Applicability of Smart Tools in Vegetable Disease Diagnostics

Abstract

Various diseases and pests cause serious damage to vegetable crops during the growing season and after harvesting. Growers attempt to minimize losses by protecting their crops, starting with seed and seedling treatments and followed by monitoring their stands. In many cases, synthetic pesticide treatments are applied. Integrated pest management is currently being employed to minimize the impact of pesticides upon human health and the environment. Over the last few years, “smart” approaches have been developed and adopted in practice to predict, detect, and quantify phytopathogen occurrence and contamination. Our review assesses the currently available ready-to-use tools and methodologies that operate via visual estimation, the detection of proteins and DNA/RNA sequences, and the utilization of brand-new innovative approaches, highlighting the availability of solutions that can be used by growers during the process of diagnosing pathogens.