GLOXINIA DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT WITH PHOTOS

If you want to grow gloxinia, you should familiarize yourself with the difficulties that may await you in the process of growing this plant.

The main difficulties are pests and diseases to which gloxinia is exposed.

Why do gloxinia rot buds?

If you are faced with the fact that the buds of your gloxinia started to rotThis problem may have several causes. One of them is excessive watering of the plant. If the buds are rotting due to excessive soil moisture, you only need to adjust the watering. The buds may start to rot if gloxinia grows in too acidic soil.

Try to transplant the plant, completely replacing the soil with it. And another cause of rot can be an excess of nitrogen in the soil, which occurs due to the use of fertilizers containing nitrogen. To avoid this, use exclusively complex fertilizers for the gloxinia, which include not only nitrogen, but potassium, phosphorus and other useful substances.

To save gloxinia tuber from rotting, treat the plant with a fungicide two or three times.

Anthracnose

Anthracnose refers to fungal diseases. Its main symptoms are brown spots that suddenly appear on the leaves of gloxinia. Over time, the spots attack the shoots and the stem of the plant, which can cause their rotting and destruction.

If anthracnose is not treated, it may well lead to the death of your cat.

Anthracnose usually attacks those plants that are mechanically damaged or grow without proper care. Its development is accompanied by high humidity and high pH in the soil, as well as a lack of potassium and phosphorus.

To protect gloxinia from anthracnose, it must be sprayed with oxychrome, cuproxate or copper chloroxide.

Anthracnose can be transported with tools, pests and sediments. Therefore, you should not expose the plant to the street in rainy weather.

Get used to disinfect all inventory after use, and also to ensure that the plant does not become the object of attack by pests.

If gloxinia heavily infected with anthracnose, you have to destroy it to prevent the fungus from spreading to other indoor plants. At the initial stage, this disease can be cured, for which it is necessary to remove the parts of gloxinia affected by the fungus and to subject the plant two or three times with fungicides with an interval of one and a half to three weeks.

Ascohitosis

Ascochitis is fungal disease, the main signs of which are brown or red with brown rim spots that appear on the leaves of the plant. The development of the disease contributes to high humidity in the room where gloxinia grows.

If you find signs of ascohitosis in your cat, immediately remove the affected leaves and burn them. Treat the plant with Bordeaux mixture, copper sulphate, or fungicides such as Vectra, Abiga-peak. After seven to ten days, the treatment should be repeated.

Phyllosticosis

Characterized by the appearance on the leaves of the plant. dark round spots, having a brown middle.

As the leaf grows in place of these spots, tears appear. Finding similar signs, immediately dry the plant, as the development of this disease contributes to high humidity. Copper-based drugs, that is, Bordeaux mixture, copper oxychloride or copper sulfate, will help to get rid of phyllossticosis.

Septoria

Refers to diseases fungal nature. It is carried by rain and air. The optimal conditions for the development of septoria are:

the location of the plant in the room, the air temperature in which is from twenty to twenty-five degrees above zero, and the humidity of the air is at the level of 98%;
wetting the leaves of the plant, the duration of which exceeds forty-eight hours;
poor illumination of the plant.

The main symptoms of septoriais are the appearance of rust-colored spots on the leaves, resembling rust, premature falling of leaves, bending and drying of stems and shoots. For the treatment of septoria, any medication based on copper or a fungicide such as benomyl, mancozeb, chlorothalonil or maneb can be used. Processing plants with one of these drugs should be carried out twice with an interval of seven to ten days.

Late blight

Late blight is one of the most dangerous fungal diseases. It can spread through the soil, planting stock, contaminated planting material, as well as rainwater.

In soil, a late blight pathogen can remain viable for up to eight years.

Infection of the plant most often occurs several months before the development of the main signs of the disease. The development of late blight is accompanied by the following circumstances:

overly dense ground
stagnant water in a flower pot
too dense plant placement
use of non-sterilized land mixture
watering the plants with rainwater and frequent spraying
air humidity in excess of 80%
Gloxinia is located in a room with air temperature from seventeen to twenty two degrees above zero, which at night drops to ten degrees

The main signs of late blight include:

brown spots on leaves surrounded by a pale green area
white mold on the inside of the leaves, which is manifested in wet weather
dry leaves during dry weather and rotting when wet
stripes of dark brown color on the stems and leaf stalks
frequent wilting of the plant
the appearance of annular depressions on the trunk of gloxinia below the soil level

It is very difficult to cure late blight, because its pathogen does not respond to known chemical drugs. Therefore, the best way to combat this disease is prevention. It should consist in spraying or watering the plant with solutions of fungicides such as kuprozan, polycarbotside, zineb, polymarcin or captan. Treatment with them should be carried out in periods that may contribute to the development of the disease, and the interval between treatments should be seven days.

Before planting or transplanting gloxinia, do not forget to sterilize the soil. Cuttings and roots should be placed before planting in a suspension of captan for five minutes.

If the plant is still ill with late blight, you will have to part with it.

Gray rot

The main symptoms of gray rot can be called the appearance gray fluffy plaque on gloxinia stems, leaf stalks and pedicels. At the same time the plant starts to rot very quickly. Causes of gray rot can be increased humidity, too close location of plants, lack of ventilation and flattened substrate.

To prevent the occurrence of gray rot, provide moderate watering to the gloxinia, and add sand, vermiculite, or perlite to the substrate to ensure good ventilation of the roots. Ventilate the room where gloxinia grows more often, but do not allow drafts.

Fungicides can be used for the treatment of gray rot, the interval between treatments should be seven days.

Mealy dew

Mealy dew refers to diseases fungal type. It is characterized by the appearance on all parts of the plant of arachnid white color, which then turns into powdery. The development of the disease is promoted by excessive watering of the plant, a sharp temperature drop, and also dampness in the room. In addition, infection can occur through planting stock. If the plant is affected by powdery mildew completely, it is advisable to destroy it. At the initial stage of the disease will help spraying any fungicide, which should be carried out not only for gloxinia, but also for standing next to plants.

Downy mildew

Downy mildew, or perinospora, refers to fungal diseases. The development of this disease contributes to a sharp temperature drop. Infection can also occur by watering or spraying the plant with rainwater. Powdery mildew in the form of shapeless spots appearing on the leaves. These spots may have a pale yellow, yellow-brown, red-brown or purple color, and be colorless. Sometimes the spots are surrounded by a weak border. Over time, they turn brown and dry. On the inner side of the leaves, islands of light powdery powder develop in parallel.

When such signs are found, it is necessary to remove all damaged leaves from the gloxinia, and then treat the plant with one of such preparations as Abiga-pik, Bravo, Optimo, Previkur, or other similar preparations.

Thrips

Thrips are most popular pest speciesattacking gloxinia. These insects feed on plant sap, which leads to its death. The main signs of thrips are bright spots, strokes and spots on the leaves of gloxinia. If similar symptoms are detected, immediately isolate the pot with gloxinia from other indoor plants and treat it with one of the insecticidal preparations. For these purposes, you can use "Intavir", "Aktara", "Aktellik", "Fitoverm" or "Karate".

For the complete destruction of thrips, it is recommended to carry out three treatments of the plant, the interval between which should be seven days.

Proper care of the gloxinia and the maintenance of this plant in optimal conditions will help you to avoid the appearance of any diseases and pests.