Penn State | CAS | Research and Graduate Education | Research & Extension Centers | Russell Larson Research & Education Center | Plant Pathology Farme You are Here

Plant Pathology Farm

Managing Disease Is Their Business

Plant pathology farm manager Larry Jordan, foreground, plans out the day’s work with assistant farm manager Randy Dreibelbis. On the plant pathology farm, Jordan creates conditions that let scientists study plant diseases. He also manages the USDA Pasture Research farm.

Larry Jordan, plant pathology farm manager, has an unusual responsibility for a farmer: he creates conditions under which crops can be infected with any one of a number of diseases. The goal of the Department of Plant Pathology is to select and breed crops that can stand up to bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases, and research conducted at the department’s farm leads to the development of crops with increased resistance to serious pathogens.

The plant pathology farm is divided into two-acre research plots, and every inch is equipped with a high-tech irrigation system—the better to create the environments of excess moisture so loved by plant diseases. “An epidemic is great news for us,” Jordan says, laughing. “Our mission is to find better management practices for major plant diseases.”

Jordan and his staff oversee each phase of the farm’s research projects, from plowing the field to planting and making every chemical application. Most of the scientific work is done by graduate students and faculty researchers, although Jordan keeps careful records of chemical applications, planting dates, special treatments, and crop types, in case of lost or misplaced data. The farm crew also must react quickly to Pennsylvania’s changing conditions. “If needed, we can dig up one crop and plant another one when new problems affect our farmers,” he says.

One of the prime directives for the plant pathology farm is to create field research experiments to help various agricultural industries cope with major disease threats. Plant pathologist Jim Travis has created a vineyard at Rock Springs to help serve the grape-processing industry and Pennsylvania’s rapidly expanding wine industry. “We have 15 wine grape varieties planted, including Chardonnay, Merlot, and French hybrid grapes, and two processing varieties, Concord and Niagara,” Travis says.

Travis has also planted grapes at Penn State’s Lake Erie Regional Grape Research and Extension Center. He evaluates how grapes grow in both locations, as well as differences in disease development. Grapes for processing and winemaking are subject to several devastating diseases, including Botrytis (gray mold), downy mildew, and black rot. “We have brought in some pretty sophisticated weather equipment so we can closely monitor the relationship between climate and disease development,” he explains. “As we gather information from both sites, we can create computer models that not only predict disease outbreaks, but also help producers reduce the application of fungicides.”

Plant pathologist Barbara Christ conducts potato-breeding and disease-resistance studies at the Rock Springs farm, focusing on diseases such as early and late blight. “Our mission is to develop potatoes that are adapted to Pennsylvania and have resistance to diseases,” she explains. “If varieties are more resistant, growers can use less fungicide. Also, some diseases have no good chemical control, so resistance is the only tool available.”

In conjunction with other breeders, Christ has co-released 11 new potato cultivars, which are now grown on more than 18,000 acres across the Northeast. Currently, she is working with wild potato species that have tremendous disease resistance, looking for ways to transfer that resistance into standard varieties while still retaining the standard varieties’ desirable characteristics.

Christ also conducts research on integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. “Growers need new varieties, but developing a new cultivar can take 10 years. They also need techniques they can use now. We can get results from IPM projects in a year or two, providing information that helps growers slow down diseases through cultural practices.”

The plant pathology farm also hosts extensive studies designed to help Pennsylvania’s vegetable growers deal with disease problems like tomato blights, pumpkin mildews, squash viruses, and fruit rots. “Vegetables are high-value-per-acre crops, and diseases can cost growers a lot of money,” says plant pathologist Alan MacNab, who has studied vegetable disease management for more than 30 years. “Growers must use many methods to minimize losses caused by disease. My aim is to improve disease-control programs, minimize expense associated with the programs, and hopefully, help keep farmers in business.”

MacNab has developed strategies to control several diseases of tomato, sweet corn, muskmelon, snap bean, pumpkin, and cucumber plants. One of the most successful efforts, a daily forecast for early blight and late blight, has enabled growers to cut their fungicide use by 30 to 50 percent annually while still protecting their crops from potentially devastating disease outbreaks.

“This system uses electronic weather monitoring and computer analysis to tell growers when conditions favor disease development,” MacNab explains. “When weather conditions don’t favor disease, growers don’t need to spray. On the other hand, when the system identifies periods when conditions favor disease, growers can spray in time to save their crop. This system can save growers thousands of dollars each year, and at the same time help protect the environment, farm workers, and consumers.”

Originally developed to forecast early blight and late blight, the system now includes warnings for other diseases. Researchers track weather data each day during the growing season, use the data to forecast disease conditions across the state, and immediately make the information available to growers and cooperative extension agents by fax, e-mail, and the Web. Growers also can get the daily update by calling 1-800-PENN-IPM toll-free.