Powdery mildew is a fungal
disease that is one of the more common plant diseases that many home
vegetable gardeners will experience. Powdery mildew is in the order of
Erysiphales which contains one family named Erysiphaceae of which many
cause powdery mildew.
Powdery mildew begins on a host plant, in this case one of your
vegetable plants, when the sexual ascospores, or the asexual conidia
germinating on the surface of the plants leaf or stem, resulting in
septate mycelium of uninucleate cells.
Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant diseases to spot. If your
plants are affected, what you will see are white powdery spots on the
leaves and stems. Powdery mildew is most prominent on the lower leaves
although powdery mildew will appear on the upper leaves as it
progresses. If left untreated, the spots will get larger and more dense
as more spores form.
Do you live in an area or environment where you will experience high
humidity and moderate temperatures? If so, then you are more likely to
experience Powdery mildew.
So what will powdery mildew do to your plants if not addressed? Chances
are it won’t kill your plants, but will contribute to the reduction of
fruit and vegetable yields.
While many home vegetable gardeners are looking for a cure for powdery
mildew, one simply does not exist. So what you need to do is take steps
to preventing and controlling powdery mildew. Two good things to make
sure your plants are receiving in helping with prevention is air
circulation and direct sunlight. Both have shown to inhibit powdery
mildew formation.
But, let's say that powdery mildew already exists on your plants. What
you have to do now is move into "control" mode. According to Organic Gardening,
"Research studies in 1999 and 2003 on infected zucchini and winter
wheat (respectively) indicated that spraying cow's milk slowed the
spread of the disease."
By mixing 1 part milk and 9 parts water (by volume), you will create a
spray that can then be applied to your affected plants. Also you can
try a mix of 1 teaspoon of baking soda with 1 quart of water as a spray.
This helps raise the pH, which is not a suitable environment for
powdery mildew.
At the end of the season, remove all plants that were affected with
powdery mildew, bag them up and throw them away. While some sources say
they are ok to add to your compost pile, I take a more cautious stand
and do not do so.
I recently read in an issue of
Mother Earth News magazine a great quote. “Every time you buy organic,
you’re persuading more farmers to grow organic.” This quote goes well
along with my lines of thinking. I am a true believer of not buying a
product or hiring someone to perform a service from a business if that
product or service does not meet my expectations for what I am paying.
In this case that product is freshly grown fruits or veggies. I grow a
lot of my own food, but lack the space to grow it all. So, for the
items that I am unable to grow in abundance I will search out quality
farms in my area, that do not use chemical pesticides or synthetic
fertilizers. I am willing to pay a little more because I am getting
quality food, great customer service and get what I am paying for.
What I have also noticed in my search for local farms, is the term
organic being thrown around a lot. The question I was mulling over, is
that term overused? Has it become nothing more than a marketing gimic?
My dad, and grandfather before him, practiced organic methods when
tending to their gardens. No use of pesticides or synthetic
fertilizers, heck they did not even use gas powered tools. Everything
was done with a little elbow grease and plenty of sweat. They each kept
compost piles, and since my dad was (and still is) a big fisherman, all
of the fish waste went into his garden beds. Everything was natural.
But one thing was common, you never heard them use the word organic. If
you asked them if they practiced organic methods, they probably would
be the first to tell you they have no idea of what you are talking
about. They used safe, healthy methods to grow their food, not because
they wanted to be “organic”, but because they wanted to put good food
on the table.
In order for someone to use the word “organic” they must meet some
criteria as outlined by the USDA. You can read up on what it takes to
become certified organic on the USDA website.
Me personally, I think the word “organic” is quickly a word that is
being overused. But what do you think? I understand the importance of
needing to certify items to be organic, but do you think “organic” is
being overused?
How do I stake up my tomato
plants is a question I receive all the time. My answer is, whatever
works for you. When I was a kid, my dad would use my broken hockey
sticks, cut off the blade, or what remained thereof, and use them as
stakes for his tomato plants. He would then secure the tomato plants to
the hockey stick by loosely tying them with some type of string, twine,
old t-shirts and even mom's ripped pantyhose. He was a resourceful
guy.
