Several home gardeners and a few commercial growers are reporting problems with their fall
crop of leafy greens — specifically leaf spot of turnip and mustard greens. White rust-like lesions appear on the
leaves, rendering them unattractive for sale or for consumption. Some growers are
reporting a 100 percent loss from disease problems.
Fungal diseases and immature
insects over-winter in debris from spent vegetable and flower crops. Over-wintering
disease and insects pose a serious problem that is easily rectified with a few simple
tasks.
The major reason I am pointing out
this one particular incident is this problem occurs universally with most vegetable and
floral plantings. Problems caused by not following recommended good cultural practices
usually are not evident until months or even years later.
As I mentioned, fall clean up of
spent garden and floral debris is very important in controlling many of the diseases that
seem to plague home gardeners. Now is the time to clean debris from vegetable and flower
gardens, especially since most are now dead or dying from the recent frosts.
Master Gardener volunteers have
been working the past few weeks to remove and compost debris at the Miller Center Youth
Garden on Brenner Avenue.
Build a composting bin and compost
the spent garden materials and leaves. Add soil and fertilizer periodically, turning the
heap to accelerate the decaying process. Compost is a natural source of nutrients for
plants.
Deep plowing spent gardens and
flower beds reduces the incidence of disease and insect problems. This cultural practice
smothers many of the fungal spores that cause problems in the summer such as southern stem
blight.
Exposure to freezing weather also
kills other over-wintering fungal spores and many species of insect larva. Plowing and
exposing roots of weeds and other debris also kills nematodes.
Plant a cover crop as soon as the
soil is workable. Cover crops such as rye grain, wheat, clover, or oats reduce erosion and
add much-needed organic matter when plowed under as green manures in the spring. Green
manures help also improve the tilth or workability to the soil.
Research has proven that certain
cover crops reduce certain weed populations. For example, wheat cover crops seem to reduce
certain broadleaf weed populations in early spring plantings.
Take a few moments to take a soil
sample. Home gardeners need to sample every two to three years. As I have mentioned in
previous articles, soil sampling saves much heartache, as well as dollars, in producing
ornamental and edible crops. Sample boxes and forms are available from Cooperative
Extension, located at the Agriculture Center on Old Concord Road in Salisbury. Home
gardeners send the samples for testing to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture in
Raleigh. Reports will arrive in a few weeks, but the closer to spring, the longer it takes
to receive and implement the results.
Darrell Blackwelder is an
agricultural agent with the N.C. Cooperative Extension in Rowan County. |
Cooperative