Eat your veggies! They are so good for you. It is nice to get them from your local grocery store but even better to pick them out of your own garden. Nothing like the smell and taste of fresh veggies! Nothing like the satisfaction of knowing you grew them on your own! Nothing like the joy of sharing with family and friends! Nothing like a good ole’ disease to rain on your bountiful vegetable parade! It’s just like me to be a “Debbie Downer”, isn’t it?! It would be great if we could just yell at the disease and it would go away. It is not quite that simple but I do have some solutions for you.

PEPPERS:

Cercospora Leaf Spot:

• The disease lays dormant in old affected leaves left in the soil of the garden bed.
• It spreads quickly by wind, splashing water, and leaf to leaf contact.
• Water is necessary to activate the disease.
• Lesions on leaves are somewhat circular, yellowish at first, and have a white to tan center with a dark halo around the spot. Spots will dry up and turn into holes.
• Bottom leaves will be affected first, turn yellow and drop off the plant.

Cercospora Leaf Spot Control:

• Remove infected leaves & throw them into the garbage.
• Do not overcrowd plants.
• Avoid overhead irrigation. Water spreads the disease.
• Spray immediately with Copper Fungicide by Bonide. Make treatments weekly.
• Fertilize monthly with Espoma’s Garden-Tone + Van Wilgen’s Fish & Seaweed weekly(especially in this heat) to keep plants healthy.
• Clean garden beds thoroughly in the Fall. Do not leave any dead leaf debris in the garden.
• Throw infected plant debris away in the garbage, not into your compost pile.

TOMATOES:

Septoria Leaf Spot:

• It begins on the lower leaves of the tomato plant.
• The disease remains living in old tomato plant leaves.
• Spots appear as water-soaked circles with grayish centers, a dark brown margin, and little black spots in the middle.
• Spots will eventually dry up and leaves will drop.
• It is spread by wind, rain, insects, cultivating, etc.

Septoria Leaf Spot Control:

• Remove infected leaves and throw them away in the garbage.
• Avoid overhead irrigation.
• Fertilize tomatoes with Espoma’s Tomato-Tone monthly + Van Wilgen’s Fish & Seaweed weekly to keep them strong.
• Spray weekly with a fungicide, such as Daconil, Copper, or Serenade.
• Do a complete garden clean-up in the Fall and remove all infected vegetation.
• Rotate your crop yearly to a different location in the garden.

SQUASH & CUCUMBERS:

Powdery Mildew:

• This disease shows up on leaves of squash and cucumbers in a blotchy form or a full covering.
• The fungus is white to gray in color.
• It weakens the plant significantly to the point that you may not get any maturing fruit.
• If the fungus completely covers the leaf, photosynthesis will stop, the leaf will turn yellow and drop off the plant.
• It remains to overwinter in affected cucumbers and squash.
• In the Spring, it is spread by wind, insects, rain, birds, etc.

Powdery Mildew Control:

• Be sure plants have good air circulation and are not too crowded.
• Water plants at the base, not from the top.
• Pick off and throw away infected leaves.
• Treat weekly with a fungicide. Daconil, Safer’s Garden Fungicide, and Copper will all do the trick.
• Fertilize monthly with Espoma’s Garden Tone monthly + Van Wilgen’s Fish & Seaweed weekly to keep plants healthy and strong.
• Clean up the dead plants in the garden at the end of the year. Fungal spores will remain in the dead leaves and reinfect plants next season.

Hopefully, I was not too much of a “Debbie Downer” in this tip. Let’s look at the bright side of things. Rarely do these diseases kill the plant and you will still enjoy some delicious vegetables as long as you follow some of the control measures above. Now I am more of a “Penelope Positive”, don’t you think?!

Come see us at VanWilgen’s. We would love to help!

(Be proactive. Get ready for the thaw.)

Don’t worry. I promise no snow monsters are going to jump out of the snow and grab you, no icy pit is going to pull you in, and no frozen furball is going to nip at your ankles. I know that sometimes when it is cold and snowy it can feel like this. “No worries, spring is on its way!”

To help conquer our fears of what lurks beneath the snow, let’s get prepared. Being proactive can greatly reduce winter stress and make the transition into spring a lot easier.

Here is what we may anticipate once the snow melts…

You may see unexplainable squiggly lines all over your lawn that look like a drunken bike rider went joyriding all over your back yard. This culprit is no inebriated biker but it could be a bunch of annoying voles playing chase under the snow. Here is what you must do, immediately! As soon as the snow melts, apply a vole repellent right away. We definitely do not want these heavy breeders taking hold and eating the roots of your garden plants.

Once the snow melts you may also notice these alien-like, irregular circles forming on your lawn. The circles may be grayish or have a pink hue. This is Gray or Pink Snow Mold. Ew! Not a pretty sight but it won’t do tons of harm if you are proactive. Arm yourself with a rake, Lime, and maybe a good fungicide. Get out there and rake up those alien circles. This will help stop the spread. Apply Lime because this will help keep this pesky fungus at bay. If all else fails, it may be wise to put down a fungicide.