There are various other ways to stake up tomatoes and I wanted to cover
just a few. First I wanted to start with the method I use to prop up my
tomatoes, and that is the use of tomato cages. Regardless of whether
you use the round tomato cages, triangular tomato cages or square tomato cages,
the concept of their use is the same. Simply push your tomato cage
into the soil so that your tomato plant sits in the center. As the
tomato plant grows, you will have to do some maneuvering of branches so
they don't get "stuck" as they try and grow upwards.
As mentioned earlier with the method my father used, you can use stakes or poles
to prop them up. As with the tomato cage method, you will have to do
some maneuvering. With the stake method, you have to attach them to the
tomato stake with string or twine. They even sell velcro plant ties which are great. You can move them rather easily when you have to make adjustments.
Although I have not used these myself, I have seen in use spiral tomato plant supports.
The way these work is very simple.The idea is to eliminate the part
where you tie them to the stake by weaving your tomato plants as they
grow, through the spiral. They come in heights of 4 to 6 feet, which is
ideal for most varieties of tomatoes.
Another excellent method is creating your own trellis where there are
poles on each end with some twine at various heights connected between
them. This tomato propping method is most commonly called the Florida weave. As the tomato plants grow, you weave them in between the strings on the trellis.
Finally, just let them be. Some gardeners I know do not even stake up
their tomatoes at all. They lay down some black plastic tarp over the
soil, then let the tomatoes simply grow along the ground. Of course
this method makes your plants susceptible to a lot things, but if going
100% natural is what you are looking for, then this is it.
Here in New Jersey we are
experiencing a boat load of rain. Last I heard on the news, for our
area, we are over a few inches above last year’s total at this same
time. Last year’s total rainfall at this time were normal measurements.
As Luke Bryan sings, Rain is a Good Thing. However, too much rain, is not a good thing for your vegetable plants.
Good drainage in your vegetable garden beds can prevent the most obvious
issue which is root rot. Root rot is a disease that can occur in
vegetable plants both indoors and outdoors, which is the decaying of a
vegetable plants’ roots. Root rot will occur when the roots of your
vegetable plants get too wet, which creates a perfect environment for
various fungi that carry out this process.
As stated earlier, making sure the area where your vegetable plants
reside has adequate drainage is a major key in preventing root rot.
There a few solutions you can implement to prevent excess water around
your vegetable plants’ roots.
For vegetable plants that you are growing indoors, let’s start with the
obvious. Make sure that whatever your vegetable plants are planted in
have enough drainage holes. You may have purchased a pot (or pots) from
a home or garden center and think that it may have enough holes, but
that is not always the case. Do not be afraid to drill a few more in
the bottom of the pot, no less than ¼” in diameter. To prevent soil
erosion in your pots, line them with newspaper before you put your
potting soil in. This will allow the excess water to drain out, while
keeping the soil in.
For your outdoor vegetable garden there are a number of solutions you
can go with. For starters, build your garden beds up using raised beds.
As vegetable gardening author Chris McLaughlin writes in her book Vertical Vegetable Gardening: A Living Free Guide, raised beds give you better drainage especially in areas wher clay soil dominates.
Many people that have raised beds, build them in such a way as there is
no need to actually go into the bed itself and that helps by not
compacting the soil every time a step is taken near their vegetable
plants.
Finally, whether you are using raised beds or not, mix up a soil
solution that aides in wicking away excess water. There are three great
products that you can add to your soil before you plant that will help
with this. They are peat moss, coir and perlite.
The peat moss and coir are interchangeable. Although you can, you would
not use them together as they serve the same purpose. They make your
soil loose and friable. Peat moss is far less expensive than coir, and
one distinct advantage coir has over peat to justify the price, is coir
is more environmentally friendly as a renewable resource since it is
derived from the fiber of the outer husks of coconuts.
Peat moss, also referred to as Sphagnum (peat moss’ genus name), grows
in dense masses on boggy ground. Peat bogs are valuable to wildlife
habitat that rely on them. I was unable to locate any study findings as
to how quickly or slowly peat regenerates itself once it’s stripped.
You would mix either peat or coir with perlite though. Perlite is a
form of obsidian (A hard, dark, glasslike volcanic rock formed by the
rapid solidification of lava without crystallization) consisting of
glassy globules, used in plant growth.
Perlite helps loosen heavy soils (high clay content), aerate soil,
prevent soil compaction, and aid in preventing overwatering. When it
comes to perlite, a little goes a long way. So you do not need to add a
lot to your garden beds.
