Resource Number: 5863
Title: Symptoms of Diseases and Disorders of Cultivated Palms
Publisher: USDA APHIS PPQ ITP
Description: This tool is based solely on visual symptoms for two primary reasons. First, visual symptoms are sufficient to diagnose many palm problems, especially physiological disorders such as nutrient deficiencies. Second, visual symptoms are the first step in determining which diagnostic lab to use for further analysis and which tissue should be sampled for analysis. Many times, diagnosis of a palm problem is a multi-step procedure whereby possible causes of the problem are ruled out, one at a time. Never rely on a laboratory diagnosis without also making a good faith attempt at the visual diagnosis. The two diagnoses should agree. Just because a laboratory report suggests deficiencies of one or more nutrient elements or the presence of one or more potential pathogens does not mean that those deficiencies or pathogens are the actual cause of the particular problem. “False positives” are common, and often misleading. This is one weakness of laboratory diagnostics when used as the sole method of diagnosis. In the case of palm diseases, “false negatives” are also a common problem, especially when the wrong tissue is sampled or a sample of poor quality is submitted to the laboratory. If the two diagnoses (visual and lab) do not agree, then re-examine the problem to determine which diagnosis is more likely to explain the symptoms being observed (compare to descriptions and photos in the fact sheets), and if you sampled the correct material for the laboratory diagnosis. Alternatively, you may need to start at the beginning as neither diagnosis may be correct.
Last Updated: May 3, 2016
Domain(s)/Area(S):
- Ornamentals
Locations:
| Subject |
|---|
| palms |
3 Version(s)
Available: Yes
Current: Yes