Diagnosis of Diseases of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants

About

The course will introduce commonly occurring plant diseases in agriculture, horticulture and orchards etc. Hand-on experience with classical and web based methods used in identifying causal organisms and diagnosing the diseases will be given. The course will mainly focus on practical diagnostics of material collected by the participants. In addition, an introduction to molecular diagnosis is offered. Assessment of crop damage in the field and how to take samples for further studies will be discussed.

The participants learn:

- how to diagnose plant diseases - step by step - using classical practical methods (including web-based tools)
- how to identify pathogenic fungi, bacteria and virus from their pathogen morphology, hosts and host symptoms
- how to describe, characterise and assess damage in the field and how to take samples for identification of the causal agents of disease

Target group

Bachelor

Course aim

The course is concerned with plant disease problems in agriculture, horticulture (greenhouses, orchards and field crops) and forestry with special reference to North European conditions.

The main aim of the course is to obtain hands-on experience in diagnosis of plant diseases.

After completing the course, the participants should be able to:

Knowledge:

- Describe plant pathogen morphology
- Describe symptoms caused by plant pathogens
- Identify and classify plant pathogens based on morphology
- Obtain an overview of the most important groups of plant pathogens
- Describe, characterise and assess damage in the field
- Take diseased plant samples for further studies
- Understand the theory behind molecular techniques for identification of microorganisms

Skills:

- Use common tools for identifying plant pathogens
- Apply principles for diagnosis of plant diseases based on pathogen morphology and disease symptoms
- Communicate diagnostic results

Competences:

- Work with diagnostic methods
- Cooperate with fellow participants when conducting the diagnosis and reporting the results

Fee info