Control of Plant Diseases by Sanitation

Sanitation is an effective method to control plant diseases that should not be overlooked as a preventative measure for many vegetable disease problems. Sanitation includes any practice that eradicates or reduces the amount of pathogen inoculum available and, thus, subsequent disease problems. The prompt destruction of any crop at the end of the season will immediately end the production of inoculum and reduce the risk of the disease spreading to any other host plants in the vicinity. Powdery mildew on melons is a disease that can spread via wind from older infected plants to plants in adjacent fields that are still maturing. On tomatoes, early destruction of tomato plants will kill off white fly populations and eliminate transmission of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl virus. Some plant pathogens, such as bacteria, are unable to survive for extended periods of time in the absence of the host. Other pathogens such as downy and powdery mildew are obligate parasites which means that they can only grow and multiply on living host tissue. Therefore, plowing under infected plants helps first by covering up the inoculum but also speeds up the disintegration of plant tissue where the pathogen resides.

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