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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Diseases in the Vegetable Garden

Just as the garden is always evolving, so too are the gardeners. This was my first year with an actual vegetable garden and I learned a lot. My beets never grew, carrots need more space and the zucchini needs a trellis. But the biggest lesson was to buy disease resistant plants. I thought about this is the beginning of the season, but in my rush and excitement to get my garden growing, I planted things that just looked good to me. 

Now, in late August, my cucumbers, tomatoes, string beans and snow peas are infected with a fungus. 




Last week I sprayed everything with an organic anti-fungal spray and though the plants look slightly better, I am not confident they will make it. 

Well, lesson learned. I will be sure to do a  good clean up in the next few months and remove the diseased plants completely. And next year I will do my research early and plant disease resistant varieties. 

4 comments:

  1. Vegetable gardening has been getting progressively worse with the weather in the last few years. Too much, too little and fungus sets in. Plants stressed end up fighting pests. I have found growing them elevated has helped. No problems this year after two years of issues. Pots of tomatoes, carrots and lettuce. Pumpkins last year did well because no other cucurbits were grown for a few years.

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    Replies
    1. Hm. A good idea - thanks. By elevated, you mean having them all in containers or in raised beds? I might have to do that...

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  2. Dilute one tablespoon of vinegar in one gallon of water and use to treat fungal infection on any type of plant. It can also help treat black spot on aspen trees and on roses.

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  3. Most people think this is due to disease by herbicide drift and some pesticides will do this damage from crop dusters to mechanical crop spray rigs.

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