Key Features
- Drought symptoms
- Nutrient deficiencies
- Wilting or discolored leaves
Symptoms
Verticillium wilt is a vascular disease that reduces the plant's ability to take up water and nutrients. Symptoms closely resemble drought stress and nutrient deficiencies. Wilting of leaves, and yellowing between leaf veins, leaf tip and edge browining, and blighted branches are commonly observed. Cutting into the stem may reveal dark stained vascular tissue on woody plants.
Biology
When not colonizing plants, this fungus survives in the soil. Infections occur in cool or warm weather, though symptoms may not show until summer heat stresses the plant. The fungus infects through the roots of stressed plants and colonizes the root system and stem. This reduces the plant's ability to take up water and nutrients will eventually kill the plant.
Management Recommendations
Replacing diseased trees with yews, conifers, or other plants resistant to Verticillium wilt is the only effective control measure. Reducing stress to susceptible plants will decrease likelihood of infection.
Effective Pesticides
Pesticides are neither available nor recommended for managing this disease.
Resources
- Not satisfied with ID? Contact the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab
- Sign Up for the Purdue Landscape Report
