This bulletin is for landscape professionals, plant health specialists, homeowners and other persons interested in trees, shrubs, ground covers, and herbaceous plants in the landscape. It's purpose is to serve as a resource about plant health management information. Successful plant health management requires the proper identification of plants, combined with the ability to determine and distinguish between various types of problems including: infectious plant diseases; abiotic disorders such as nutrient deficiencies or pesticide toxicity; and various types of plant injury such as insect feeding, or damage from environmental hazards like construction injury, salt damage, fire, or hail. Developing a basic knowledge about the biology of the plants within the landscape as well as the pathogens that attack them is critical to developing a successful plant health management program. Selecting an appropriate plant for a specific location and providing for its basic growth requirements are also fundamental to establishing and growing healthy plants.
Plants must be inspected regularly to detect any problems. When problems are discovered, appropriate actions must be taken to prevent or alleviate damage. Landscape managers have numerous management tools available; the key to their successful use is knowing when and how to apply them. The best approach is an integrated program that includes regular monitoring and relies on a combination of techniques to prevent and control problems.
Methods include selecting plants that are well adapted to the environment and resistant to plant diseases and pests. Our awareness of the importance of various cultural practices for preventing or controlling plant diseases as well as abiotic disorders has increased greatly in recent years. Especially in landscapes with an emphasis on reduced pesticide use, cultural practices are an extremely important and integral part of plant health management. Pesticides (primarily fungicides) may be an important component of disease management; however, this bulletin does not make specific recommendations regarding the use of fungicides because availability, appropriate, and legal uses of fungicides frequently change. General comments related to fungicide use are made for several diseases in the text; however, for specific recommendations, growers are referred to other sources of information (Useful References) that are more frequently updated than this bulletin, and to the ultimate legal source of information--The Pesticide Label.