There is now a tool plant pathologists, entomologists, other plant professionals, county agents and some growers are using to speed the process of diagnosing plant problems. Digital cameras are becoming more common in households and will soon be as common as the personal computer. Digital cameras take images and store them as individual files in a format that the computer can read and display on the monitor as a picture. Some brands of digital cameras use standard 3.5-in floppy diskettes to store the image files. The diskettes have the capacity to store about 10-30 images depending on the resolution and the space each image occupies on the disk.
Most computers have software programs capable of viewing the files.
The specialist can then determine the cause of the plant disorder and reply via e-mail to the sender the appropriate measures to take to control or prevent further problems. All of this technology can speed diagnosis time to about an hour or so from the time the picture is e-mailed until the specialist responds with recommendations. The first of these is the availability of digital cameras. Many county offices are now equipped with digital cameras and more are being purchased every day. Soon, most county offices will have digital imagery capability.