Swett, an assistant Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology, specializes in vegetable and field crop pathology. Swett completed her Ph.D. in plant pathology from UC Davis before joining the faculty in 2017.

Research interests:

Vegetable crop pathology, field crop pathology, vegetable crop physiology, co-managing pathogens and water use, soil-borne plant pathogens, fungal pathogen ecology

Brief overview:

Soil-borne plant pathogens cause major losses in California vegetables and field crops. Exacerbating this, water scarcity is driving many agricultural producers to reduce water inputs and use recycled and low-quality water—practices which can promote disease development.

I seek to improve management of soil borne fungal pathogens by developing diagnostic methods, co-managing plant pathogens and soil health, and developing fumigation alternatives. I also work to reduce fungicide use through disease forecasting, assist with developing disease-resistant cultivars, improve water treatment strategies to enable reuse, and develop novel strategies to mitigate the effects of deficit irrigation and salinity on disease losses.

Current projects:

• Reduce, Remediate, Recycle: Enhancing alternative water resources availability and use to increase profitability in specialty crops
• Managing the effects of irrigation practices on Fusarium wilt on tomato crops in California
• Tracking down Typhoid Mary: Rotation crops and weeds as hidden hosts of Fusarium oxysporum f. splycopersici race 3, the cause of Fusarium wilt in tomato