When people told me that gardening in the Midwest will involve combating several plagues at once, I figured that they had to be exaggerating. I mean, how bad could it be?
Okay, so, the answer is, oh, the horror.
But seriously, when I control one problem, three others pop up. I'm not even talking about the aphids and flea beetles. I'm letting natural predators deal with them.
If I have at least one productive plant this season, I will consider this a personal victory.
Anyway, a few of the things I've been noticing on my plants as of late. I've started treating them with a copper fungicide, which seems to be helping, but still, this will probably be a season-long battle.
This one starts off as brown sunken circular spots on top of the leaf, which eventually form a sort of black halo with a white center. Often doesn't stay confined within veins. This hasn't been associated with any leaf drop yet, but this only started a few days ago:
What was originally affecting my pepper plants has moved on to my tomato plants. It was only a matter of time. This starts as angular brown-black depressions on the underside of the leaf that eventually show through on the top and dry in the sun. They are confined to interveinal areas. In extreme cases leaves will yellow and drop. This quickly defoliated most of my pepper plants, and I'm expecting the same result on the tomatoes.
This one has me very worried. So far it's only affecting my Rocoto plants, but I'm probably going to dispose of them anyway, because this doesn't look like something they'll easily recover from. Rather than affecting the leaf, this one shows up as brown, almost necrotic, strips along the stems and veins of the plant, resulting in extreme leaf curl.
Any ideas?
Okay, so, the answer is, oh, the horror.
But seriously, when I control one problem, three others pop up. I'm not even talking about the aphids and flea beetles. I'm letting natural predators deal with them.
If I have at least one productive plant this season, I will consider this a personal victory.
Anyway, a few of the things I've been noticing on my plants as of late. I've started treating them with a copper fungicide, which seems to be helping, but still, this will probably be a season-long battle.
This one starts off as brown sunken circular spots on top of the leaf, which eventually form a sort of black halo with a white center. Often doesn't stay confined within veins. This hasn't been associated with any leaf drop yet, but this only started a few days ago:
What was originally affecting my pepper plants has moved on to my tomato plants. It was only a matter of time. This starts as angular brown-black depressions on the underside of the leaf that eventually show through on the top and dry in the sun. They are confined to interveinal areas. In extreme cases leaves will yellow and drop. This quickly defoliated most of my pepper plants, and I'm expecting the same result on the tomatoes.
This one has me very worried. So far it's only affecting my Rocoto plants, but I'm probably going to dispose of them anyway, because this doesn't look like something they'll easily recover from. Rather than affecting the leaf, this one shows up as brown, almost necrotic, strips along the stems and veins of the plant, resulting in extreme leaf curl.
Any ideas?