Robert L. Wick

Professor of Plant Pathology
Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences
109 Fernald Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
Tel: (413) 545-1045
rwick@pltpath.umass.edu

You are invited to read the online journal I wrote while teaching in Bangladesh

Education

Ph.D. Plant Pathology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 1981

Research Interests

• Bacterial and fungal diseases of vegetable and greenhouse crops
• Nematode diseases of turf
• Plant disease diagnostics

My appointment to the university includes 50% extension and approximately 30% teaching. My major extension activities are in the Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic and Nematode Assay Lab. The Plant Clinic provides support for the UMass Vegetable, Floriculture, Turf and Fruit IPM programs. My research program is targeted to the vegetable, floriculture and turf industries. I am the disease editor for the New England Greenhouse Floricultural Recommendations, the Vegetable Management Guide for New England, and the Professional guide for IPM in Turf for Massachusetts; these publications are revised on a regular basis. My research program includes investigation of new and emerging plant diseases, evaluation of management practices for controlling plant diseases, and biological control of nematodes. I currently have three active projects in Bangladesh. I recently received a Fulbright Scholar award to teach Diagnostic Plant Pathology at Bangladesh Agricultural University; I received a USDA grant to develop the first plant disease diagnostic clinic at BAU, and I am a collaborating USDA scientist with Dr. Md. Bahadur Meah at BAU. My teaching at UMass includes Plant Pathology, Diagnostic Plant Pathology and Turf Pathology. I occasionally teach Nematology and Biological Control of Plant Diseases.

Selected Publications

Book

Daughtrey, M.L., Wick, R.L., Peterson, J. 1995. Compendium of Flowering Potted Plant Diseases. APS Press, 129 pages. Summary in PDF

Book chapters

Wick, R. L. 2001. Minor Diseases of Pepper. Pages 51-57 in: Northeast Pepper Integrated Pest Management manual, ed J. Boucher. University of Connecticut, Storrs.

Barnes, Wick and Benson. 2001. Boxwood Diseases. Pages 95-99 in: Diseases of Woody Ornamentals and Trees In Nurseries, APS Press, St Paul MN. 482 pp.

Creswell and Wick. 2001. Cryptomeria Diseases. Pages 117-120 in: Diseases of Woody Ornamentals and Trees In Nurseries, APS Press, St Paul MN. 482 pp.

Olive and Wick. 2001. Euonymus Diseases. Pages 145-147 in: Diseases of Woody Ornamentals and Trees In Nurseries, APS Press, St Paul MN. 482 pp.

Chase and Wick. 2001. Gardenia Diseases. Pages 171-174 in: Diseases of Woody Ornamentals and Trees In Nurseries, APS Press, St Paul MN. 482 pp.

Wick, R. L. 2001. Taxus Diseases. Pages 360-361 in: Diseases of Woody Ornamentals and Trees In Nurseries, APS Press, St Paul MN. 482 pp.

Encyclopedia entries

Wick, R. L. 2001. Etiology, Causal Agent, Abiotic, Biotic, Insect Induced Diseases, Koch's Postulates In: Maloy and Murray. Encyclopedia of Plant Pathology, Vol 1 & 2. John Wiley and Sons. NY 1346 pp.

Other

Wick, R. L. and Dicklow, M. B. 2002. Evaluation of fungicides for Phytophthora crown rot of verbena, 2001. Fungicide Nematicide Tests 57:0T30.

Wick, R. L., Dicklow, M. B and Rungrassamee, W. 2002. Evaluation of TerraPy-G for managing plant parasitic nematodes in turf, 2001 Fungicide Nematicide Tests 57:T09.

Wick, R. L., Smith, N. L. and Dicklow, M. B. 2002. Evaluation of fungicides for crown rot of verbena, 2001. Fungicide Nematicide Tests 57:T09.

Dicklow, M. B. and Wick, R. L. 2003. Evaluation of lime application on Superbells cultivars and their resistance to Phytophthora drechsleri and Pythium species, 2002. Biological and Cultural tests for control of Plant Diseases 18:O005.

Wick, R. L. and Abbott, E. 2003 Evaluation of PKX(TM)+JetWet(TM) for controlling nematodes in golf greens- Northfield, MA, 2002. Biological and Cultural tests for control of Plant Diseases 18:T013.

Wick, R. L. and Abbott, E. 2003 Evaluation of PKX(TM)+JetWet(TM) for controlling nematodes in golf greens- Amherst, MA, 2002. Biological and Cultural tests for control of Plant Diseases 18:T014.

Wick, R. L. and Abbott, E. 2004 Evaluation of Dragonfire® and Rutopia® for controlling nematodes in golf greens, 2003. Biological and Cultural tests for control of Plant Diseases 19:T004.

Wick, R. L. and Abbott, E. 2004 Evaluation of BioNem L® for controlling nematodes in golf greens, 2003.Biological and Cultural tests for control of Plant Diseases19:T003.

Wick, R. L. and Abbott, E. 2004. Evaluation of Neo-Tec® for controlling nematodes in golf greens 2003. Biological and Cultural tests for control of Plant Diseases19:T005.

Wick, R. L., and Massoni, S. C., 2005. Evaluation of Neo-Tec® for controlling nematodes in golf greens/ Biological and Cultural tests for control of Plant Diseases, accepted for publication.
nematodes 1996-1997. Fungicide and Nematicide Tests 53:271-272.

Papers presented

Rungrassamee, W. and Wick, R. L. 2003. Relationship of the nematode hyperparasite Pasteuria spp. To Meloidogyne graminis and Tylenchorhynchus spp. in golf greens (poster). Society of Nematology National meeting, Ithaca, NY.

Porth, G., Mangan, F., Wick, R. And Autio, W. 2003. Evaluating organic and conventional management options for clubroot disease (Plasmodiophora brassicae Woron.) of Brassica vegetable crops in Massachusetts (poster). American Society for Horticultural Science; Providence, RI.

Lerner, J., Wick, R., and Cuifo, S. 2003. Modeling symbiosome-associated protein complexes in the mycorrhizal cell. The Fourth International Conference on Mycorrhizae (ICOM4), August 10-15, Montreal.

Slinski, S. and Wick, R., . 2005. Phenotypic and genetic variation of Plectosporium tabacinum isolates from southern New England (Abstr.).