A seasonal button grower in the Haryana plains, crop day 30, finds soft wet lumps dripping amber liquid on six bags of one rack. Day two: nine. Day four: fourteen, neighbours affected. Pattern: spreading from a point.
Competing causes: wet bubble, dry bubble, over-wet casing. Splitting evidence: the amber drip and shapeless wet mass fit wet bubble, not dry bubble's leathery cracks; casing moisture in unaffected bags is normal, negative evidence against an environmental cause; and this crop's casing was a new FYM and loam lot that was never steamed. ICAR-DMR's wet bubble folder states the resting spores survive up to three years in casing and that steaming casing at 54.4 °C for 15 minutes prevents the disease. The decision does not wait for a laboratory.