Plant Health Course Online | Learning Cloud Ireland

Get the most out of your garden or nursery. Learn about what pests and diseases plants may come in contact with, and how to control them. A hole in the leaf may indicate damage by a bacteria or an insect. If you thought the problem was caused by an insect and sprayed it with an insecticide, but it was actually cxaused by a bacteria, then the spray is totally waste.

There are 10 lessons in this course:

Introduction
- Pests
- Diseases
- Common terminology
- Diagnosing problems systematically
- Tell tale symptoms
- Conducting an inspection: four steps
- Pest or disease reviews
Overview of Preventative Controls
- Introduction
- Methods of pest management
- Integrated pest management
- Cultural control
- Using disease resistant varieties
- Crop rotation
- Timed planting
- Mulching
- Cleanliness
- Biological control
- Types of biological controls
- Beneficial plants
- Trap or decoy plants
- Pheromone traps
- Physical controls
- Traps
- REpellants
- Mulching
- Pruning
- Wounds
- Chemical controls
- Understanding pesticides
- Safely storing chemicals
- Safely mixing chemicals
- Legalities
- Plant breeding for resistance
- Sources and causes of resistance
- Adaptability, resistance and pest variability
Insecticides
- Types of insecticides: systemich, stomach poisons, contact poisons, etc
- Inorganics, botanicals, organophosphates, carbamates, synthetic pyrethroids
- Characteristics of insecticides: toxicity, spectrum, LD50, persistence, volatility, etc.
- Golden rules for handling pesticides
- Terminology
Other Pesticides
- Chemical Pesticides: introduction
- Review of common pesticides
- Soil treatment for control of diseases
- Soil pests
- Types of fumigtants
- Systemic fungicides
- Comparative toxicities
Spray Equipment
- Types of sprayers
- Uses of sprayers
- Spray terminology
- Sprayer maintenance and cleaning
- Selecting a sprayer
- Calibration
- Using chemicals: agitation, clean up and disposal
- Basic first aid with chemical pesticides
- Response to liquid or powder spills
- Keeping records
- Misters, Dusters, Blowers
- Pesticides and the environment
Insect Biology
- Insect classification: orders, sub classes
- Insect anatomy: mouthparts, legs, etc
- Lifecycle
- Feeding habits
- Practical project: Insect collecting, preserving, identifying, for an insect collection
- Common insects that a gardener encounters
- Ants
- Aphis
- Beetles
- Borers
- Bugs
- Caterpillars
- Cockroaches
- Crickets
- Earwigs
- Fleas
- Flies
- Galls (caused by insects)
- Grasshoppers
- Ladybirds (good and bad)
- Leaf hoppers
- Leaf miners
- Lerps
- Mealy bug
- Mosquitos
- Scale insects
- Termites
- Thrips
- Wasps
- Whitefly
Fungal Biology
- What causes disease
- Symptoms of disease
- Lifecycle of a disease: inoculation, penetration, infection, growth and reproduction, dissemination
- Fungi groups: obligate saprophytes, obligate parasites, facultative saprophytes, facultative parasites
- Expanded concept of tree decay
- Chemical pesticides in the UK and Europe
- Common diseases
- Anthracnose
- Bitter pit
- Blights
- Botrytis
- Canker
- Cinnamon fungus
- Club root
- Damping off
- Galls
- Gummosis
- Leaf curl
- Leaf spot
- Melanose
- Mildews
- Rots
- Rust
- Scab
- Silver leaf
- Spot
- Smut
- Sooty mould
- Wilts
Environmental Problems
- Common environmental problems
- Foliage burns
- Pollution
- Lack of water
- Drainage problems
- Frost
- Hail
- Shade
- Temperature
- Wind
- Symptoms of nutritional deficiencies
- Air pollution
- The plant and water
- Non parasitic problems in turf (lawns)
- Ways to provide environmental protection to plants
Viruses
- Overview
- Symptoms
- Detection and diagnosis of viruses
- Control
- Examples of virus diseases
Nematodes, Molluscs and Crustaceans
- Overview
- Millipedes
- Plant nematodes
- Nematodes in citrus
- Red spider mites
- Spiders
- Slaters or wood lice
- Snails and slugs

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

AiIdentify the characteristics of pests and diseases of plants.

