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Beekissed
Garden Master
Sure hope so! Been a long and interesting experiment.
Back to Eden Gardening
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Sure hope so! Been a long and interesting experiment.
thejenx
Garden Addicted
If rhubarb is doing well it's okay to pick a few stalks in the first year. Go easy and the roots will still develop just fine. I did this myself and now in year 2 I've got stalks of 2 pounds!!! Ans a killer leaf...
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Finding God in the garden
Chillin' In The Garden
I’m a bit frustrated this spring again. I’ve tried a total of 8 different varieties of potatoes between this year and last and all of them have been really badly hit with alternaria alternata (black spot/brown spot) fungal disease. Last year spring was pretty dry and this spring was extremely wet. They were planted in a new patch so I was hoping the disease wouldn’t follow them but it did. Anybody else deal with this disease and come out with a decent crop? How do you know when to cut an entire plant out due to disease.
With my tomatoes, I have a ton of volunteer wild cherry tomatoes because I wasn’t as diligent as apparently I should have been at collecting the rotting tomatoes from the ground. So those volunteers it appears may have infiltrated areas that I planted other varieties. Does anyone know of any way to distinguish varieties by fruiting pattern (groups of 2,3,4,5,6, etc.) or any other characteristics for that matter prior to full fruit development? My cherry tomatoes seem to grow in groups of 6-7. They produce a ton of tomatoes though and grow VERY large so I don’t want more than one.
With my tomatoes, I have a ton of volunteer wild cherry tomatoes because I wasn’t as diligent as apparently I should have been at collecting the rotting tomatoes from the ground. So those volunteers it appears may have infiltrated areas that I planted other varieties. Does anyone know of any way to distinguish varieties by fruiting pattern (groups of 2,3,4,5,6, etc.) or any other characteristics for that matter prior to full fruit development? My cherry tomatoes seem to grow in groups of 6-7. They produce a ton of tomatoes though and grow VERY large so I don’t want more than one.
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Beekissed
Garden Master
I'd never heard of that particular potato disease, so can't really tell you how to deal with it. Sounds pretty serious, though, and is spreading throughout the world. The use of fungicides seems to have caused it to mutate in some areas so that those fungicides no longer work. That's generally what happens when people reach for chemicals first in any kind of food production~be it animals and plant~they only make the baddies stronger.
http://www.potatoes.co.za/SiteResou...ion to management of brown spot (malroes).pdf
Also not sure how to distinguish between cherry and other tomatoes at a young age...usually takes me awhile and then I can tell by the way the blossoms are growing on the stem....if aligned neatly on either side of the little stem, cherry. That's all I have for information. Also, all my cherry varieties have a much more slender plant stem altogether.
I have a weird tomato thing going on....pulled one plant earlier on due to it stopped growing, the leaves turned very dark green and curled. Pulled it and threw it out...figured some kind of weird disease. Now, a few plants down from that one, another very thick stemmed and seemingly healthy plant(had large bloom on and the coloration of everything was good) stopped growing and I noticed some ooze coming from the top of the plant....come to find that whole main stem was just turned to mush inside. I split it all the way to the roots, which also looked great, and the mush went all the way down. I can only figure some kind of fungal disease. Hope it doesn't take the whole row of plants.
Sourced these from a source I hadn't used in many years and most of these plants came from that nursery....hope they didn't bring a fungal disease along with.
http://www.potatoes.co.za/SiteResou...ion to management of brown spot (malroes).pdf
Also not sure how to distinguish between cherry and other tomatoes at a young age...usually takes me awhile and then I can tell by the way the blossoms are growing on the stem....if aligned neatly on either side of the little stem, cherry. That's all I have for information. Also, all my cherry varieties have a much more slender plant stem altogether.
I have a weird tomato thing going on....pulled one plant earlier on due to it stopped growing, the leaves turned very dark green and curled. Pulled it and threw it out...figured some kind of weird disease. Now, a few plants down from that one, another very thick stemmed and seemingly healthy plant(had large bloom on and the coloration of everything was good) stopped growing and I noticed some ooze coming from the top of the plant....come to find that whole main stem was just turned to mush inside. I split it all the way to the roots, which also looked great, and the mush went all the way down. I can only figure some kind of fungal disease. Hope it doesn't take the whole row of plants.
