Authors: Marissa Schuh
Much of Minnesota got some rain in the last week -- from overwhelming barrages in Southeast Minnesota to the first rainfall in months in the Northwest. Much of the state needs the rain, but it is making harvest and storage of longer-season crops much more difficult.
One issue we see when it is wet is an uptick in diseases. One we are particularly curious about the UMN right now is white mold.
This disease has a wide host range -- it gets into most vegetables we grow, and can get into cut flowers as well. The most distinctive symptoms are what plant pathologists call sclerotia – these structures look like mouse dropping and act as bunkers for the pathogen, allowing it to lay in wait many years until the right conditions and host are available in the future. It can occur in the high tunnel and in the field, in a year like this it is most likely to show up in irrigated plantings.
As you harvest brassicas and clean up high tunnels, let us know if you see white mold, and how much it might be hampering your production. You can share about frequency, patterns, and impacted crops in this survey.
Much of Minnesota got some rain in the last week -- from overwhelming barrages in Southeast Minnesota to the first rainfall in months in the Northwest. Much of the state needs the rain, but it is making harvest and storage of longer-season crops much more difficult.
One issue we see when it is wet is an uptick in diseases. One we are particularly curious about the UMN right now is white mold.
This disease has a wide host range -- it gets into most vegetables we grow, and can get into cut flowers as well. The most distinctive symptoms are what plant pathologists call sclerotia – these structures look like mouse dropping and act as bunkers for the pathogen, allowing it to lay in wait many years until the right conditions and host are available in the future. It can occur in the high tunnel and in the field, in a year like this it is most likely to show up in irrigated plantings.
As you harvest brassicas and clean up high tunnels, let us know if you see white mold, and how much it might be hampering your production. You can share about frequency, patterns, and impacted crops in this survey.
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| White mold in high tunnel cucumbers. Photo: Dan Egel, Purdue University. |
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| Sclerotia on a head of cabbage. Photo: Marissa Schuh, UMN Extension. |
You can also take the survey right here if these images look familiar to you.
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