Peanuts and spinach are important crops in Southwest Texas with disease problems that cause major losses in yield and quality. My educational and research programs include on-farm experiments, field days, producer meetings, news releases to local media, newsletters, and extension bulletins. Varieties are being improved with disease nurseries in cooperation with peanut and spinach breeders. Disease control strategies are developed that include ideal cultural practices, resistant varieties, and judicious pesticide use.
My primary interest in peanuts is on control of tomato spotted wilt virus. I also work on control of rust (Puccinia arachidis), southern blight (Sclerotium rolfsii), late leaf spot (Cercosporidium personatum), and root knot (Meloidogyne arenaria).
Spinach disease control work includes white rust (Albugo occiden- talis), blue mold (Peronospora farinosa f. sp. spinaciae), and viral diseases caused by beet western yellows virus, cucumber mosaic virus, beet curly top virus, and tomato spotted wilt virus.
My educational programs also include southwestern cotton rust (Puccinia cacabata), oak wilt (Ceratocystis fagacearum), diseases in containerized nurseries, apple diseases, and Master Gardener volunteer training.
Black, M.C. 1995. Texas Plant Diseases Handbook: Chemical Control Supplement
for Vegetables. Texas Agricultural Extension Service Bulletin B-1140B, College
Station, TX.
Leskovar, D.I., and M.C. Black. 1994. White rust infection and leaf chlorosis
in relation to crop strategies in spinach. Environmental and Experimental
Botany 34:363-370.
Black, M.C., T. Isakeit, L.W. Barnes, T.A. Kucharek, R.J. Hoover, and N.C.
Hodge. 1994. First report of bacterial fruit blotch of watermelon in Texas.
Plant Dis. 78:831.
Correll, J.C., T.E. Morelock, M.C. Black, S.T. Koike, L.F. Brandenberger, and
F.J. Daniello. 1994. Economically important diseases of spinach. Plant Dis.
78:653-660.
Revised December 2, 1996