Consult the label for dosage rates and safety precautions. Root rot, Rhizoctonia solani . The aboveground symptoms are nonspecific and include a general wilting, decline, and collapse of the foliage and the entire plant. This general droopiness or flaccid appearance is often accompanied by browning and rotting of the roots and the crown. Yellowing and death of the outer leaves follows, until finally the entire plant is dead.
Control can be difficult once plants are infected so prevention is important.
It is helpful to avoid overwatering, especially in heavy soils, and to avoid watering directly onto the plant. Highly symptomatic plants can be rogued and removed since recovery is unlikely. Attention to spacing is also helpful since it improves air circulation and drying of the foliage. Symptoms consist of a yellowing or clearing of the veins in newly infected leaves, shortening of the internodes of the main stem, and production of long axillary breaks which create a yellowish witches' broom. If plants are infected young, they remain stunted, and if flowers are produced, they are small, abnormal, and often exhibit phyllody, a condition in which flower parts revert to green tissues.