Ways to minimize effects of disease in gardens
4. TOSS THE EXCESS AND EXPIRED
First, you purge, Bianco said. Get rid of things that are stale or expired. I threw out some year-old granola and half a package of stale shortbread cookies. (I don’t even like shortbread cookies.
We a lso tossed t he Tupperware that was missing lids and consolidated things into empty jars that kept turning up.
5. PUT THE PUZZLE BACK TOGETHER
) to critical levels before they strike. example, TMV means it’s resis
There are two ways to minitant to tobacco mosaic virus. Othmize the effects of diseases. First, er common viral designations for When I was a horticulture stuexpand the size of the garden to tomatoes are F for fusarium wilt dent, I was urged to never smoke allow crop rotation, which allows resistance, V for verticillium wilt, cigarettes around tomato plants. suff iciently different arrangeL for gray leaf spot and N for nemIn the case of both the At the time I considered this adments of plants each year. Solution atodes, a type of root-damaging pantries our organizers vice an old wives’ tale. It wasn’t No. 2 is to find vegetable varietroundworm. worked on, they added a until I discovered tobacco mosaic ies resistant to the disease. These I was thrilled to find a master few storage baskets that virus on my tomatoes that I took a won’t be in my favorite heirloom list of plant disease resistance grouped together certain closer look at the disease. Lo and catalogs because breeding for discodes on the Johnny’s Selected items, such as teas, spices behold, that old smoking-aroundease resistance is a modern thing. Seeds website. This is a highly or lentils. In my pantry, Bitomatoes link came up on the UniIt’s a hybridization thing. It may valuable feature for home garanco added Lazy Susans for versity of Minnesota website: even be a GMO thing. These vadeners who have met with disease soup cans. She also added “Cigars, cigarettes and pipe torieties are the salvation of farmers problems in the past. The list tells labels on each shelf as a rebaccos can be infected with tobacin regions where certain diseases you what every suffix abbreviation minder for everyone who co mosaic virus. Handling these are epic. means. This is a universal code uses the pantry. smoking materials contaminates Keep in mind these are “resisfor the seed industry developed
For shelves that don’t the hands, and subsequent hantant” varieties, not completely disby the U.S. Department of Agripull out, it’s important to dling of plants results in a transease-proof. In areas of very high culture. use the vertical space, so mission of the virus. Therefore, concentrations of disease organTo access the list, go to www. everything is within eye do not smoke while handling or isms, the resistance may not be johnnyseeds.com and click on level. transplanting plants.” enough to overcome these odds. Growing Center in the left side
“It’s like putting togethThis past year, every one of my To maximize results, let the innavigation bar. Scroll down to er a puzzle,” Bianco said. carefully selected heirlooms defected area lie fallow (unused) for Plant Disease Resistance Codes. Some pieces fit better in clined and died. A postmortem a year to break the reproductive farmers, not just seed packets for Use it online or print it out to keep different conf igurations at season’s end revealed it was afcycle. Bake the ground in summer home gardens. It’s our starting on hand for reference as you shop and it takes a little bit of flicted with root knot nematodes under a sheet of black plastic to point for finding tomatoes and seed varieties for next year’s garden.trialanderror.thathadreachedcriticalmassthekillthemoff.Thisintermediateothervegetablevarietiesspecial
A pantry project is a third year after the garden’s crestep will give resistant varieties ly bred to resist diseases without The saying goes: Insanity is dogood start for those who ation. Like many other diseases, greater advantage the following chemical controls. ing the same thing over and over want to become more orit’s due to small space gardens season. It helps to know what to look expecting a different result. If your ganized, Bianco said. “It where crops can’t be rotated sufJohnny’s Selected Seeds has alfor in disease resistant seed stock. plants are suffering from diseases, doesn’t take as long. It gets ficiently to prevent disease propaways impressed me as the workThese varietal names are followed if yields are poor or they just lack you motivated and lets you gation. In small spaces, diseases ing farmer’s seed catalog. Maybe by abbreviations that indicate revigor, don’t replant these same vafeel successful.” build up over two or three seasons it’s because they sell in bulk for sistance to specific diseases. For rieties.