought

Preparing the American West for prolonged drought is the focus of a double issue of Water Resources IMPACT magazine. The California Water Commission staff are guest editors for this special open-access edition of the magazine, which is published by the American Water Resources Association.   

Faith Kearns, academic coordinator of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources' California Institute for Water Resources, is among the authors delving into how drought impacts people and the environment and how we can better prepare for the inevitable. 

The first issue, published on Feb. 14, focuses on water scarcity issues confronting California and the ways these issues affect different sectors. 

In “Trauma, Care, and Solidarity: Addressing the Emotional Toll of Chronic Drought,” Kearns highlights the effects of drought on mental health. She points to the spike in suicide hotline calls when wells ran dry in Southeast Asian communities in California's Central Valley.

By listening to Southeast Asian farmers, Ruth Dahlquist-Willard and Michael Yang of UC Cooperative Extension were able to “lighten the load” for them by providing pragmatic support, Kearns writes.

“The scale of some of these highly emotional issues – drought, wildfires, climate change – can make them seem incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to deal with,” Kearns said. “At the same time, they are affecting everyone living in the western U.S. on a daily basis. I wanted to highlight and provide models based on work that people – whether they are researchers, clinical psychologists, or Cooperative Extension advisors – are doing right now to ease the way.”

The authors who contributed to the double issue are a diverse array of Tribal experts, academics, nongovernmental organization thought-leaders, water managers and water policy influencers, each of whom brings their own perspective on the topic of drought. Their expertise and perspectives in climate science, water policy and water management will help inform drought-related decision-making and support policies that better prepare the state to thrive during periods of prolonged water scarcity.

In addition to Kearns, the first issue includes articles contributed by:

• Samantha Stevenson, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Jay Lund, University of California, Davis
• Ron Goode, North Fork Mono Tribe
• Andy Fecko, Placer County Water Agency
• Jeff Mount, Public Policy Institute of California, and Ted Grantham, University of California, Berkeley/UC Cooperative Extension
• Nat Seavy and Karyn Stockdale, National Audubon Society
• Kjia Rivers, Community Water Center
• Cannon Michael, Bowles Farming
• Michelle Reimers, Turlock Irrigation District

The January/February edition of Water Resources IMPACT magazine can be accessed, free of charge, on the American Water Resources Association website at https://www.awra.org under “Publications.”

The second issue, to be published in March, will focus on drought response, considering the options for adaptation. This two-part series complements the Commission's work on strategies to protect communities and fish and wildlife in the event of a long-term drought.

 

 

Your water-efficient landscape doesn’t have to be barren

UC climate-ready landscape trials identify low-water yet attractive plants

Good news: roses can be a part of your water-efficient landscape. Lorence Oki, UC Cooperative Extension environmental horticulture specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, identified rose cultivars that remain aesthetically pleasing with little water.  

Oki is the principal investigator of the Climate-Ready Landscape Plants project, which may be the largest irrigation trial in the western U.S., and the UC Plant Landscape Irrigation Trials (UCLPIT), the California component of that project. These projects evaluate landscape plants under varying irrigation levels to determine their optimal performance in regions requiring supplemental summer water.

“There are some assumptions that pretty plants use a lot of water, like roses,” Oki said. “Everyone thinks they need a lot of water, but we've found some that don't, and they still look great. A water-efficient landscape doesn't need to look like a Central Valley oak-grassland in the summer. It can look really attractive.”

In 2021, Oki's team at UC Davis identified Lomandra confertifolia ssp. pallida "Pom Pom" Shorty and Rosa "Sprogreatpink" Brick House® Pink as two of the best low-water plants in the trial. 

“The useful tip or information that is shared at the end of each trial is the selection and designation of plants as Blue Ribbon winners. These are the plants that looked good with an overall rating of 4 or higher throughout and were on the low (20%) water treatment,” said Natalie Levy, associate specialist for water resources, who manages the project at the UC ANR South Coast Research and Extension Center.

