Covers subjects about horticulture and pest management for the grower and

associated industries
The Disease Triangle: Fundamental Concept for
Disease Management
 Author: Steven A. Tjosvold

Published on: November 28, 2018

Plant diseases– their occurrence and severity– result from the impact of three factors: the host
plant, the pathogen, and the environmental conditions.  This is represented with the disease
triangle.

If any one of the three factors is missing, the triangle is not complete, no disease will occur. 
Simply, plant disease will not occur if there is no viable pathogen, or no susceptible host plant,
or the environmental conditions are not favorable.  The severity of disease depends on the
favorable level of each factor. How susceptible is the plant?  How virulent is the pathogen?  How
conducive are the existing environmental conditions in supporting disease and pathogen spread?

The triangle also helps illustrate that the 3 factors are interacting with each other. The clearest
example of this is how the environment factor interacts with the pathogen and host factors.
Previous blogs illustrate the importance of leaf wetness on pathogen infection and disease
severity. Long durations of free water on a susceptible plant can increase pathogen infection and
disease severity.  At the same time, the low- sunlight conditions, when these wet periods could
occur (e.g. winter), could also be stressful to the plant, and the plant is less likely to mount
defensive reactions to fend off infection.

Learn about the biology for any disease you are managing.  Consider the disease triangle and
the three interacting factors, and how management practices might help weaken or break the
triangle's bond. For example, could you grow non-susceptible plant varieties or species?  Could
you eliminate the pathogen through judicious sanitation practices?  Could you manage leaf
wetness and relative humidity to create unfavorable environmental conditions for disease?

Could you grow non-susceptible plant varieties or species? 

Although these three plant hosts all have rust diseases, each host is infected with a unique plant
pathogen that attacks its specific host. In managing these diseases, a strategy
of host resistance might be employed, where crops of non-susceptible hosts are rotated into the
infested area. Conceivably these three hosts could be rotated. 

Could you eliminate the pathogen through judicious sanitation practices?

Sanitation is a key management practice that employs the strategy of eliminating the pathogen
from the growing area. Here, sanitizing shoes before entering the greenhouse. Cleaning soil
from tools and sanitizing them before use. Properly covering and disposing of rogued plants or
cut flowers  (not shown here!).   

 
Root Disease Triangle: Pathogens,
Host and Environment
Thursday, September 15, 2022 | Troy Buechel

When growing greenhouse crops, it is simply a matter of time before problems

occur. These problems can be caused by diseases, insects, fertility problems,
pesticide phytotoxicities, plant growth regulator over-application, watering
problems, air pollution from heaters, etc. To correct a problem, it is necessary
to know what it is and what is causing it.

Similar looking symptoms

Unfortunately, many types of problems have similar looking symptoms, so it is
important to test a crop to determine the cause. However, what type of test do
you do? If you send in a plant to be tested for disease when the problem is
coming from a malfunctioning furnace, the source of the problem will not be
identified. Therefore, it is best to start investigating the problem in the
greenhouse, taking note of all the variables that could be causing a problem
to narrow down the cause.

Disease Triangle
In the case of plant disease, certain conditions must be in place for a disease
to occur. This is often simplified in a picture called the disease triangle (Figure
1). The disease triangle points out that three favorable conditions must coexist
to cause a disease problem. These three conditions are the presence of
a pathogen, a susceptible host (plant) and proper environmental conditions.