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Petunia flowering plants belong to Solanaceae family, which is apparently called as nightshade plants. Often these varieties develop the fungal disease either due to climatic condition or because of insects like thrips and aphids may be. Proper identification of the disease helps a gardener to conclude the reason, but it is supposed to be a tough job with absurd knowledge about Plant diseases.
Petunia flowers are very well known for their dark petal color, which depends upon the species of Petunia, it may be murky red, lavender or even yellow. The plant blooms between spring and winter months during which warm and humid climate prevail over. Considering the factors responsible for gray spots in Petunia flowers, Gray mold fungus termed as Botrytis Cinerea has the utmost probability to be the cause. The fungus is likely to thrive well in wet conditions, and it is evident that rainy days should also be watched out in this case.
The evolution of fungus is initially noted with brown spots later turning into gray on various parts of plants. As the days pass the blossoms acquires fading of color and development of a light grey patch proves the succession of the disease. Since Petunia plants are sometimes preferred indoor, the expected ambience from the plants is failed after the acquaintance with this fungus. This fungus has been observed to be a common plant pathogen in plants like Begonia, wine grapes, Chrysanthemum, Marigolds, Potatoes, Tomatoes and few other crops and flowering plants belonging to the Solanaceae family.
Poor Cultural Management in Garden is the root cause for this fungal growth and so with proper spacing and providing supportive environmental conditions the infection can be controlled to a certain extent. Chemical treatment of fungal growth is like adding fire to the fuel, means the degradation of plants’ life gets even worse after the application of synthetic fungicides. Preferring natural methods of treatment by spraying horticultural oil like Neem oil certified by Environmental Protection Agency of US can be a good choice of measure for trial.
Author: Adam Teaser - neem
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