ISSUE 2   May 20, 2010

SUBMITTING SAMPLES TO THE NDSU PLANT DIAGNOSTIC LAB

If you intend to submit a sample to the lab for disease diagnosis, please consider the following sampling and submission tips:

1. For general plant problems, try to send several affected plants showing a range of symptoms. Dead plants rarely are informative - avoid sending completely dead plants.
2. Try to send entire plants, when feasible, since some above-ground symptoms can be attributed to a problem with the lower stem or roots.
3. When digging plants, try to keep the roots intact with the soil, as a root ball, to help prevent the sample from drying out.
4. Wrap foliage in DRY paper towels (to absorb any moisture that causes decay).
5. The foliage should be wrapped in dry paper towels to absorb moisture (to prevent decay).
6. Only roots (NOT foliage) may be wrapped in damp (not wet) paper towels, and wrapped in a separate plastic bag (tied off at the stem) to prevent soil and moisture from coming in contact with leaves.
7. Place entire sample in a resealable plastic bag.
8. Do not allow leaves, paper tags, or labels to come in contact with soil or moisture.

More information on how to submit other materials can be found on our website, www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/diaglab.  

IMPORTANT: Do not allow any moisture to contact foliage. Moisture on foliage will cause the sample to deteriorate before it arrives.

Our US Postal mailing address is:

NDSU Plant Diagnostic Lab
PO Box 6050, Dept 7660
Fargo, ND 58108-6050

If you send samples by UPS, Fedex, or other private shipper, the address is:

NDSU Plant Diagnostic Lab
Dept of Plant Pathology
306 Walster Hall
Fargo, ND 58102

Summer disease diagnostic samples have begun to arrive in the lab. Besides fulfilling disease diagnosis requests for crops, trees, lawns, fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals, the lab accepts samples for certain seed health tests, phytosanitary tests, special research projects, identification requests (insects, fungi/mold, plants, and other), and samples that are part of coordinated surveys. Since January 1, 2010, we have processed at least 1,265 samples and applied at least 1,825 diagnoses to these samples. Of all samples received, 33 were for disease diagnosis, 9 were identification requests, 37 were submitted for the wheat virus survey, 51 were for seed health testing, 395 were phytosanitary samples, and 740 were for research. The following table summarizes the North Dakota disease diagnostic and identification request samples processed from January 1 through May 18, 2010.

Kasia Kinzer
NDSU Plant Diagnostician
ndsu.pdl@ndsu.edu