How to identify flower diseases and pests? Experts teach you the methods of identification

Flower diseases are generally divided into two categories: physiological diseases and parasitic diseases.

Physiological diseases

They are mainly caused by unsuitable conditions such as climate and soil. Commonly occurring physiological diseases include: sunscald caused by strong light in summer; freezing damage caused by low temperatures in winter; root rot caused by excessive water; scorched leaf edges and wilting caused by insufficient water; and deficiency symptoms caused by the lack of certain nutrient elements in the soil, and so on.

Parasitic diseases

They are caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes and other organisms infecting flowers. These organisms differ in form, but most have parasitic and pathogenic capabilities, and strong reproductive capacity. They can spread from infected plants to healthy plants through various routes (stomata, wounds, insects, wind, rain, etc.), and under suitable environmental conditions grow, develop, reproduce and spread, repeating the cycle and gradually expanding and spreading. Therefore, this type of disease causes the greatest harm to flowers.

Fungi

Fungi are lower organisms that have no chlorophyll and have eukaryotic cells. They use mycelium as their vegetative body and reproduce by spores, and they are the most important category among flower diseases. Most fungal diseases have obvious symptoms, such as mold-like substances, powdery substances, rust-like substances, dot-like substances, thread-like substances, etc. These characteristics are one of the main bases for identifying fungal diseases. Common fungal diseases include powdery mildew, anthracnose, and so on.

Bacteria

Bacteria are a type of single-celled prokaryotic organism that reproduce by division. The main characteristics of bacterial diseases are that the affected tissue becomes water-soaked or the lesions are translucent, and under humid conditions bacterial slime oozes out from the diseased parts, showing pus overflow. This is one of the main bases for identifying bacterial diseases. Common bacterial diseases include iris bacterial soft rot, and so on.

Viruses

They are extremely tiny parasites. An electron microscope is required to observe their form. They parasitize within the living cell tissues of flowers and can move with the flow of host sap within the flower body, spreading to the whole plant and causing whole-plant disease. Viral diseases often show symptoms such as mosaic, yellowing, deformity, and ring spots. Common viral diseases include narcissus viral disease, and so on.

Nematodes

Nematodes belong to a type of lower animal. Nematodes have slender bodies with slightly pointed ends, generally 1-2 mm in body length, like a roundworm. The female adults of a few nematodes are spherical or pear-shaped. They mostly survive in the soil, parasitize the roots of flowers, and stimulate the local cells of the host to proliferate, forming tumor-like growths. Common nematode diseases include cyclamen root-knot nematode disease, and so on.