The Wrath of Nature: Aphids, Spots, Spores and Borers

Back in June I was talking with a fellow gardener and she kept reiterating how humbling gardening was and how it keeps her grounded.  I remember interpreting her meaning of 'humbling' as the feeling of amazement one gets when a plant they've started from seed bares fruit or the unbeatable freshness of just-picked produce on your plate.

Well, nature must have heard my thoughts and wanted to clear up what it really means for gardening to be a humbling experience because it seems to be using every trick in the book to make sure I understand this summer.

I wrote a few weeks ago about a rapidly progressing mildew problem I was having with my cucumber plants and how I'd cut them back to try and control it.  The spores had really gotten out of hand as can be seen in this black fuzz all over the cucumber vine below.

Here are photos of the cuts I made (left) and their current state (right).  

The leaves all grew back but the mildew continues to make them yellow.  They are actually doing better now and growing like crazy.  The organic fungicide I'd purchased proved useless, so I decided to go with an old home remedy: a weekly spray of 9 parts water to 1 part skim milk with a couple teaspoons of cooking oil thrown in for stickiness.  So far it seems to be keeping things under control.  Most importantly, the cucumber yield is back up. Below is what I was able to pick just yesterday.

As this problem seemed to be reaching a more manageable state, the lovely squash borer came into my life.  These are fun little larvae that settle right in to the interior of squash plant vines and make this happen:

The first clue is a wilted plant (left) and, upon further inspection, one may find a rotten vine (right).  Cutting into your squash vine will likely reveal one of these little friends all tucked away nice and cozy and gorged on your delicious squash vine.

Additionally, you may find deserted brown casings from the pupal stage lurking around the base of your plants. Once the borers have moved in, you're kind of screwed.  The squash plants have likely already started dying and may have even stopped producing.  However, there were a few areas of new growth lurking on my plants so I cut the good parts off and stuck the ends of the vines back in the ground hoping they might take root for a few more rounds of squash.  It worked for a couple of the plants, but not all of them.

Another line of defense I am trying against the squash borers and other types of aphids which like to help themselves to delicious garden snacks is diatomaceous earth.  So far it seems to be helping.  I've sprinkled it everywhere once a week and more frequently if it rains.

This stuff is also great for controlling ants in compost, which is what I usually use it for.  It just comes in a huge bag, so I use an old coffee can with holes poked in the lid for dusting.

I haven't had any trouble with worms eating my tomatoes except for this one below which I quickly squashed.

I also found these weird eggs and little critters just starting to come to life on the underside of a tomato leaf one day, but they were promptly executed and I haven't seen any others since.

Coupled with my weekly milk spray and diatomaceous earth dusting is removal of infected leaves from tomato plants.  Most of my plants are still showing leaf spot on the bottom leaves, but I've been able to keep it in check by taking time every couple of days to cut off the infected areas so it doesn't spread.  

While nature is definitely showing me who is boss this year, I'm learning a lot and keeping copious notes in my garden journal for the future.  Despite everything that is testing me, I'm still having lots of success which I will share soon.

Trouble in Paradise

This week I noticed my cucumber plants started developing strange little yellow spots on the leaves.  Of course, I immediately started researching this online and discovered my plants were being affected by downy mildew.  You can see the yellow spots starting to show up in the photo below.

I was advised by someone working at American Beauty Garden Center (a great local garden store) to try Serenade Disease Control spray, which is a bacterial fungicide safe for organic gardening.  So, I did.  The bottle of Serenade specifically says not to expose plants to water for at least four hours after application.  This also just happened to be one of the rainiest weeks we've had all summer.  Of course, every time I applied it, it would start raining within a couple of hours, sometimes continuing into the night.

This just exacerbated the mildew problem and I ended up having to cut off a lot of the leaves from my cucumber vines because it was starting to spread to the peppers, okra, chard, and lima beans.  Mildew spores hang onto the underside of leaves and are carried by wind, so it only took a couple of days for it to start affecting everything.  I also noticed that my tomatoes had started developing septoria leaf spot (photo below).

So, tonight I spent two hours in the garden clipping leaves off of nearly everything where I noticed the mildew had spread.  Information online is conflicting as to whether removal of leaves containing mildew spores is necessary, but it seems to make sense that it would be if the mildew infection spreads from one leaf to another via the spores.  Some information suggests removal of diseased plants in their entirety while other sources say that the mildew only affects the leaves.

I decided to take a risk and remove the leaves for a couple reasons.  First, my cucumber vines are way too intertwined to decide which are diseased or not, and even if I could tell, removal of just those affected would be nearly impossible.  Also, I have read in a couple different places that this specific mildew only affects the leaves, so I figured there would still be a chance the plants would survive if the problem areas were removed.  Throwing out the entire vine seemed a bit premature if there would be any chance it would sprout new leaves and survive.  For now, I just plan to apply fungicide every seven days as suggested and hope for the best.

Here is the bag of affected leaves I ended up with at the end of the night.  It's important to remember that if you are faced with this issue, the leaves need to be completely removed from your garden.  This means no compost bin, because the spores can continue to thrive there.

Controlling the Weeds

Taking care of what you're growing is the fun and rewarding part of having a garden, but unwelcome weeds can quickly become overwhelming and cut into the time you have to do the fun stuff.  Here are a couple of tips on how to keep weeds under control so you can focus on your veggies.

Grass clippings are great way to smother any weeds that may want to pop up in your garden.  The most important thing to consider is whether you have treated your lawn with any kind of chemicals or fertilizers.  If so, you'll unfortunately have to skip this idea.  Even if you're not trying to stay organic, the harsh chemicals many people use on their lawns will kill just about anything except grass and could potentially harm your vegetable plants. 

If your lawn is chemical free, putting grass clippings down between your rows can lock in heat and kill any weeds that may be trying to invade.  As veggie plants grow larger, you can also start to place clippings around the base of the plants to keep weeds down.  Continue to add clippings each time you mow until a nice cover forms over your garden's walkways and beneath your plants.

Spraying is another easy way to manage weeds.  There are a lot of nasty chemical weed killers on the market, but you can make your own non-toxic version with the household items and directions below.  

Vinegar Weed Killer:

1. Fill spray bottle almost to the top with distilled white vinegar.

2. Add three generous squirts (not drops) of dish soap.

3. Add two tablespoons of canola or other cooking oil.

4. Secure the lid and shake. 

Spray this directly onto weeds you want to kill on a hot sunny day.  This mixture won't work very well on overcast days.  The soap and oil help coat the weeds and the vinegar works with the sun to burn up the plant.  You can reapply as needed, just be sure to safeguard your vegetable plants from any of this spray as it will burn anything it comes in contact with. Spray again after any rainfall or after watering.