Rhizoctonia is a common foe of sugarbeet crops. Rhizoctonia is a fungus that favors hot temperatures and often overwinters in the soil and on plant tissue before beginning a new season of infection in the spring. Different types of Rhizoctonia called anastomosis groups (AGs) cause a number of diseases like crown and root rot, damping off and foliar blight. Rhizoctonia penetrates the beet through leaf petioles, the crown or the root and can cause up to a 50 percent loss in yield.