Believe it or not, cool-season weeds will pop their heads right up once the snow disappears. Be ready for them. Arm yourself with a good weed control that works in cool temperatures. This is key to a low weed count lawn.

In addition to funky trails, weird-looking patches, and cool-season weeds, you may see some bare patches. Some grass probably just could not make it through the winter. Maybe it died off from too much snow plow salt. Maybe it rotted under the snow or could not recover from the summer drought. Whatever the reason, now is the time to be proactive. Throw some grass seed down with a little gypsum, starter fertilizer, and hay. Watch those bare patches fill in quickly and establish themselves before the summer heat sets in.

Don’t get nervous this winter, get ready. Get ready with the tools you need to be proactive and ready for what lurks below, once the snow melts.

SHOPPING LIST:
1. I Must Garden Mole & Vole Repellent, Vole Scram, or Messina’s Mole & Vole Repellent

2. Encap’s Fast Acting Lime or Soil Doctor’s Pelletized Lime

3. Infuse Fungicide

4. Weed Beater Ultra (for cool-season weed control)

5. NEW!!! WEED BEATER ULTRA FE(new, natural way to attack weeds)

6. Van Wilgen’s Grass Seed

7. Encap’s Fast Acting Gypsum

8. Greenview’s Starter Fertilizer or Espoma’s Organic Starter Fertilizer

9. Mainely Mulch Chopped Straw & Hay

Come see us at VanWilgen’s. We would love to help!

Every year at Van Wilgen’s customers bring me to plant samples in little, plastic baggies. When I see those plastic baggies, I run and hide in the back room. I’m just teasing. I am always curious to see what is lurking inside. Many of those baggies contain some kind of insect, weed, or disease. How come nobody brings me chocolate chip cookies or bouquets of flowers?! Teasing again.

This year, most of the baggies contain very unhappy pachysandra samples. What happened to our poor pachysandra over the winter? The winter seemed mild enough but our pachysandra is coming out of it looking pale, thin, and spotty. What is going on? There are a few culprits that could be adversely affecting your poor pachysandra.

POSSIBLE SIGNS OF WINTER INJURY:

• Yellowing, especially if in the full sun
• Brown scorching on the edges of the leaves, making them appear papery & torn
• Lack of vigor

POSSIBLE SIGNS OF VOLUTELLA BLIGHT:

• Dark brown & light tan concentric rings on the leaves with a dark brown margin
• Entire leaf may turn brown
• Brown cankers can develop on the stems as the disease progresses
• Leaf loss
• Laying down of plants
• Thinning of plants
• Dying off in circular patterns

SIGNS OF EUONYMUS SCALE:

• Oblong, white, or brown flecks on the stems
• Mottled yellowish & green top leaves
• Loss of leaves if the scale is severe
• Plant die-off

CURE:

Use Bonide’s Horticultural Oil Spray in the spring, summer & fall. This will help suffocate any scale insects on your pachysandra. Combine with Bayer All-in-One Rose & Flower Care by Bayer every 6 weeks throughout the growing season.

SIGNS OF TWO SPOTTED SPIDER MITE:

• Chlorotic/pale leaves
• Stippled/dotted leaves
• Very light cob webbing on undersides of leaves
• Leaf loss is spider mites are severe

CURE:

Use Bonide’s Horticultural Oil Spray on an as need basis at 1-week intervals between sprays.

There are many reasons your pachysandra may not be looking so hot this season but let’s focus on VOLUTELLA BLIGHT. This has been a very troublesome disease this spring for our poor pachysandra beds. Many customers have brought in baggies full of sad pachysandra infected with the Volutella fungus. There are some definite things you can do to improve the health and look of your pachysandra.

STEPS TO HELPING YOUR PACHYSANDRA RECOVER FROM VOLUTELLA BLIGHT:

• Rake out all leaf and plant debris that has built up in your pachysandra beds. Improving air circulation & reducing moisture is key to reducing disease activity.
• If you would like to replant in that area, remove all pachysandra manually or apply Glyphosate to kill plants down to the root system.
• If replanting in the pachysandra bed, choose a different plant that is not vulnerable to Volutella Blight.
• If you would like to revitalize affected pachysandra, cut all pachysandra down to 1 inch tall.
• Fertilize pachysandra with Holly-Tone using 15 cups per 10’ X 10’ area.
• Water in the Holly-Tone.
• Apply Daconil Fungicide beginning at spring bud break. You will need 3 applications at 10-day intervals.
• The organic fungicide of choice is Serenade. Apply 3 X’s, beginning at spring bud break, at 1-week intervals.
• Keep pachysandra beds cleaned out of leaf debris always.
• When watering pachysandra, avoid overhead irrigation. Soaker hoses work best.
• Keep your fingers crossed and talk sweetly to your pachysandra to encourage growth.
• One extra trick to improve ailing pachysandra is Iron-Tone. Iron adds a quick green-up, helping to restore pachysandra’s beauty.

This is a very puzzling pachysandra problem (say that 10 X’s fast) we are having this year. There are steps you can take to greatly improve the health of this struggling ground cover. Keep bringing your little baggies of goodies to me and we will do our best to find a solution to the problem lurking inside.

Come see us at Van Wilgen’s. We would love to help!