Heavy rains in western Ukraine contributed to the spread of a rather rare disease - bacterial spotting of sunflower leaves. Karazin.

“This week I visited the crops of Lviv, Khmelnitsky and Vinnitsa regions. Unlike the east of Ukraine, there were no problems with precipitation, so the disease "gave the heat." This was manifested to the greatest extent on the crops of sugar beets and rapeseed, but many other interesting things are found in other crops.

In particular, I have identified a number of bacterioses. One of them is rather rare and little known to Ukrainian farmers - the bacterial spotting of sunflower leaves (pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. Helianthi), ”says Akulov.

Due to the spread of the disease on the large leaves of sunflower, numerous small necrotic spots form, which quickly increase in size and are surrounded by a chlorotic border.

In wet weather, small white spots form on the necrotic spots, which are mucous masses containing a bunch of bacteria. The scientist answered as follows about the possible harmfulness of the disease and its treatment: “Fortunately, it moves slowly across the field (where rain spills). If the pests do not help stretch the mucus, then the disease will be more or less local (and more often along the roads than in the center of the array).

Antibiotics would be hypothetically effective for treatment, but they are not used on sunflower (and so far are hardly advisable). A certain restraining effect can give metal-containing drugs. The main factor in the development of the disease is heavy and frequent showers. ”