It is caused by six species of Verticillium fungi: V. dahliae, V. albo-atrum, V. longisporum, V. nubilum, V. theobromae and V. tricorpus.

[1] Many economically important plants are susceptible including cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, oilseed rape, eggplants, peppers and ornamentals, as well as others in natural vegetation communities.

Additional strategies to manage the disease include crop rotation, the use of resistant varieties and deep plowing (to accelerate the decomposition of infected plant residue).

In recent years, pre-plant soil fumigation with chloropicrin in non-tarped, raised beds has proven to be economically viable and beneficial for reducing wilt disease and increasing yield and quality of potato in North America.

Some times only one side of the plant will appear infected because once in the vascular tissues, the disease migrates mostly upward and not as much radially in the stem.

[2] In Verticillium, the symptoms and effects will often only be on the lower or outer parts of plants or will be localized to only a few branches of a tree.

The resting structures of Verticillium are able to survive freezing, thawing, heat shock, dehydration, and many other factors and are quite robust and difficult to get rid of.

Still, Verticillium will generally not survive in the branches and trunks of infected trees during hot, dry seasons in regions such as summer in southern California.

[3] Verticillium wilt begins as a mild, local infection, which over a few years will grow in strength as more virile strains of the fungus develop.

Tomato plants are available that have been engineered with resistant genes that will tolerate the fungus while showing significantly lower signs of wilting.

[2] Verticillium albo-altrum, V. dahliae and V. longisporum can overwinter as melanized mycelium or microsclerotia within live vegetation or plant debris.

[2] Verticillium wilt occurs in a broad range of hosts but has similar devastating effects on many of these plants.

In general, it reduces the quality and quantity of a crop by causing discoloration in tissues, stunting, and premature defoliation and death.

[2] The Salinas Valley in California has had severe problems with Verticillium wilt since 1995, most likely due to flooding in the winter of 1995.

Many areas in the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys are unable to grow lettuce due to the high levels of Verticillium dahliae in the soil.

[12] Replanting susceptible species on the site of a removed plant that has succumbed to V. albo-atrum or V. dahliae is inadvisable because of the heightened risk of infection.