Plant Pathology Sessions- Master Gardener Training Fall 2018

This year we had a new venue for our session. That gave us a great opportunity to incorporate the 2017 trainees' feedback to our hands-on activities. This year, 274 trainees came to campus to apply the plant pathology concepts learned in our webcast, to practice.

In the plant pathology section, participants rotated through 10 stations that had plant parts with symptoms and (with or without) signs. The main goal of the session was to sharpen the participants' observational skills and look at plant problems with an analytical mind.

Participants in master gardeners training participate in a discussion.
Participants in master gardeners training participate in a discussion.

One of the goals of the training was to differentiate between biotic diseases (infectious) and abiotic disorder (non-infectious). More in this article Biotic vs. Abiotic - Distinguishing Disease Problems.

Participants were puzzled by the different size and shapes of pathogen signs on the stations, and practiced some of the terms used to describe symptoms. See our glossary of terms at the glossary page.

The answers to the symptoms and signs activity on page 94 in your workbook (124 on old workbook) can be downloaded until Dec 15.

Like our PIDC's Facebook page to see our photos of the training days, search our Facebook page using the hashtag #IAMGFall2018.

Leaders of the master gardener training session.
Leaders of the master gardener training session.

Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Yard and Garden, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on November 16, 2018. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.