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Tobacco Diagnostic Key

Integrated Pest Management

How to use this tool

The Tobacco Nutrient Diagnostic Key is a database driven identification tool. This key will help you visually identify the disorder. Many disorders can mimic one another. So in most cases, submitting a sample to a diagnostic clinic or laboratory may be needed to positively identify the problem. Confirm pest identification before applying costly corrective procedures!

Getting Started

Select as much information as you know about your sample from the provided lists (on the left of the page, under “Filter by”).
Main information categories include:

  • Disorder Type
  • Leaf Location
  • Leaf Condition
  • Leaf Color
  • Roots
  • Plant Size

Within each main category, there are secondary items you can select. An example for Leaf Location is listed below.

  • Leaf Location
    • Entire Plant
    • Younger
    • Older

The number in parenthesis after the name indicates how many disorders meet your filtering criteria. Each time you click an attribute, the disorders with that characteristic will remain within the pool of potential disorders. Those disorders not meeting those criteria will drop from the list.

You can select more than one Filter item. Leaf Location + Leaf Color will focus the number of disorders remaining. You can view each disorder that is listed, or select a third Filter item based on the symptoms to help refine your search. So by selecting another symptom or characteristic will help you narrow down to fewer and fewer remaining possibilities to help you diagnose your problem.