Graduate Students Offer Plant Disease Diagnostic Service

Photo Submitted

University of Arkansas plant pathology graduate students Angela Iglesias, left, and Keiddy Urrea-Romero, right, show how growing fungi in a Petri dish helps them understand what's wrong with a plant at the plant disease diagnostic booth on the first and third Saturdays of every month this summer at the Fayetteville Farmers' Market.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas graduate students are offering a free diagnostic service at the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market for gardeners and homeowners experiencing problems with their plants.

Members of the Plant Pathology Graduate Student Association staff a plant problem diagnostic booth from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on the first and third Saturdays of each month at the farmers’ market on the Fayetteville square.

“We encourage people to bring a sample from the plant they are concerned about. It is very difficult to make a diagnosis from a verbal description of a problem,” said Lou Hirsch, president of the Plant Pathology Graduate Student Association.

Students diagnose the plant diseases or other problems at the booth or take the samples back to a University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture lab for analysis, then offer recommendations for managing or limiting the problems.

The graduate students also answer questions from children and let them look through microscopes and other equipment at the booth. “For many children, this is their first chance to meet scientists and learn about science,” Hirsch said.

The students bring samples of plant disease problems that are found in the state, Hirsch said. They also have cultures of fungi and other plant pathogens growing in Petri dishes for viewing.

Plant pathology is an academic department of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and a research and extension department of the University of Arkansas System’s statewide Division of Agriculture.