Disease management in organic farming

Organic farming
Organic farming is a farming method that involves
growing and nurturing crops without the use of synthetic based
fertilizers and pesticides. Also, no genetically modified
organisms are ppermittd.
Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains
the health of soils, ecosystems and people.
Plant Disease
A plant disease is defined as “anything that prevents a
plant from performing to its maximum potential.” This
definition is broad and includes abiotic and biotic plant
diseases.
Disease triangle

The disease triangle is a schematic that explains that in order to

have disease you must have:
1. The pathogen present on your farm. You can eliminate some
pathogens through crop rotation, only using disease-free seed
or plant stock, deep tillage to move soil pathogens deeper into
the soil, etc.
2. An appropriate host for the pathogen to live and reproduce.
As you see, crop rotation would really help here. One of the
most important crop protection methods is using disease
resistant varieties. Make sure you are matching the correct
disease resistance to the problem on your farm. I hope I am
convincing you to get your disease problems properly
diagnosed.
3. Suitable environmental conditions are needed for disease to
develop. Pathogens require environmental cues, such as
humidity, moisture and desirable temperatures to germinate,
survive and infect. If these conditions are not met, pathogens
cannot survive. Ex. downy mildews require a certain amount of
free moisture present on the leaf surface to germinate and
infect. If you can increase air flow and the drying of the leaf
surface you can make life miserable for the pathogen.
Types of Plant Disease Pathogens
1.Fungi
2.Bacteria
3.Viruses
4.Nematodes
Type of Symptoms caused by the pathogen
1. Fungi cause spots, lesions, blights, yellowing of leaves, wilts,
cankers, rots, fruiting bodies, mildews, molds, leaf spots, root
rots, cankers, and blotches. Fungi are typically spread by wind,
rain, soil, mechanical means and infected plant material.
2. Bacteria cause water-soaking, spots, wilts, rots, blights,
cankers, exudates, galls, yellowing, leaf spots, watery blotches,
wilting. Bacteria are typically spread by rain, mechanical means,
planting material, vectors (ex. bacterial wilt of cucurbits spread
by cucumber beetle)
3. Viruses cause mottling, leaf and stem distortions, mosaic
patterns, rings and stunting. Viruses cause interesting
symptoms, some are beautiful. Viruses are spread by
mechanical means, vectors and in plant material.
4. Nematodes cause wilting, stunting, yellowing of entire
plants. This is because the roots of the plant are infected and
the plant is starving or thirsty. Nematodes are spread by soil on
equipment or workers boots or on infected plant material.
Management of plant diseases
Cultural Control
• Promote healthy soils and healthy plants. Healthy soil is the
hallmark of organic agriculture. An unhealthy plant is very
attractive to diseases!
• Soils rich in organic matter are shown to increase soil
biodiversity and help to create and abundance of beneficial soil
microorganisms. Using compost has been shown toincrease the
suppressiveness of the soil by encouraging beneficial
microorganisms, as well as inducing disease resistance in plants
by simply having healthier plants.
• Exclusion
o Disease-free seeds, transplants or plant stock
o Prevent introduction of diseased plants or soil
o Disease free water source
oControl insects that can carry disease
o Soil solarization
• Disease resistant varieties
• Good sanitation from the prior season. Remove diseased
plants or weeds from the field. Don’t put disease plants or
weeds in the compost pile! Many diseases are resistant to high
heats or can become resistant. Some pathogens form resistant
structures that can tolerate unfavorable conditions.
• Always work infested fields last and clean off equipment.
• Disinfest tools
• Plant on raised beds. Not only helps with avoidance of
pathogen, but also good moisture drainage is key.
• Crop rotation
o > 3 yrs between crops in the same family
o Some pathogens cause disease among multiple plant
families
• Plants adapted to area
• Plant at proper depth (below crown or graft)
• Use only thoroughly composted material
• Improve air circulation by staking, trellis or pruning
• Water in the morning
• Avoid overhead irrigation if possible

Create unfavorable conditions for pathogen.

– Increase air movement
• Trellising, high tunnels
– Increase soil drainage
 – Avoid low-lying areas
– Row orientation
• Maximize air movement
• Minimize leaf wetness periods
• Irrigation management
– Drip Irrigation
• Mulches
– Plastic or plant-based
• Reduce splash dispersal of pathogens
• Protect fruit from soilborne pathogens
• Avoidance
– Plant your crop when disease isn’t as big a problem
• Early blight and Cucurbit Downy Mildew