Explain methods for the control of pests and diseases.
Describe the characteristics of a range of different pesticides, including insecticides and fungicides.
Explain the selection and use of spray equipment appropriate for different specified tasks.
Describe aspects of the biology of an insect which are relevant to pest control.
Describe aspects of the biology of an fungus which are relevant to disease control.
Explain how inappropriate environmental conditions can affect plant health.
Identify the characteristic signs of a range of non-insect pests,and select apropriate control methods.

What you will do:

Develop a checklist for determining the significance of pests and diseases, which addresses different criteria including:

short term impact
long term impact
economic impact
aesthetic impact.

Distinguish between the main types of plant diseases, including:
- fungal
- viral
- bacterial.
Create a standard worksheet for reviewing pest and disease problems of plants.
Diagnose different problems (ie. pests or diseases), documenting the problem on a standard pest/disease review worksheet.
Describe different ways to control pests and diseases, including:
- Application of chemicals
- Plant selection
- Companion planting
- Cultural techniques (i.e. improving ventilation, improving drainage)
- Physical control (i.e. pruning, hand removal, trapping, hosing off).
- Explain how plant breeding has been used to improve pest/disease resistance in different plant species.
Explain three biological control methods for dealing with specific problems.
Develop an IPM strategy for a specific situation such as a crop or garden, considering:
- application procedures, remedial action and monitoring.
Describe plant hygiene practices for a specific situation such as a crop, nursery or garden, in line with industry practice, enterprise guidelines and sound management practice.
Recommend control methods for different pest and/or disease problems diagnosed.
List safety procedures to follow when handling pesticides.
Distinguish between the main groups of pesticides, including:
- organo-phosphates
- synthetic pyrethroids
- carbamates
- chlorinated hydrocarbons.
- Explain the difference between the action of systemic and non-systemic pesticides.
Explain maintenance practices, including cleaning, for a specified sprayer.
List different uses for several types of sprayers, including a motorised pump sprayer, a knapsack and a PTO driven tractor mounted sprayer.
Compare different sprayers, in terms of:
- cost
- applications
- maintenance
- spare parts
- ease of use
- safety.
Explain the application of chemicals in a given situation, including:
- Calibration
- Mixing chemicals
- Equipment operation
- Safety measures
- Post spray procedures such as cleaning, and storage of chemicals).
- Describe the minimum records which should be kept when spraying pesticides.
Prepare a labelled diagram showing the structural parts of an insect.
Prepare an insect collection of different insects of significance to agriculture or horticulture.
Identify to genus level, the insects collected.
Compare the structural differences between different types of insects.
Describe the lifecycle of an insect species.
Explain how an understanding of insect lifecycle can be applied to pest control.
Describe the lifecycle of a fungal disease species.
Explain the physiology of tree decay processes, including compartmentalisation.
Explain aspects of fungal biology, for different types of fungi, which are of horticultural significance, including:
- Phytophthora
- Sclerotinia rot
- Peach leaf curl (Taphrina deformens)
- Powdery Mildew
- Pythium.
List environmental problems which affect plant health and their symptoms.
Describe the affect of air pollution on different plants.
Identify nutritional deficiency symptoms in specified situations.
Develop a fertiliser program in response to a specified nutritional problem.
Distinguish between the affects of water deficiency and water excess on plant health.
Explain how to diagnose damage by various non-insect pest problems, including:
- Nematodes
- Slugs and snails
- Mites
- Millipedes
- Larger animals such as rabbits, possums or birds.
Explain how to control different non-insect pests with both chemical and non-chemical methods.

Interested? Request a free information pack today!

Online Plant Health Course