Keeping Your Garden Healthy (part two) "Healthy Vegetables For A Healthy Life"

by: Liz Roberts

All doctors say vegetables are good for your health. However you have to have a healthy garden in order to have a vitamin packed carrot or an antioxidant chocked tomato. Like any other living organism, vegetables can get sick. They can suffer from funguses and viruses like us. Help them to become healthy as they do for you. Be a conscientious gardener and look to make sure they are thriving and green.

Any vegetable in the Cole family tends to suffer the most from fungal diseases. This group includes cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli which are sometimes crippled by black leg and black rot. These are fungal diseases usually caused by insect bites on the leaves or veins or when bacteria enters through the hydrothodes which are natural opens in the leaves. Early symptoms are V shaped yellowish colored lesions along the leaf margins. Black leg starts off as small, harmless looking black spots along leaves and stem. Both viruses grow and destroy the plants. One method of avoiding this is planting your cabbages, Brussels sprouts or broccoli 12 to 14 inches apart and avoid over watering. If they acquire black rot, then collect all diseased leaves, stems and tops and immediately burn or dispose. Do not empty these parts into your compost heap since black rot and black leg are highly contagious.

Tomatoes, the most popular vegetable (or fruit) of any garden is prone to illness as well. It is susceptible to blossom rot which can wipe out scores of young crops. Be on the look out for large leathery brown or black spots on the tomatoes bottoms. It generally occurs with the first fruit cluster. It’s cause is the soil’s lack of calcium. To avoid blossom rot from happening, test your ground’s calcium levels and if the pH is below 6.5 then add limestone or gypsum. Also keep your plants in moist ground and planted away from each other by about 4 to 6 inches. Using nitrogen fertilizer decreases the risk of the disease. Eggplant and peppers can also get blossom rot as well. For them, use the same techniques that you would use for tomatoes.

Cat face is another tomato disease. Low temperatures and/or hormone based weed killers cause this fruit deforming illness. The symptoms are cracking or unusually deformity in the tomatoes along with being swollen or shrunken, The skins will have bands of scar tissue around them as well. Sun scald is another deforming disease. This happens during hot, dry weather when there is no moisture. Tomatoes as well as a host of other garden vegetables , such as eggplant, rhubarb, celery and onions can suffer from gray mold or Botrytis blight. This is called by one celled spores and usually crop up during cool, rainy springs or summers. The first symptom is stem lesions which are anywhere from silver gray to black in appearance . Sadly enough there is no cure for this. Your best bet is to remove all infected plants and put them directly into a paper or plastic bag for immediate disposal. You can prevent the disease from happening by spraying your tomatoes with fungicides at the beginning of the season.

Lettuce and celery, also popular backyard crops, are also not disease resistant. They can suffer from seed born viruses. Lettuce mosaic virus or LMV affects all types of lettuce as well as its; cousins , endive and escarole. Symptoms include leaf puckering and deep or accentuated serration of the leaf margins. Endives usually wind up with stunted heads due to this illness. Most seed packets are carefully gone through to eliminate LMV. Garden companies also are now trying to create more disease resistant strains for healthier harvests. Lettuce heads can also pick up broad bean wilt virus. The symptoms are the exact same ones that go with LMV however aphids and not seeds are the cause of it. Spray heads with either pepper or soap spray to decimate these garden pests and thus reduce the risk of virus. Another virulent disease, Celery Mosaic Virus or CeMV could decimate celery and is transmitted by several types of the aphid species. Early signs include flattened and / or mottled l(hence the name) leaves. Foliage will then turn either yellow or bronze and fall off. Also aster yellows mycoplasma , an insect transmitted sickness can destroy an entire crop. Infected plants may be deformed , growing secondary shoots or cause stunting. Foliage is yellow and the veins in younger plants may look clear or transparent. Since this disease is caused by leafhoppers (cousin of cicadas), the best preventive step is spraying crops with insecticides early on. Also control weeds and destroy all contaminated celery plants.

Vine vegetables are also prone to various funguses. Cucumbers and zucchinis are prime examples of this. Cucumbers catch Cucumber Mosaic Disease or CMV which can produced mottled foliage similar to the Celery Mosaic Virus. Zucchinis suffer from almost exactly the same kind of mosaic virus disease known as Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus or ZEMV. Plant tissues on these vegetables turn different colors from light green to dark yellow, forming mosaic light patterns on both leaves and fruit. Deformed fruit can also occur. The best way to combat any of the vine mosaic viruses is to plant disease resistant vegetables. Also try to control weeds which could harbor viruses. Pokeweed is the primary source of the mosaic virus. It is a highly poisonous herb and is recognized by its’ succulent purplish stems and lance shaped shiny leaves. It also has drooping white flowers, similar to snowbells that grown in clusters. The plant also produces berries that start off green and change into dark purple. If any of your weeds have these features, immediately dispose of them either in the garbage or by burning. Mosaic viruses can also be transmitted by the cucumber beetle along with the green peach and melon aphids. Again you can control aphids through commercial insecticides or with homemade pepper or soap sprays. Do this early on otherwise an infestation will surely guarantee your vine plants will get some sort of mosaic virus disease.

Root vegetables such as carrots and beets are also susceptible to diseases. They can wind up with cercaspora leaf spots and root knot. Leaf spots are easy to locate, turning carrot and beet tops bronze or gray. The carrot also can suffer from Xanthomana carotae which will destroy the foliage. It comes about from too much humidity. Roots knot in carrots are due to fungus while the same disease in beets is caused from poor irrigation and planting on a previous year’s patch. Plant all root vegetables in sandy, well drained soil and as with other vegetables, weed on a regular basis.

Be good to your vegetables since they are good to you. Be on the lookout for any unusual signs or symptoms. Keep your veggies healthy and they’ll return the favor.