Maximizing Disease Suppression with Compost

• Compost
– Cure 4 or more months
– Incorporate into soil several months before planting
– Inoculate with beneficial microorganisms, e.g. Trichoderma
• Application
– 5-10 tons (dry weight)/A - rule of thumb
– Apply every year until significant organic matter improvement
observed; watch for increases in P.
Variety Selection
 Disease tolerance is the ability of a plant to endure an
infectious or noninfectious disease, adverse conditions or
chemical injury without serious damage or yield loss
 Disease resistance is when a plant possessed properties
that prevent or impede disease development.
 Pick varieties that are appropriate for your area.
 Keep records of a cultivar’s performance and the disease
pressure each season.
 Local heirlooms are generally better suited for a particular
region.
 Use tissue culture plants (small fruits, some cut flowers,
perennials) if available. These plants are often disease
indexed. This is especially important for viruses. This is a
specialized area and there are not always tissue culture
plants available.
Physical/ Mechanical Controls
Physical and Mechanical controls are very important in insect
management on organic farms. They are also very important
for disease control, especially in perennial cropping systems like
fruit trees, small fruits and tree nurseries.
Some options for physical/ mechanical management of plant
disease include:
• Hand-picking
• Pruning
• Mulches
• Soil solarization
Hot water seed treatment
Pruning
• Prune out diseased plant parts
• Increase light into canopy
• Increase airflow
• Helps spray penetrate all surfaces
• Proper pruning for proper plant health!
Soil solarization
Used in greenhouses, seed beds, cold frames.
In greenhouses or in raised beds you can sterilize the soil or
bench using heat produced by steam. You want to heat the
coldest part of the soil to 82 C for 30 minutes.
Soil solarization, a nonchemical technique, will control many
soilborne pathogens and pests. This simple technique captures
radiant heat energy from the sun, thereby causing physical,
chemical, and biological changes in the soil. Transparent
polyethylene plastic placed on moist soil during the hot
summer months increases soil temperatures to levels lethal to
many soilborne plant pathogens, weed seeds, and seedlings
(including parasitic seed plants), nematodes, and some soil
residing mites. Soil solarization also improves plant nutrition by
increasing the availability of nitrogen and other essential
nutrients.

Material Control
Materials include:
• Elemental fungicides
– Copper and sulfur
• Biofungicides/Microorganisms
– Ex. PlantShield, MycoStop, Companion
• Particle Film Barriers
 – Ex. kaolin clay
• Peroxides and Bicarbonates
• Compost Teas
Sulfur
• Used effectively for powdery mildew on most crops
• Labeled for rusts (grape and bean), botrytis (onions), black
spot (rose)
• pH adjustment
• Component of Bordeaux mixture
• Lime sulfur - protectant dust or spray to control some fungal
or bacterial diseases
– Helps control rust, powdery mildew (PM), brown rot
Copper
Controls some fungi and bacteria
– Free Cu - Copper sulfate: Bordeaux mixture
– Fixed Cu - copper hydroxide, copper oxide, copper
oxychloride, copper octanoate
Botanical/Horticultural Oils
Used successfully to control insects that spread disease.
Especially viral diseases.Some are effective for fungi like
powdery mildews and rust.
Biocarbonates and Peroxides
• Bicarbonates - Potassium Bicarbonate (baking soda)
– disrupts cell membrane K balance
– PM Black spot, leaf spots, rusts for seed, transplants or
established plants
– Ex. Kaligreen
• Peroxides
– disinfest plant surface
– Pre-plant, plant dip, foliar spray
– Use on tools, trays, pots, surfaces Ex. Oxi-Date
Antibiotics
Antibiotics -Streptomycin sulfate – many brands for agricultural
use to control bacteria, fireblight
– Fertilome Fireblight spray : also for bacterial wilt, stem rot,
leaf spots and crown gall
– Tetracycline – fireblight
Biofungicides/Microorganisms
• Antagonists/Competitors
– Trichoderma harzianum is the most researched
• Antifungal properties
– Bacillus spp.
• Plant growth aids
– Healthy roots, soil exploration
• Trichoderma
– Activate plant immune system
• Bacillus pumilus
Compost Teas
Compost tea, in modern terminology, is a compost extract
brewed with a microbial food source—molasses, kelp,
rock dust, humic-fulvic acids. The compost-tea brewing
technique, an aerobic process, extracts and grows populations
of beneficial microorganisms.
Pre-Plant Options
• Biofumigation
– Mustards, broccoli residue
– Muscodor
– Broad-spectrum activity
• Biocontrols
– Contans, Advan LLC
• Coniothyrium minitans a fungi used pre-plant
• Narrow-spectrum (Sclerotinia only)
• Ex. lettuce drop, sclerotinia blight on peanut.
For example
Powdery Mildew
Effects many plants, but like downy mildew powdery mildews
are host specific. Powdery mildews like it hot and relatively dry
(humid but not wet). Powdery mildew is perhaps one of the
easiest diseases to diagnose.

Cultural Control
• Resistant varieties
• Plant in sunny areas with good air circulation
• Avoid overhead irrigation
• Avoid excess fertilization
– Slow release better
• Remove infected plant material
Materials for powdery mildews
• Sulfur is very effective
• Kaligreen and Armicarb (potassium bicarbonate-baking soda);
dilute solutions of hydrogen peroxide (Oxidate)
– These materials burn out the fungus growing on the
surface, but do not provide protection against new infections;
thus, repeated applications are important
• Oils
– Saf-T-Side Spray Oil, Sunspray Ultra-Fine Spray Oil, or one
of the plant-based oils such as neem oil or jojoba oil (e.g., E-
rase)
– Be careful some plants are sensitive, esp. when used in
conjunction with sulfur
• Dilutions of milk and whey (the dairy by-product) have been
effective for controlling powdery mildew (Australia)