Gray Mold: Introduction and Control
Gray Mold is a broad-spectrum plant disease. It can infect more than 200 plant species, especially vegetables, fruit trees and flowers, such as tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, cucumbers, beans, roses, etc.
Understanding Gray mold
Gray Mold is a broad-spectrum plant disease. It can infect more than 200 plant species, especially vegetables, fruit trees and flowers, such as tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, cucumbers, beans, roses, etc.
Disease Symptoms:
- Early stage: Brown spots appear on the surface of leaves, buds, petals, and fruits, and small brown stripes often appear on the stems and petioles near the ground. The diseased part then becomes slightly sunken, and water seeps out when pressed lightly.
- Middle stage: Spots expand, leaves curl and shrink, stems become soft and easy to break, fruits rot, and a gray velvety mold layer appears.
- Late stage: Leaves dry up and are covered with a layer of mold, flowers, stems and petioles turn black and rot, plants break or the whole plant withers and leaves fall off, fruits fall off or rot, resulting in reduced yield or even total crop failure.
Favorable conditions for gray mold:
Gray Mold prefers high humidity, low temperature and poorly ventilated environments. The disease spreads rapidly when the temperature is 15-25℃ and the relative humidity is greater than 85%, especially in greenhouses.
Mode of transmission：
- Spread by wind, rain, insects, etc.
- Pathogens in soil and dead branches and leaves can overwinter and become the main source of infection in the next year;
- Spread during storage, causing storage diseases.