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With
late summer approaching, now is a vital time to watch your vegetable garden
closely. In late summer, vegetable gardens are at their most prime time to fall
prey to pests and disease. And while common garden diseases can often be avoided
with regular preventive tactics, such as making use of cured composts and
seaweed sprays, sometimes viral diseases get the best of our gardens.
Fungal
spores usually show up in a garden via the wind or insects. One of the most
common are those which cause leaf spot diseases such as early blight. Tomatoes
are highly prone to this type of fungal spore and can get infected without you
even knowing it. Dark brown patches on the leaves of your tomato plants means
they have early blight, which spreads fast on damp leaves.
At the first
sign of early blight, it is advised to clip off infected leaves, but only if the
foliage is dry. Messing around with damp, infected foliage will only serve to
spread millions of fungal spores throughout the garden and infect other tomato
plants. After infected foliage is removed (if possible) it is advised to spray
down the tomato plants with a mixture of one part milk to four parts water,
along with 1 teaspoon of baking soda for every quart of water used. A few drops
of liquid soap will help to make the spray stick. The reason this spray is
effective is that dried milk when exposed to the Sun's ray's temporarily changes
into a disinfectant, while the bicarbonate component of baking soda kills new
fungal colonies. Although copper and sulfur are commonly used to treat fungal
outbreaks, copper does not break down in the soil readily and is toxic to
earthworms and many beneficial microorganisms. As for Sulfur, it can burn
foliage and make the soil too acidic.
If your
tomato plants happen to be unlucky enough to get a soilborne fungal disease,
such as that of Fusarium or Phytopthora, you need to act quick. Soilborne fungal
spores will attack the roots of tomato plants, resulting in slow growth, gradual
yellowing and a steady wilting (at which point it is too late to save the
plant). Immediately removing plants taken down by soilborne fungi is imperative
to keeping future crops from contracting fungi left behind in the soil. To catch
a fungal spore outbreak early on, pay attention to how thirsty the tomato plants
are in proportion to their rate of growth. If they are drinking up a flood but
show slow growth, they likely have a soilborne fungal spore infection.
Organic and
natural
fungicides are the best remedy for fungal infections with organic tomatoes. Four good products widely
used by organic nurseries for treating soilborne fungi are SoilGard, MycoStop,
RootShield and Contans. If you need a strong but effective fungicide for
treating leaf spot and blight, consider using Serenade. It contains a naturally
occurring bacterium called Bacillus subtilis, which is effective at destroying
many types of fungi.
A great
selection of 100% natural fungicides and organic tomato kits are available at
Gardens Alive
Author: Ry
ORGANIC GARDENING TIPS
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