With warm weather arriving in Marin, check on your plants

Warm weather makes our gardens more vulnerable to fungal diseases. Fungi are the most common causal agent of plant disease. Of the more than 2 million species of fungi in the world, 8,000 are known to be detrimental to plants. These microscopic organisms cause symptoms such as root and crown wilts, leaf spots, rusts, cankers, downy and powdery mildews, and stem and twig blights. Blights cause severe damage to a plant structure, like leaves, flowers or stems; rots are typically caused by soil-borne fungi-attacking roots, stems and fruits.