Extension Search / Diagnostic Labs / Kentucky

University of Kentucky Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory

The Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at University of Kentucky is Kentucky’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 Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Disease diagnosis
Hemp

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.
Hemp. Takes industrial hemp samples. Most labs ask for your state hemp license number, and none take marijuana.

The lab mainly works through county Extension agents, so start at your county office.
Each county sends samples to the lab it has been assigned.

Out of State

This lab doesn’t take samples from outside Kentucky. Use the lab in your own state.

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 Kentucky Extension office can often look at a sample free first.

Other Labs

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