Pink Rot Celery Symptoms and Treatment

What is pink rot disease? Let’s find out about pink rot celery symptoms and treatment guidelines!

Pink Rot Celery Definition

Pink rot celery meaning: What is pink rot celery?

Celery with Sclerotinia disease is called “pink rot.” Sclerotinia happens everywhere celery is grown, which can cause much damage. Sclerotinia scerlotiorum can live on a wide range of hosts and can be hard to control. Sclerotinia minor is also found on Apiaceae plants like celery and fennel. Still, it is not as common as S. sclerotiorum.

Pink Rot Celery Causes

What causes pink rot celery? What is the most common cause of pink rot celery?

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum most often causes pink rot on celery, but S. minor, a small species of sclerotia, can also infect celery. In addition, sclerotinia sclerotiorum can get into parsley seed crops through flowering stalks. Both pathogens can cause damage to fennel.

Pink Rot Celery Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of pink rot celery: What are some symptoms of pink rot celery?

Celery can get sick at any time during its growth or while it is being stored. When celery transplants are grown in the ground in seedbeds, wet rot can form where the plants touch the soil. Seedlings that have been infected soon die. The pathogen can spread from sick seedlings to healthy plants nearby. Ascospores in the air can land on transplants of celery growing in trays inside greenhouses and cause the leaves to turn brown and the plants to die. When a plant is sick, white mycelium and black sclerotia usually grow on it.

Sclerotinia species infect the base of the petioles of field-grown celery, causing a soft, brown lesion that spreads and is usually surrounded by a pink colour. Pink rot spreads quickly, and plants soon die and fall over. This disease also has a foliar blight caused by airborne ascospores, making the leaves turn brown and soft. In addition, damage to young leaves caused by blackheart, a calcium deficiency disorder, often leads to infections in the air. Most Sclerotinia damage happens when crops are getting close to being ready, and the plant canopy is getting bigger. As a result, pink rot may look like bacterial soft rot. Still, bacterial soft rot causes tissues to soak up water, petioles to become very soft, and a strong, unpleasant smell.

Pink Rot Celery Disease Cycle

Ascospores of S. sclerotiorum need nutrients from the outside world before they can infect healthy tissues. This is shown in celery when the physiological condition blackheart makes the leaves more likely to get infected.

Pink Rot of Celery Treatment Guidelines

Treatment of pink rot celery – What is the best treatment for pink rot celery?

Don’t plant seeds that have sclerotia on them. Likewise, don’t plant susceptible legumes in heavily infested fields or places where white mould has been a problem. Similarly, you can use crop rotations with non-hosts. Still, crop rotations won’t stop diseases because ascospores can travel through the air.

Different plant growth habits cause differences in how susceptible different cultivars are. For example, varieties with open-crop canopies may be less susceptible. So, pick cultivars that are less likely to get white mould disease. But it’s not easy to find resistant cultivars. Water in the morning so that the leaves of plants and the top of the soil can dry quickly. Or, water the soil from below with drip systems so the surface is drier. Avoid too much nitrogen fertilizer, which makes plants grow more leaves, and make sure there is enough potash. For S. minor, burying sclerotia below the root zone by ploughing the soil deeply has helped crops like lettuce.

Some fungicides sprayed on the leaves during flowering can be used to control Sclerotinia, and more products are becoming available. Foliar fungicides include triazole, benzimidazole, dicarboximide, and strobilurin products. But fungicides are unlikely to stop the disease from spreading to older leaves. Soil sterilization with chemicals, steam, or heat can greatly reduce the number of sclerotia in the soil. Still, these methods are usually too expensive to use on legume crops. They won’t stop ascospore inoculum from entering the treated field through the air. Mycoparasite Coniothyrium minitans in commercial forms have shown some promise for controlling S. sclerotiorum but not S. minor.

Researchers have found that adding biomass from brassica cover crops or crops like broccoli can also reduce the number of S. minor spores in the soil and the diseases they cause. Researchers are trying to figure out what conditions are needed for ascospore infection and the start of symptoms. In the future, forecasting systems may help control diseases.

I hope you understand pink rot celery symptoms and treatment guidelines.