Causes of Disease Outbreaks in Greenhouses

  1. High Humidity and Poor Ventilation: Excess moisture favors fungal pathogens like Botrytis cinerea (gray mold), powdery mildew, and downy mildew.
  2. Warm and Moist Conditions: Create an ideal environment for bacterial wilt, damping-off, and root rots.
  3. Use of Contaminated Soil or Growing Media: Soil-borne pathogens (Fusarium, Pythium, Phytophthora) persist in reused soil or unsterilized substrates.
  4. Infected Planting Material: Transplants, cuttings, or seeds may harbor fungal spores, bacteria, or latent viruses.
  5. Poor Sanitation: Crop debris left inside the greenhouse serves as a reservoir for pathogens and insects.
  6. Overhead Irrigation and Excess Moisture: Prolongs leaf wetness, favoring foliar diseases like downy mildew and bacterial leaf spots.
  7. Vector Transmission: Insects like whiteflies, thrips, and aphids act as carriers of viruses (e.g., Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus, Cucumber Mosaic Virus).
  8. Continuous Cropping: Lack of crop rotation leads to accumulation of soil-borne pathogens year after year.
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