What causes vegetable disease?

Vegetable diseases are caused primarily by fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes. 

Each of these organisms is responsible for causing certain vegetable diseases. They go about causing the diseased condition in different ways, but the end result is the loss of high-quality food. I will cover all four of these issues.

Fungi - Fungi come in many different forms; most are beneficial and are necessary for man to exist on earth. There are, however, a few fungi which are capable of causing severe losses of food. 

Fungi are thread-like plants that lack chlorophyll (that's the compound that causes leaves to have their green color.) 

Fungi reproduce by extremely small parts known as "spores." These would correspond to seed in plants like corn. 

Late blight of potato (the fungus that caused the potato famine in Ireland) has spores that measure 30 microns in length.  It would take 8,500 spores placed side-by-side to measure one inch. 

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