Plant Diseases in the Landscape and Garden

Plant diseases in the landscape and garden are very important and can be a significant source of frustration and loss to the gardener. There are about 30,000 diseases of economic importance in the U.S. Plant pathology is the study of the biotic and abiotic agents that cause disease in plants; of the mechanisms by which these causal agents induce disease in plants and of the methods of preventing or controlling disease and reducing the damage caused.

Certain diseases have had tremendous impacts on our society. Perhaps foremost among these is Phytophthora late blight which caused the potato famine (1845) in Ireland. It is estimated that 1.5 million Irish died from starvation and just as many immigrated to the United States. Two forest tree diseases which caused great economic losses in America are Dutch elm disease and chestnut blight. This book deals with different practices in this subject.