Landscape - Practice Good Sanitation to Reduce Diseases

One practice that can help reduce diseases in any landscape is fall sanitation . The following is a good article on the subject from Purdue University.

The parasitic fungi that cause leaf and fruit spots, powdery mildew, cankers, etc. over-winter in the soil, in debris under the plants, in cracks in the bark and in ‘mummified’ fruit. These fungi wait in a dormant state until the following spring when rains and warmer weather induce the production of spores which are then disseminated by wind and rain to infect plants during the growing season.

Sanitation is one of the most important methods of maintaining a healthy landscape. Removal of infected plant material will reduce the amount of disease causing fungi present in the area, thus reducing the amount of potential disease for the next season.

Your sanitation regiment for ornamentals, trees, shrubs, fruits, and vegetables should include the following:

1) Prune out and destroy all dead and diseased branches. Employ proper pruning techniques.
2)Remove fallen leaves and fruit to eliminate them as an over-wintering site of plant pathogens and insects.
3) Remove dried, mummified, fruits or vegetables, old flower heads and flower stalks. This plant material should be composted, buried or destroyed in some other fashion when removed from the landscape.
4) If plants were severely infected, it is advisable to remove and destroy them.
5) Remove weeds. They provide a winter habitat for fungi and insects, and seed for next year’s weed crop.

In reality, sanitation is a year round process. Therefore, removal of infected leaves, flowers, fruit,and branches, as soon as problems appear, will reduce the spread of disease.

Reprinted from "Sanitation is Important to Reduce the Amount of Disease Carryover" by Gail Ruhl, Sr. Plant Disease Diagnostician, Dept. of Botany & Plant Pathology, Purdue University http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/weeklypics/11-19-07.html