How plants earn a blue ribbon

Each trial year, the selection of new plants is based on research recommendations and donated submissions from the nursery industry. The landscape plants are trialed in full sun or 50% shade cover.

Irrigation treatments are based on the rate of evaporation and plant transpiration (evapotranspiration) measured through a local California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) weather station that provides a reference evapotranspiration (ETo) rate.

Three levels of irrigation are provided to the plants equal to 20%, 50%, and 80% of ETo. The volume of water applied is the same at each irrigation based on soil characteristics, but the interval between applications varies with weather and the treatment. Using this method, irrigations for the 20% treatment are less frequent than the 80% treatment.

“The 20% treatment during the 2022 trial was irrigated an average of once per month while the 80% treatment was irrigated weekly,” explained Levy.

During the deficit irrigation trial, monthly height and width measurements are taken to determine the plant growth index. Monthly qualitative aesthetic ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 are determined for foliage appearance, flowering abundance, pest tolerance, disease resistance, vigor and overall appearance.

A second round of flowering abundance and overall appearance measurements are also taken to capture more of the blooming period. For example, UCLPIT identified in the 2020 trial at South Coast REC that the "Apricot Drift" rose had a mean overall appearance score of 3.5 out of 5, deeming it “acceptable to very nice” and a low water use plant within the Water Use Classification of Landscape Species or WUCOLS guide.

Project expands options for landscape planting

While attending UC Davis as a master's student, Karrie Reid, retired UCCE environmental horticulture advisor for San Joaquin County, assisted Oki with landscape water conservation research. The landscape plant irrigation assessments were initiated at UC Davis in 2004 and the UCLPIT project, now in its 20^th year, originated from her master's thesis project from 2005 to 2007. A CDFA grant supported duplicating these fields at the South Coast REC in 2017.

“(WUCOLS) only has 3,500 plants in it. There are guesses that there are close to 10,000 cultivars in urban landscapes in California, if not more,” said Oki. “WUCOLS also didn't have numerical ratings. Instead, you'll see verbal ratings like ‘low water use' or ‘high water use.'”

The UCLPIT project has not only developed numerical recommendations for irrigation, but it has also added new landscape plants that are compliant with California's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance. In fact, UCLPIT's data is one of the few sources that can be used to supplement WUCOLS.

Geographic diversity of trial sites adds to knowledge base

In addition to UC Davis and South Coast REC in Irvine, the trials have expanded beyond California as the Climate-Ready Landscape Plants project and is in progress at Oregon State University, University of Washington, University of Arizona and Utah State University thanks to a USDA/CDFA grant awarded in 2020.

Lloyd Nackley, associate professor of nursery production and greenhouse management at Oregon State University, is the principal investigator of the trial in the Portland metro area, which is entering its third year.

“People know that there are drought tolerant plants, but there are many. We're trying to highlight lesser known or newer varieties. And even though the trial is three years, most gardeners would hope that their garden lasts longer than that,” said Nackley.

One of the observations that Nackley recalls is of the Hibiscus Purple Pillar plant. Unlike the trial at South Coast, the Purple Pillar did not perform well in Oregon in the spring.

“It wasn't until August that we saw the plant bloom and begin to look like what we saw from South Coast in April,” Nackley said.

Ursula Schuch, horticulture professor and principal investigator of the trial taking place at the University of Arizona, was also surprised at the range of performance among different plant types and the effects of irrigation, heat and temperature.

“This research will reassure green industry professionals that they can stretch their water budget to successfully cultivate more plants, watering them according to their needs instead of irrigating every plant according to the highest water-using plants,” said Schuch.

Although research is only conducted in the West, the hope is that there will be trials in other regions of U.S.

Doing so would yield comprehensive information about the plants and their performance in different climates. As extreme weather events persist in the U.S., disease pressure and risks do too. Trials throughout the country would provide location-specific data regarding disease susceptibility. 

To learn more about the UCLPIT research project, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/UCLPIT/

Read more