What Is It?

What Is It? | Facts in Depth | For the Professional Diagnostician

Tomato DiseasesCucumber Mosaic


Cucumber Mosaic

Descriptions of Plant Viruses Website provides extensive information about viruses, viroids, and more including descriptions, taxonomic notes, and sequence analyses.

Identification

Leaves:

  • Light and dark green mosaic patterns on the foliage.
  • Yellow spotting or streaking on the leaves and veins.
  • A reduction of leaf blade area along the main vein (filiformity) of the leaf; symptomatic leaves are described as “rat-tail-” or “shoestring-” like.
  • Oak leaf pattern and necrotic spots surrounded by a yellow halo (pepper)
  • Necrosis of stems (pepper)

CMV_TomatoGhanaOct2012 copy 50QUALITY CMVpepperLeafShock copy 50QUALITY CMCpepperleaf3 copy 50QUALITY
Foliar symptoms of CMV on tomato plants (left) and pepper plants (middle and right).

Fruit:

  • Internal browning of fruit.
  • Poor yield and poor quality fruits with delayed fruit ripening.
  • Reduced fruit size and wall thickness (peppers)

CMVjalapeno copy 50QUALITY CMVpepfrt2 copy 50QUALITY
CMV symptoms on pepper and jalapeño pepper.

Favorable Environmental Conditions

  • Conditions that support aphid movement and feeding promote spread of the disease.
  • Temperatures between 70-85ºF; anything warmer or colder than this range slows down the reproduction of the aphids.
  • Stressful conditions for the plants also cause stress on the vectors.

Often Confused With

Scouting Notes

  • Scout the high tunnels and diseased plants and remove and destroy the infected plants.
  • Monitor aphid populations early in the season and apply insecticides if needed.