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Taking a year off, diseases, what to do?
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"David Hare-Scott" writes: wrote: I have a decent sized (25'x30') vegetable garden. I have been using the same plot of land for 17 years. Gradually I have started to have more and more diseases cropping up. What diseases? When? Of what? I realized I left out my location --- I am near Boston. In a pretty urban area, with no working farms anywhere nearby. I really do not know exactly what diseases they are. Most seem to be fungal in nature. turn the soil under deeply, by double digging and burying the topsoil under at least a foot of the deeper soil. as you write about mostly fungal diseases, leave more room between plants and seriously change your watering habits to minimize splash from the soil to the plants. mulch with something to keep the soil from splashing the plants during rains. only pick when the plants are dry (never when the dew is on). always change your gloves and wash them when picking. The tomatoes start getting sick in July, with lower leaves drying up, upper leaves, and tomatoes, getting spots. The tomatoes on the counter seem to have the pox after a while. Loads of small black/brown spots on the surface. It does not really affect the taste. This year I got about a quarter of a decent year's yield. hmm, we lost some leaves due to fungal problems but didn't have much change in results (in fact it was a great year for our tomato crop). we grew beefsteak. A couple of years ago it was early Late Blight, but that does not survive our winters. Also that year the rot often started inside the tomato, not on the outside. blossom end rot? I grow mostly heirlooms, several brandywine variants, a couple of plums types (one for cooking, one for fresh salsa) and two hybrid cherry types. I have tried a few blight resistant types, but they just did not taste very good, and did not seem to do much better against disease. The last two years my cucs just did not grow. This year one of the hills did, the other did not. This year my basil leaves started turning a yellowish green and tasted very bitter. I ripped out the whole crop after just one batch of pesto. Onions, peas, beans, carrots all have done reasonably well. I have had varying amounts of an internal rot disease in my garlic (German Extra Hardy stiffneck). Last year it cost me half my crop, and the garlic I stored did not last past January --- it usually lasts until April or May. This year I got most of the crop, time will tell how long it lasts. internal rot observed when first harvested or internal rot after being in storage for a while? if the bulbs are rotting in the ground then i would raise the beds to give better drainage. I am sorry I cannot be more specific. I guess I want a reasonable generic fix. If such exists. Something that will improve the odds of minimizing common diseases. burying topsoil deep. that will change the spore count of the common fungal diseases. then practice more careful watering and leave more space for airflow (especially for tomatoes as those seem to be the ones you are having the most trouble with). if you dig it and turn it this fall and then leave it undisturbed then the sun UV will take out a lot of the spores. mulching will isolate them and keep them from splashing the plants, but i would not mulch until after the soil is well warmed and the plants are in and growing (as it cools the soil). I have decided to give the land a rest for a year. What should I do? THe soil is still very fertile. I grow tomatoes, peppers, basil, peas, beans, cucs, zucs, carrots, lettuce... I rotate, but I am not sure the garden is really big enough for that to be a big effect, and it is only a four year rotation. Should I grow stuff that is completely different? Solarize? Just turn the soil every few weeks to get it exposed to the sun and elements? Thanks in advance, Depends on the problem(s) Definitely plural, but sadly, non-specific. yes, you are right that rotating in such a small garden is likely to not gain much for disease control (but you still need to do it for nutrient balancing as different crops use different nutrients). songbird |
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