The combination of using raised beds along with items that aid in
preventing over watering will help with reducing the potential of root
rot on your vegetable plants.
Last
night I was on a radio program and we were discussing fall gardening.
What to plant, what not to plant, when to plant and so on. During the
course of the interview, we began talking about how to protect plants in
the colder months. Without hesitation I replied "use a cold frame".
A cold frame is a great way to extend your gardening season well in to
the cooler months. It works similar to a green house, however it is
lower to the ground, which in turn, at night, will keep the warmer air
closer to the plants. It will also have a means to ventilate easily so
that if it does get warm during the day, you simply open up the
ventilation and let the heat out, which helps prevent "burning" your
plants.
Here is a great step by step instructional that I found on building your
own cold frame out of some recycled material. It's easy to build, and
if you have some basic skills, you should get this done in no time.
Here are the Step by Step instructions
I do very well here in New
Jersey growing peppers. For the past two season, I have had peppers
grow (and thrive) well into November, even after a couple of frosts also
with no cover protection.
I grow a lot of sweet peppers and some hot peppers, but as a total, I
grow a boatload of peppers. Enough to share with the neighborhood my
wife tells everyone.
With that said, I wanted to share some of my tips on peppers, that I
believe has lead me to have such great pepper harvests. Of course I
can’t control the weather in the cooler months that would do peppers
harm, I do believe that by using these tips, I am able to have my
peppers grow very hardy, and that helps out a great deal.
Your Site
As with any other fruit or vegetable plant, peppers are no different,
and that is, good peppers start with an excellent foundation. In this
case, the foundation for your peppers is the soil itself. Obviously
some might disagree and say “no, Mike, it starts with the seeds you
use”. While I do agree with that statement, that good peppers start
with seeds from a reputable company (or a friend), I am assuming that
you have already completed that step.
Before you plant your pepper transplants (or direct pepper seeds), make
sure to mix in plenty of compost. I like to do a mix of compost from my
compost pile, vermicompost from my worm bin, and seasoned livestock
manure (cow manure). I would like to add that I use so much
vermicompost that I added a worm tower this year to my yard and plan on adding another worm tower next season. They can be a bit pricey.
As a side note. If you started your peppers from seeds indoors, be sure
to harden them off, that is acclimate them to the outdoors before you
plant them in your garden bed.
Bring the Heat
Pepper plants love heat. Which bodes well for us here in New Jersey,
because around July to August, between the heat and humidity, it can
become unbearable for humans in the summer. If you live in a cooler
climate, you can always help increase the temperatures around the plant
using cold frames,
greenhouses and so on. You want to keep the temperatures for your
pepper plants above 60 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 16 degrees Celsius).
Spacing
Peppers are abundant producers when given plenty of space. You may
produce bigger or more quantities of peppers if you grow just a few,
spaced out wider. With that said, I have done well spacing them out
eight to ten inches, although one gardening friend of mine has his
spaced out further (more like 12 to 16 inches), and does great.
Care
Keep your pepper area weed free. I like to use newspaper as a weed
barrier, then place some straw on top of that. I won’t go into all of
the benefits of using straw in the garden, but in this case it further
helps keeping the weeds at bay.
Be sure that your pepper plants receive plenty of water in the early
stages and then a maintenance watering of at least 1 to 2 inches of
water weekly. Water a little more often if your conditions are
extremely dry and/or hot.
The straw we used a couple of paragraphs up also help in retaining moisture in the garden.
To build a healthier, sturdier plant, pinch off the first few flowers in
the early going. You want your pepper plants to direct their energy
towards growing the pepper plant itself, not peppers just yet. This
will pay big dividends later in the season.
Harvest and Enjoy
Once your peppers reach their full maturity, gently pluck them from the
plant making sure you don't damage the plant itself. Some people like
to use scissors to cut the stem, me I will simply pull the pepper with
one hand while holding the branch that it is on with the other hand.
Whatever works for you!
If you have been following our blog, facebook page, or our website, then you already know that we are very enthusiastic about growing vertically.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to growing vertically with many
varieties of fruits and vegetables, and herbs are no different.
Herbs grow great in containers, and this project combines the best of
both worlds, container gardening and vertical gardening. If you have
some basic tools and handy skills, then all you really need is to get
started.
Here are the Step by Step instructions
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