Sourced these from a source I hadn't used in many years and most of these plants came from that nursery....hope they didn't bring a fungal disease along with.
Finding God in the garden
Chillin' In The Garden
Thanks for that informational handout link. I didn’t know that the insects could make the plants more vulnerable. The disease outbreaks have seemed to follow moderate to severe Colorado potato beetle attacks both years I believe. I don’t know how to control the CPB though. I tried buying a variety of potato this year called King Harry which did seem to mostly resist the CPB but appeared to tolerate the Brown Spot fungus the worst of all the varieties. I’ve heard of a kind of that bacteria that kills certain pests that works against CPB larvae but can’t find it for sale anywhere. I’m trying really hard to stay organic with everything, but I’m thinking I may just have to give up on potatoes.
My liberty and freedom apple trees are once again struggling with Cedar Apple Rust. 2 are doing better than last year and 2 are about the same as last year.
As far as tomatoes, I can never seem to get anything except the one variety of wild cherry tomatoes to germinate. I’ve only done direct seeding so far to avoid having to buy grow lamps and all the other supplies but I’m going to try making my own tomato starts next year hopefully just to get them germinated.
This fall I’m hoping to get strawberries and blueberries started.
digitS'
Garden Master
@Finding God in the garden
I was talking about experiences with Colorado potato beetles this week:
I had picked off the beetles that I had found on the plants earlier this month. It hadn't proved anywhere close to adequate. After spraying:
Spinosad spray isn't quite a bacteria. Bt sprays are infections transmitted by the spray onto the insects. At one time there was a "beetle beater" Bt. It doesn't seem to be available, these days. Spinosad is a toxin that is produced by a bacteria.
Steve
I was talking about experiences with Colorado potato beetles this week:
I had picked off the beetles that I had found on the plants earlier this month. It hadn't proved anywhere close to adequate. After spraying:
Spinosad spray isn't quite a bacteria. Bt sprays are infections transmitted by the spray onto the insects. At one time there was a "beetle beater" Bt. It doesn't seem to be available, these days. Spinosad is a toxin that is produced by a bacteria.
Steve
Finding God in the garden
Chillin' In The Garden
Yeah, Bt was the bacteria I was talking about. I looked for the version that kills CPB early this year before planting and could only find research articles but no products for sale.
I was looking today again for it and only found this Beauveria Bassiana fungus that is supposed to kill CPB but it is pretty pricey, $40 (with shipping included) for enough to treat 150 plants is the cheapest I can find from a non-eBay seller. I found the Bonide brand Spinosad I think you’re talking about. Do you have to wait until the infestation is full scale before you spray or can you spray before the bugs come as a preventative measure?
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Beekissed
Garden Master
I've never used grow lamps. I just use a sunny spot in the house, then later put them out on a table with mini tunnel on top. I find tomato seeds to be among some of the easiest to germinate and peppers the hardest.
Here's what you need for your potatoes!
digitS'
Garden Master
It probably has very little persistence once on the plants.
I read some studies on Spinosad when the Bt "beetle beater" went off the market. It isn't super effective against some bugs and I believe that includes adults on many species. Since it's supposed to be ingested, it probably doesn't kill the bug eggs.
Steve
flowerbug
Garden Master
we are not much into growing potatoes, but i would cut a plant out at the first sign of that disease if i had not seen it before just to keep it from spreading. to me the best line of defense against fungal diseases is plenty of space between plants and making sure to water carefully in the early morning so that the leaves can dry off ASAP.
encourage your worm population because worms are little bacteria factories (they also have fungi in their guts but i don't see any signs that those fungi are harmful to plants) and bacteria are the natural balance to fungi (woodland plants and perennials usually do ok with woody mulches and detritus - garden vegetables can sometimes have mixed responses to too much organic material especially if they are warmer season plants and the soil has not warmed up enough).
if you have way too much organic material on the surface of the soil you may want to bury that at the end of the season and let the sun bake the surface for a while before replanting anything. you can also try the plastic sheet solarize bake the heck out of it treatment but i've never done that here.
the recommendation is to not plant any other host plants for that disease for three years but in some locations it may need to go longer.
