What are mosaic viruses?
Mosaic viruses infect more than 150 species of plants, including many fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The disease is characterized by yellow, white, and pale or dark green leaves and streaks (in other words, "mosaic" of these colors). Commonly affected plants include some tomatoes, pumpkins, cauliflower, and cucumbers, but many more are easily affected.
Types of mosaic viruses
There are several mosaic viruses that commonly infect plants in the vegetable garden, including:
Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV) and Bean Yellow Mosaic Virus (BYMV) are the primary mosaic viruses that infect all types of beans. They are usually spread by aphids, but BCMV is spread by seed, so do not store seeds from infected plants.
Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is one of the most common types of mosaic viruses and is spread by aphids. Cucumber mosaic virus often infects cucumbers, but it is also a common problem for many garden plants, including other cucumbers (melons, squashes), nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes). Leafy greens (lettuce, lettuce).
Tobacco is transmitted by mosaic virus (TMV) seeds and direct contact, and the best way to prevent it is to grow resistant varieties.
How to detect mosaic viruses and damage
Viral diseases are difficult to diagnose because the symptoms vary from plant to plant and depending on the age of the plant and its growing conditions. However, the common ways to detect mosaic viruses are listed below.
The leaves are yellow, white, and pale and have dark green spots, which appear superior. This gives the leaves a blister-like appearance.
Plants are often stunted, or they grow poorly.
Plants may have other defects and their leaves may be shrunken or wavy.
Cucumber mosaic virus: Affected plants are stunted and often manifest as "shoestring syndrome", a characteristic defect in which the edges of the leaves do not grow, and the leaf veins develop into long, short strips. Tomatoes are small and misaligned.
Tobacco mosaic virus: Affected plants have a mole and yellow leaves and twisted or distorted young growth.
How to control mosaic viruses
Once the plants are infected, there is no cure for mosaic viruses. Because of this, prevention is important! However, if the plants in your garden show signs of mosaic viruses, here is how to minimize the damage:
Remove and destroy all affected plants. Do not place them in a compost heap as the virus can persist on infected plant material. Burn the affected plants or throw them in the trash.
Carefully monitor your remaining plants, especially those near the affected plants.
Disinfect gardening tools after each use. Keep a bottle of a weak bleach solution or another antiviral disinfectant to wipe your tools.
How to prevent mosaic viruses
Plant anti-virus varieties in your garden. Tomato varieties that are resistant to cucumber mosaic virus have not yet been developed, but tomatoes that are resistant to the tobacco mosaic virus may have some resistance to the cucumber mosaic virus.
Mosaic viruses are often transmitted by insects, especially aphids and leafhoppers. To prevent these pests from invading your plants, you can try covering your plants with floating mulch or aluminum foil mulch. Check out our other tips for controlling aphids.
Control your weeds. Some species can act as hosts to disease, and when aphids and other pests eat these plants, they can spread the virus to your garden plants.
To avoid seed-borne mosaic viruses, soak the seeds of infected plants in a 10% bleach solution before planting.
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