Why Do My Lentils Look Sickly?

Do the leaves have tan lesions with darker borders appearing before flowering or shortly after bloom?

Are there any tan to light brown lesions with a dark border that can appear on leaves, stems, pods, petioles, and peduncles?

Are the leaves covered with white powder?

Are the seedlings clipped off at the soil line?

Are the seedlings dying and the stems are girdled or rotted at soil line?

Are the plants turning yellow and wilting, diseased tissue is covered with fuzzy gray fungal growth during periods of high humidity?

Are there mottled dark and light green patterns on leaves?

Are the leaves yellow, the plant is stunted and wilting?

These symptoms indicate a fungal disease - Anthracnose. Disease emergence is favored by wet conditions. The fungus is spread by splashing water. Keep plants dry when watering to prevent spread. Spray plants with copper when the first pods develop if you have had problems in the past.

Ascochyta blight is a fungal disease that attacks primarily legumes like lentils ar peas. The disease can be transmitted to seedlings from infected seeds. Foliar transmission is favored by cool, moist soils. Plant only disease-free seed or seed treated with a fungicide before planting. Remove and destroy all lentil crop residue after harvest to reduce the levels of inoculum the following growing season.

White, powdery patches on the leaves are caused by a fungal disease Powdery mildew. Powdery mildew usually appears in damp places. Encourage good air circulation around the affected plants by thining them and any surrounding plants. Water plants from bellow to keep foliage dry. Any affected leaves should be cut off and removed. Any commercial fungicidal spray will protect your plant from further infections.

If the seedlings of your plants are cut off at the soil level, most likely cause are cutworms. These caterpillars can be 1-2 inches long, brown, or gray. They feed at night by cutting off young plants and sometimes eating them whole. During the day, they are hidden below the soil surface. Control them by introducing parasitic nematodes to the ground. Using BTK spray on the ground will also control their numbers.

If your seedlings are falling over and the stems are girdled or rotted at the soil line, the most likely cause is a damping-off disease. Remove and destroy all infected plants. To prevent damping-off let the soil surface dry between waterings, thin seedlings to avoid overcrowding and do not add nitrogen fertilizers until plants have developed leaves.

Gray mold is a fungal disease that appears in cool, wet conditions and overcrowded plantings. Avoid planting lentils in fields or areas adjacent to fields that had an outbreak of gray mold the previous year. Remove and destroy lentil crop residue after harvest. Applications of appropriate fungicides can help control the disease.

These symptoms are caused by the Mosaic virus. Destroy diseased plants. Presoak seed in a 10 percent bleach solution before planting, or choose resistant cultivars to prevent problems. Control aphids, because they spread viral diseases as they feed.

Fungal disease, Fusarium wilt, cause lentils' foliage to turn yellow and wilt. Stem near soil line is yellow-orange to black when cut open. If pods form, they contain few seeds. Destroy plants infected with this fungal disease.

Sclerotinia rot is a fungal disease that forms lesions that girdle stem causing upper plant parts to become chlorotic and wilted. Wet weather conditions favor this disease. Plant only certified seed. If the disease is known to present rotate crops with non-hosts such as cereals. Control of the disease using appropriate fungicides can be difficult to achieve as the disease is favored by dense plant canopies which can be hard to penetrate with chemicals.