Vegetable Garden Disease Management
Vegetable gardening can be a fun and rewarding activity. It can be a source of pride to be able to provide fresh and homegrown vegetables to your family or give vegetables to friends. It can also be good exercise to work in a garden if the garden is a manageable size for the person.
One issue that can put a damper on vegetable gardening efforts is disease. Note that most vegetables can have problems with a few diseases, but some diseases can be more of a problem than others.
Today, I will be sharing tips to assist in reducing disease issues in your home garden. I will be sharing information from a revised UGA publication by Elizabeth Little, UGA Home Garden/ Small Farm Plant Pathologist.
How do you have disease issues in the first place? Disease issues can range from root rot, leaf spots and fruit rots as the most common. Disease issues can come from a variety of organisms. Fungi, bacteria, nematodes and viruses can all cause disease problems in the garden spot. You will see more fungi and bacteria-type disease where moisture is more frequent and temperatures are warm. Viral disease are more common in summer when disease-carrying insects are more on the move. Nematodes will cause root issues more in warm weather, but they can be an issue all year. You may hear or read where disease organisms are referred to as pathogens or plant parasites. The rest of the article will center on tips to manage or reduce disease issues in a garden.
For starters, the site where you plant the garden is very important. Take time in selection. Stay away from areas that stay wet or just do not drain well. Plants are not going to perform well in areas that stay wet. Areas like this will contribute to root and crown diseases.
The garden spot needs to be in a sunny area that is well ventilated. Granted, we will get much needed rain and a sunny spot will help plant foliage dry quicker after a moisture event. Plant foliage does not need to stay well so planting in a shady area can lead to more foliar type diseases.
Don’t forget about crop rotation in a vegetable garden. Planting annually the same plant family in the same spot can lead to pathogen build-up. It is suggested to grow the same type of vegetable or closely related vegetables in the same area soil once every 3-5 years. You can actually reduce most pathogens that can cause issues by crop rotation. We can provide you with a chart of common vegetables and their plant families to help you in this area.
Using disease free seed and transplants in the first place can help. Note that some diseases can be of the seedborne variety. If you choose to save seed, do some research on plant species and cultivars that are appropriate. For sure only save seed from healthy plants. Some diseases can contaminate the seed of the host plant. If seed is disease contaminated, the new plant the next growing season can have problems due to this extra source of disease.
Keep in mind that many of the commercial seed you buy is produced in more arid western spots where seedborne diseases are less common. In addition, seed companies normally will apply fungicides to protect seed and seedlings. This will not protect seed after the seedling stage. Many people will buy transplants and that is fine as long as you are buying plants that look to be free of disease and insect issues at purchase. I will also suggest that planting disease resistant varieties is said to be one of the more efficient ways to reduce disease issues in a garden. Resistance can mean a variety can be totally immune or partially immune to a certain disease issue.
Another tip is to plant items at the correct time of year. I think more importantly along these line is soil temperature. Many times I will see vegetables planted too early in the season when the soil temperatures are too cool. Soil temperature can be a problem depending on the vegetable and soil can even be too warm for the cool-season seed. We will try to go in more detail on this topic in a future article. Proper spacing depending on the vegetable and even the use of trellising can help in disease management. You want to have good air circulation and you do not want to crowd plants. Staking or trellising of some items can help with circulation and aid in keeping foliage dry thus reducing chance of disease.
For more information, contact UGA ExtensionGordon County at 706-629-8685 or email gbowman@uga.edu.