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“The plant doctor is in” Web site offers plant Rx By Celena E. Kusch
Dr. Gary Moorman, professor of plant pathology at Penn State, has created the Plant Disease Web site to help plant growers—professionals and amateurs alike—diagnose and treat plant diseases.	From azalea to zinnia, plant growers both professional and amateur can find help in diagnosing and treating plant diseases right on the World Wide Web. Internet users who enter Penn State’s Plant Disease Web site have access to detailed fact sheets covering many of the plant diseases affecting the most common floral and foliage plants and woody ornamentals grown in greenhouses, interiorscapes and outdoor landscaping.   Visitors to the site may read fact sheets about disease identification and treatment arranged by plant or disease. A number of other pages provide information about key plant-growing issues, including diagnosis, soil treatment, pest control, fertilization and more.   The site is sponsored by Penn State’s Cooperative Extension and the Department of Plant Pathology. Dr. Gary Moorman, professor of plant pathology, explained the mission of the site, noting, “Nursery growers, landscapers, greenhouse operators and garden center employees, as well as extension agents and the Master Gardeners who work with them need up-to-date information on the plant diseases they encounter every day. Our main objective in establishing the Web site was to provide that information in a format that could be kept current and made immediately accessible to the maximum number of people.”   According to Moorman, response to the site has been positive. Since May, more than 3,500 people have visited the site. Web sites in many other states have also added links to the Penn State pages, and Cooperative Extension organizations in other states use the fact sheets with their own clients.   “The Web site has prompted further inquiries from gardeners throughout the United States and even from Japan, New Zealand, England and South Africa,” Moorman added. “We’ve even answered e-mail questions from worried office workers in Manhattan fretting over sick office plants after they’ve read a fact sheet and looked at the photo posted on the Web.”   Penn State’s Plant Disease Web site is at: www.cas.psu.edu/docs/CASDEPT/PLANT/ext/fact.html.