Extension Search / Diagnostic Labs / Georgia

University of Georgia Plant Disease Clinics

The Plant Disease Clinics at University of Georgia is Georgia’s university plant diagnostic lab. Send it a sick plant, an insect or a weed and it tells you what it is and what to do about it, usually for a small fee.

Lab Details

University of Georgia

Georgia

Disease diagnosis
Nematodes
Virus tests
DNA tests

Open the lab's site for fees, forms and the mailing address.

Services

Disease diagnosis. Finds what is making a plant sick, from fungi and bacteria to cold, drought or chemical injury.
Nematodes. Extracts and counts plant-parasitic nematodes from soil or roots.
Virus tests. Serological tests such as ELISA that check a plant for specific viruses.
DNA tests. PCR or sequencing to confirm a pathogen that can't be told apart by eye.

Start with your county Extension office, which sends the sample on to the clinic when it can't answer the question itself.
DNA and serological tests run at UGA's Plant Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory.

Out of State

The lab’s site doesn’t say whether it takes samples from other states. Ask before sending one.

Sample Tips

Call or email the lab before you send anything. What a lab accepts, and what it charges, changes.
Send a plant that is still sick, not one that has died. Include the edge where sick tissue meets healthy tissue.
Bag the roots and soil and tie the bag off at the stem, so soil stays off the leaves. Wrap leaves in dry paper and don’t add water.
Mail early in the week so the box doesn’t sit in a warehouse over the weekend.
Fill in the lab’s form completely: the plant, what you see, when it started and what has been sprayed or applied.

Not sure it’s worth a lab fee? The plant health key narrows a problem down from what you see, and your county Georgia Extension office can often look at a sample free first.

Other Labs

Bizon is an independent business and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by any university or Extension service. Lab details were checked against each lab’s own site in October 2026. Why Bizon supports Extension.