What Is Lettuce Drop Recognizing Sclerotinia Symptoms In Lettuce

If your lettuce leaves in the garden are wilting and yellowing with brownish decaying spots, you may have sclerotinia lettuce disease, a fungal infection. This kind of infection can destroy entire heads of lettuce, making it inedible, but cultural practices or fungicides can help you limit the damage.

What is lettuce drop?
Can lettuce mold?
What causes tip burn on lettuce?
What does mold look like on lettuce?
What type of mold grows on lettuce?
Why does my lettuce have white spots?
Can you eat lettuce with tip burn?
When should I stop eating lettuce?
Why is my lettuce brown on the edges?
How long after eating bad lettuce do you get sick?
How do you know lettuce is bad?
How long does lettuce last in the fridge?

What is lettuce drop?

One of the most important diseases of lettuce is known as lettuce drop. ... As the disease become more severe, inner leaves may become infected. Eventually, the entire plant may collapse. The plant often has white mold on the leaves and dark irregular fruiting bodies may be observed (Figure 1).

Can lettuce mold?

White mold is a distinctive disease that most often affects stems and foliage at the base of cole crops and lettuce plants. ... As affected tissue dries up, it turns yellow to white, and hard black sclerotia form on the surface or inside the dead stems.

What causes tip burn on lettuce?

With low transpiration to the growing tip, insufficient transport of calcium causes the tissue along the young leaf tips to collapse and turn necrotic as the leaves expand. ... Drought stress, high soluble salts, and chemical phytotoxicity can also cause leaf tip-burn in lettuce and other leafy greens.

What does mold look like on lettuce?

The lesions are initially light green to yellow on the upper leaf surfaces and often have an angular shape because larger veins limit their growth (Figure 1). With time, the lesions turn brown and become necrotic.

What type of mold grows on lettuce?

Powdery Mildew Symptoms

Severely affected tissue may turn necrotic and die. Powdery mildews are typically host-specific, although plants in the same family can be susceptible to the same mildew species. The fungus Golovinomyces cichoracearum (formerly Erysiphe cichoracearum) causes powdery mildew on lettuce.

Why does my lettuce have white spots?

Fungal Reasons for Lettuce That has White Spots

Downy mildew thrives in infected crop residue. The spores are wind borne. Symptoms appear in about 5-10 days from infection often following cool, humid weather with rain or heavy fog or dew. If you suspect downy mildew, the best bet is to remove and destroy the plant.

Can you eat lettuce with tip burn?

Finally, tipburn is not harmful. In the case of commercial growers, it does reduce salability, but for the home grower, simply snip off the browning edges and consume as usual.

When should I stop eating lettuce?

When the dark spots appear on multiple leaves in place of these colors, your lettuce is on its way out. Discolored lettuce often feels slimy and smells bad as well. Small brown spots usually aren't harmful if you eat them. You can also cut around them if the rest of the lettuce leaf is still healthy.

Why is my lettuce brown on the edges?

Edges of inner head lettuce leaves are brown and rotten; usually not visible form outside of head. Tipburn is a physiological disorder caused by soil calcium deficiency. High temperatures and too much nitrogen can aggravate tipburn injury.

How long after eating bad lettuce do you get sick?

Symptoms begin 30 minutes to 8 hours after exposure: Nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps. Most people also have diarrhea.

How do you know lettuce is bad?

Although not a perfect test, your senses are usually the most reliable instruments to tell if your lettuce has gone bad. Some common traits of bad lettuce are discoloration, a moist texture and a rotten smell. Lettuce will first become limp and then the green color turns to brown or black.

How long does lettuce last in the fridge?

While it will vary from one head of lettuce to another, when properly stored, leafy greens should stay fresh and crisp for 7 to 10 days. A whole head of lettuce will typically last longer than individual greens, especially tightly bound heads of lettuce, such as iceberg and endive.