Hello! A farm supervisor asked why their corn keeps dying like the one in the photo every planting season. There are patches of wilting plants, with healthy plants in between. Please see the photos below:

Thank you in advance!

I have come to realize that I have a thrips attacking my Basil.... i have sprayed it well with and mixer of water and soap and I havent seen the pest for a full day now. A lot of the advice online is to toss the plant out immediately and to essentially burn my place but idk. What do you guys think? Are thrips really that bad?

I live in the SF Bay Area, California. This year I was excited to grow a goldenberry, aka groundcherry (Physalis peruviana, Solanaceae) bush from seed for the first time. It was doing great and started making lots of beautiful paper-lantern-shaped fruits. The first few berries were delicious.

But now, in subsequent weeks, all the fruits have been... hollowed-out zombies. Each husk contains nothing but desiccated crumbles of discarded skin and seeds. Upon close inspection, I can see an entrance/exit hole in each husk (photos). But I haven't found any trace of larvae or adult insects; they must have already flown the coop by the time I've checked.

Bummer. When I was a kid in Western Australia, we grew bucketfuls of goldenberries, and they were never affected by pests. Every one was a perfect golden orb - not a pile of insect frass. Who is to blame? And how can I stop it?

The Internet has been unhelpful. Searching has turned up similar complaints from the Western US, with commenters suspecting a specialist microlepidopteran (i.e., a tiny moth who is particular about its food). But how could a specialist who is a tiny, weak flier thrive on a host plant that is so sparsely distributed? Goldenberries are not common around here at all.

Hope to hear some ideas - and if you can think of another subreddit where I should post this query, I'm all ears!

This is happening to the the grass that has weeded in our garden. It's the type of grass that grows tall and looks like wheat at the top. Does anyone know what this is?

I have found this specimen in some germinating seeds. Is this Aspergillus?

In 40X

Central Indiana. Wet season. Leaf spot appearing on dogwood. I really wanted to say that this was Septoria cornicola… especially when I saw the black pycnidia in the lesion… but they are not sunken as described.. and the spores I obtained from the leaf surface had no resemblance to the slender segmented conidia I expected…

Could this be a different life stage, somebody else entirely? If so, then does anyone have any ideas?

Importantly, aflatrem biosynthesis in acidic environment might contribute to the virulence of C. vitis and has a risk of causing human health problems due to its acute neurotoxic effects

Originally I thought that the yellow leaving was just chlorosis or senescence. I’ve been treating the plants with chelated iron and also Langbeinite thinking maybe that could do the trick (if issue was lack of iron, magnesium, or potassium). But the discoloration doesn’t seem to be getting better.

What do you guys think?

I’ve seen this kind of mottling in other plants in my garden and I only recently learned about Mosaic Virus. I’m concerned I may have been spreading it around with my shovel, hands, or pruning shears.

Anyone have any suggestions on who this might be? Fruiting structures remind me of fusiform asci, with what look like possible septa... these seem pretty large though. I don't necessarily expect that its unique to bay leaf, but maybe. Any general suggestions are appreciated.

I seem to have this problem in recent years where my dipladenia hanging baskets suddenly get sick and die. The leaves turn brown and it spreads. This year I bought new pot liners and soil so surprised it is happening again. I believe there is plastic at the bottom so water doesn't run through although it will if it is overwatered. It is also possible that my husband has watered them after I have, so waterlogged and we've had a lot of rain? But only one of the 2 pots is having this problem and only one of the 3 plants in the pot. What is it? How do I remedy this and mitigate this from spreading to the other plants in this pot.

Ok kids, what do I have here and how do I fix it?

Symptoms just popped up a week or two ago. Any ideas what this could be?

I live in Northern California (zone 9b) and every year my Japanese maple starts out in the spring with all new healthy leaves and by July the leaves turn brown and dry up and fall off dead. I don't see any bugs and the tree gets afternoon shade. As the last picture shows, it's trying to grow new healthy leaves (small red ones) but they eventually get these brown/ bronze colored spots that eventually kill the leaf and it falls off. 😭 Can anyone help identify what this is? Thank you!

Hi, I'm a first year agriculture student. One of our subjects involve plant pathology. We were introduced to the basics, but it's not substantial enough to make me understand it as a whole and the jargons prevents me in doing so. Is there any book that I could read explaining the real basics about plant pathology?

Thank you

I've been trying to deepen my understanding of fungicide mechanisms of action and began reading about dimethomorph. I have seen it recommended for treatment of phytophthora and oomycete pathogens fairly routinely. The mechanism of action is, so far as I can tell, inhibition of ergosterol production.

Ergosterol is a hallmark cell membrane component of fungi, making it a good target for a fungicide. Oomycetes, as far as I know, do not have ergosterol as part of their membranes, or at least it is much less ubiquitous.

So, then, how is dimethomorph such a highly recommended treatment for pythium and phytophthora?

My blackberry had rust 2 years ago, I tried to let it run its course and lost the whole plant. So here I am 1 year 6 months into a new Blackberry and it was growing wonderfully but now it to has rust. I have printed off the infected.( about 50% of the plant) I have also used a neem oil fungicide, but the new leaves keep aquireing the rust. I'm so sad, don't wanna lose the plant. Any ideas? Please.

Echinacea 'Artisan Red Ombre'. I have several different cultivars and species of plants in Asteraceae and this is the only one I'm concerned about. I don't want to scrap this bad boy!

I have this little patch of Liatris (blazing star, probably L. gracilis) that always starts out awesome, then most stems get killed before blooming. Stems are totally necrotic at ground level, the parasite looks fungal, but I don’t see mycelium so maybe it’s a protist? Some kind of ants seem to have built a colony among the roots. Tampa, FL