Planting a crop or closely related crop in the same location year after year can lead to increased incidences of disease and insect infestations. To reduce the pest potential it is recommended to rotate plant families in the garden. This means that a gardener should not plant a crop or related crop in the same garden soil season after season, but instead move the families around within the garden space. For example a tomato planting should not be followed up by a potato planting the following season.

Saving seeds is a fun and economical way to produce plants for the next year.  There are concerns however when saving seeds about seed borne diseases.  Seed borne diseases are pathogens such as bacteria, fungus, or viruses that can live on the surface or interior of the seed and have the potential to spread the disease to the next season’s crop.  Seed born disease infection varies widely by crop, disease, and location.

The health of your seeds begins with the plants that produce them. Seed producing plants should be robust and disease free. Strong, healthy plants produce healthy seeds and seedlings that are larger, more viable and more-vigorous than seedlings produced by weak, diseased, drought stressed or chronically-hungry plants. Small or misshapen seeds are shorter-lived under storage conditions than larger, better formed seeds.

The Plant Diagnostic Clinic's function is to provide research-based information on crop health in South Dakota. The Plant Diagnostic Clinic serves the state of South Dakota and the Great Plains region by providing fast and accurate plant health and diagnostic information for the agricultural and horticultural industries.  We perform routine diagnosis of field crop, horticultural crop diseases and turf diseases for industry and homeowners.  Occasionally, we also serve as a point of contact in South Dakota for major agricultural biosecurity issues related to plant health.