Ed Sikora

Carolina chickadee

Carolina chickadee

Carolina chickadee checking out a bird box as a Spring home in Alabama 🦅 🐦

Early Blight disease of tomato

Early blight on hydroponic-tomatoes caused by the fungus Alternaria linariae. Lesions develop on lower leaves as small black spots with concentric rings. Lesions often surrounded by a yellow halo. The disease can reduce yield; fungicides offer control 🧪 🌱

Rhizopus fruit rot appears as a white fungal growth on damaged strawberries. Fruit becomes soft & watery. Mucor & Botrytis gray mold are also post harvest fungal diseases that look similar. Field sanitation & cooling harvested fruit will minimize damage. This was after 2 days in a moist chamber 🌱 🧪

Rotting strawberry with Rhizopus rot

Rhizopus fruit rot appears as a white fungal growth on damaged strawberries. Fruit becomes soft & watery. Mucor & Botrytis gray mold are also post harvest fungal diseases that look similar. Field sanitation & cooling harvested fruit will minimize damage

An anise swallowtail feeding on a milkweed flower

Anise swallowtail - swallowtails love #milkweed too! Please consider planting some this year! 🦋😍

#butterfly #butterflies
#nature #naturephotography #photography
#macro #macrophotography
#swallowtail #swallowtails #swallowtailbutterfly
#lepidoptera

Mushroom

Nice crop of Onion-stalk Parasol mushrooms in a planter box 📦 n Alabama. ID’d by @akbridgelake.bsky.social ⁦‬⁩ #FungiFriday #Mushroom #Fungi

Butterfly 🦋

Butterflies-R-Free Saturday: #Butterfly #Insect #Lepidoptera #NaturePhotography #Nature #Saturday 🧪 🦋

They are very small and hard to see. The white stuff gives them away. I had them on a crepe Myrtle tree last summer

Good luck. Best I can do from Alabama

Yes!

Mealybugs / Home and Landscape / UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM) Mealybugs are soft, oval, wax-covered insects that feed on many plants in garden, landscape, and indoor settings. Usually found in colonies, they are piercing-sucking insects closely related to soft s...

We think you are dealing with mealybugs. The stickiness you mentioned gave me the idea.

Take a look at this California-based publication.

ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-lan...

Where are you located? State, country??

I think this may be an insect problem

Planetary parade 2026: Six planets visible in night sky Six planets - Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune - will all be visible in the night sky.

Six planets on show in celestial 'parade.' 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Genetic mutation of soybeans visible as yellow/white color of leaves

I suspect a genetic Variation/abnormality in this one plant in a field in Africa. While rare in commercial fields, some soybean genetic lines may exhibit variegated leaves (white/green) due to chlorophyll mutation. 🌱 🧪

Was the white material at the base of vine? We (you) might be dealing with another pest?

It has a wide host range that includes most broad leaf crops. It produces while fungal mycelium with the tan-brown sclerotia. The sclerotia allows the fungus to go dormant in absence of host for years. Image is of Sclerotium rolfsii on tomato. Tan structures are sclerotia. You are welcome

Yes, Sclerotinia sclerotium
can affect PF causing Sclerotinia rot, appearing as dark lesions on fruit, stems & leaves. A white cottony growth appears in cool (15-20 C) moist conditions that causes plant decay & mushy fruit. A similar fungus Sclerotium rolfsii also attacks PF under warmer weather

Sclerotinia stem rot on canola

Black sclerotia appear in infected plant tissue

Sclerotinia stem rot is a plant disease caused by the soilborne fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. The disease causes stem rot or white mold on winter canola when conditions are favorable. The pathogen forms black hard resting structures called sclerotia. The disease also affects soybeans 🧪 🌱

🎨🌿 #KleurInDeNatuur 🌈📸 #dag17 kanariegeel rgb 230,220,060 Peperboleet -Chalciporus piperatus staat bekend om zijn scherpe, peperachtige smaak, waardoor hij gedroogd en vermalen als specerij wordt gebruikt. Groeit in symbiose met vliegenzwammen, bij berken, eiken en beuken.

Only if they need a good talking to…

Butterfly

Butterflies-R-Free Saturday: #Butterfly #Insect #Lepidoptera #NaturePhotography #Nature #Saturday 🧪 🦋

Ed Sikora discussing common diseases of grape at an Extension Grape School in Alabama

Symptoms of Pierces Disease of grape

Discussing diseases of bunch & muscadine grapes at a Grape School meeting in Gadsden, Alabama. Pierce’s Disease, transmitted mainly by leafhoppers, is a limiting factor for Bunch grape production in the southeast USA 🌱 🧪 @plantdisease.bsky.social

Mushrooms

A trio of Mushrooms in Northern Wisconsin last September. Reminded me of my three older brothers on a #FungiFriday 🌱 🧪 🍄

Beard Lichen (Usnea species) growing attached to a tree. Shrubby and pale green growth containing many narrow branches.

The Lichen in Winter.
#FungiFriends #nature #photography 🍄📷

Irish Evening "Irish Evening" is Allison McBain Hudson's lovely homage to the Emerald Isle's quiet, crepuscular triumph over grey daytime skies and notions.

“Irish Evening” by Allison McBain Hudson is the latest feature in The Renaissance Garden Guy. A lovely piece by a very talented writer. We hope you’ll give this one a read.

renaissancegardenguy.com/irish-evening/

Fruit rot

One last fruit rot for February. Exposed fruit are damaged by sunscald and other abiotic factors and left to rot in the field; fungi and bacteria 🦠 always find them, eventually 🌱 🧪

Potassium deficiency symptoms on soy beans

Potassium deficiency symptoms on soy beans

Potassium (K) deficiency symptoms on soybean in a demonstration plot. K deficiency appears as yellowing of leaf margins of older leaves. Factors that limit root growth such as soil compaction, root pruning or dry & loose soil can limit plant K uptake. 🌱 🧪

Butterfly on sunflower

Butterflies-R-Free Saturday: #Butterfly #Insect #Lepidoptera #NaturePhotography #Nature #Saturday 🧪 🦋 🌱

Galls of corn smut disease on corn

Corn smut is a fungal disease that creates tumor-like galls on corn (ears, leaves & stalks). It can reduce yield. The galls are edible and considered a delicacy called huitlacoche in Mexico.The fungus spreads by wind-borne spores that enter plants thru wounds and silks 🌱 🧪 @cropnetwork.bsky.social

Strawberry plant infected with Sclerotinia white mold

Sclerotia of Sclerotinia

Sclerotinia white mold is a fungal disease of strawberry that produces fluffy white, cottony mycelium on fruit, stems and crowns often leading to rapid plant collapse. It is characterized by a watery, soft rot and the formation of hard, black survival structures (sclerotia) 🧪 🌱 #Fungi