Take a closer look at one of Oklahoma’s most unique labs—where the patients are plants. Visit the Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostic Lab (PDIDL) in Stillwater, where experts provide accurate identification and management recommendations for plant diseases and insect pests. Think of it as a medical lab—but for gardens, greenhouses and fields.

As part of the OSU Extension Service, PDIDL supports everyone from homeowners with a single struggling plant to commercial growers facing high-stakes agricultural challenges. This tour offers an inside look at how samples are processed, diagnosed and used to inform treatment strategies that protect plant health across the state.

Whether you’re a curious gardener, nature enthusiast or just love seeing science in action, this tour offers a fascinating glimpse into the front lines of plant and insect diagnostics.

Your tour guide, Sara Wallace, is a gardener with degrees in horticulture and plant pathology. She works as a Plant Diagnostician helping people with their plant problems. Twenty-some years ago, she was a paramedic in her home state of Virginia. Her grandmother gave her a Park Seed catalog and encouraged her to grow plants, so she started with an herb garden outside the kitchen. She read library books, practiced on many plants and started a Community Supported Agriculture organization. When she moved to Tulsa, she bought fruit plants at the Tulsa Farmers Market and was encouraged to attend the Horticulture Industries Show, where she learned that all the “plant stuff” she was practicing had a name: Horticulture. She went back to school starting at Tulsa Community College, eventually moving to OSU to complete her horticulture degree. She teaches the plant disease portion of the Master Gardener training across the state and has berries and 40 fruit trees in her backyard in Stillwater.