Dr. Mark Black
Mark Black is Extension Plant Pathologist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Housed at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Uvalde, he is fortunate to have excellent technical support from Alfred Sanchez and James 'Bud' Davis as well as bright energetic college student workers.
Recent efforts towards control of Pierce’s disease of grape include studies on vineyard site risk factors, supplemental plant hosts of the bacterial pathogen, and partial resistance among rootstocks. A collection of Xylella fastidiosa cultures is a work-in-progress at Uvalde utilized by other labs in Texas.
Black also works with TAMU peanut breeders to select breeding lines resistant to Tomato spotted wilt virus. These efforts contributed to release of four field-resistant varieties since 1996 for use in Texas and Oklahoma.He supports County Extension Agents in southwest Texas with plant disease diagnosis and disease control strategies for vegetable and field crops as well as urban plant problems.
Black was raised on a small farm in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas, and has one grown son. He studied plant pathology at the University of Arkansas and North Carolina State University. Hobbies include learning about Texas wildflowers, using native plants in landscaping, and growing a few pine trees on rocky hillsides in Arkansas.