After a lot of consideration, you’ve decided to grow some plants in your home. While this may be your first time and you might be a little nervous, you’re looking forward to taking advantage of the fruits of your labor. Regardless of what you might be growing, Plug ‘N’ Grow™ Controllers is the opportune place to gather some information on taking care of plants. In addition, we sell products that you can use in your indoor grow room such as our temperature and humidity controllers and our CO2 controllers. When you grow plants; however, you can’t just allow our products to do everything for you. While they are superior products and will create an ideal environment for your plants, you also have to put in a little work and one of those areas you need to work on is being able to identify the basics about plant disease.

Plant disease is a hazard, as we’re sure you can guess, to any plant no matter what it is. To ensure that you’re well educated about your indoor garden venture, do some research to make sure that you are aware of the signs and symptoms of what to look for. If you’re a first time grower or you know absolutely nothing about botany, then this blog will help you know what to look out for in the overall picture of plant disease.

A Brief Overview Of The Basics On Plant Disease

Everyone who deals with plants will contend with plant disease at least at some point. While your garden might flourish beautifully, you also might have to deal with plant disease later on down the road. Plant disease, like any type of disease, will come in quickly and silently until you’re not exactly sure what type of situation you’re dealing with.

In our blog today, we’ll be covering the basics of plant disease that every person who is growing any type of plants should look for. Whether you’re growing a vegetable garden or indulging in growing some superb cannabis legally, you’ll at some point have to worry about plant disease. If you notice some issues with your plants, your mind will start to wonder where the problem is stemming from, how to get rid of it, and how to prevent it from occurring again. Remember that no matter what type of plant you are growing, you’ll have to deal with plant diseases at one point or another.

If you want to attempt to stop the disease before it can even form, then remember to choose disease-resistant cultivars. Yes, there are certain plant varieties that have produced cultivation due to selective breeding. These plant varieties are made to resist infection, which will allow you not to have to deal with diseased plants. However, if you’re already made up your mind about what you’re growing, then keep our blog in mind as you venture into the indoor gardening world.

The Disease Triangle

The Disease Triangle is when an infectious disease happens, which results in three elements that need to be met. The first fundamental element you’ll have to deal with when this occurs is a pathogen that is able to cause a disease, an environment that is appropriate, and a susceptible plant. So what exactly does this mean? Your plant needs to meet all of these requirements to be an infected one. If your plant is missing one of these three elements, then you don’t have to worry about an infectious disease. Keep in mind that if you’re missing one of these elements, but your plant seems a little off-kilter, then you might be looking at a non-infectious disease.

The Disease Triangle is only for diseases that are infectious, not ones that are not, so at least that’s a little good news if you’re worried about your plants infected one another. The Disease Triangle is called this because there is a unique relationship between plants and the pathology between them due to the simple fact that plants are immobile and therefore cannot escape an inhospitable environment. Plants don’t have the opportunity to have store heat at a capacity and cannot change environments when they are becoming too stressed unlike animals or humans.

What To Look Out For

When you have a plant that’s diseased, you’ll need to look out for certain symptoms. Just like your pet or a family member, you’ll have a suspicious feeling that something is wrong before you begin to take the first steps toward a diagnosis. To figure out what your plant or plants are dealing with, you’ll need to characterize each symptom as you see it.

You could have symptoms such as localized ones, which show leaf spots. You could also have systemic ones that categorize stunting or off-color leaves. For example, if your leaves are supposed to be green and they begin to turn a yellowish tinge, then that could be a sign something is wrong. If your plant is stunted, then you could also be dealing with a root system that’s not up to par and is not functioning at full capacity. The roots can reveal a brown and dead looking system versus what it should look like, which is white and robust. You should also look at each plant to make sure they are showing the same symptoms or if it’s just one plant. If your plant is demonstrating the same symptoms, then you’re looking at an infectious disease as opposed to only one plant showing signs of a disease. You should also compare and contrast between a healthy and a sick plant. You should also look out for:

  • Symptoms in young seedlings such as damping-off or seeds that haven’t germinated such as pre-emergence damping off. Both of these demonstrate that there’s an infectious disease in the seeds.
  • The foliage changing color or becoming deformed. This demonstrates that changes that the disease is inside and through the plant like a virus.
  • Nutrient deficiency.

If your plants are close together, which a lot of them are in indoor gardening rooms, then the infectious disease can spread to more than one plant.

Diagnosing Plant Disease

Remember that not every plant is treated equally and something wrong in one plant might not be what’s wrong in another. When you want to diagnose the problem in your plant, be aware that it can be based on symptoms in some cases, but it can also be based on other factors as well such as simply not remembering to water the plant. There are plants that might only have one side that shows a disease or your plant can just be wilting to the side. Diagnosing a plant can be difficult, but by taking notes and looking at every inch of the plant, then you’ll be able to figure out what’s going on and how you can treat it.

For more information on plants and creating the perfect atmosphere with our temperature and humidity controller, then stay tuned and read our next blog.