What Threatens Nightshades In June?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, vegetable peppers belong to the same big family - nightshade, and they may also have common enemies in the form of diseases and pests. If you think that the Colorado potato beetle in your beds will only like potatoes - you are wrong! The parasite does not disdain tomatoes and other plants. What other misfortunes do you have to protect your pets from at the beginning of summer?

Why are weather surprises dangerous?

This year, the vagaries of the weather in late spring and summer brought many surprises. Sharp cold snaps, heavy rainfall can harm garden crops no less than viral diseases or insect parasites. For example, too much cold snap can easily cause the tomatoes to wilt. The same effect will be caused by excessive soil salinity or improper development of the root system, when it noticeably lags behind in growth compared to the aboveground part. This type of wilting is called nonparasitic.

Another trouble that a gardener encounters during a long period of cold snaps is a discoloration and curling of young leaves. The color of the leaf plate acquires a red-purple hue, this is accompanied by the appearance of pale spots.

In unfavorable weather conditions, during the ripening of the crop, green spots sometimes remain on the tomatoes around the stalk. It is noticed that such a problem can be avoided if the bushes are formed into two stems.

Another defect that ruins the crop during ripening is the cracking of the fruit. This nuisance occurs when, after a long drought, a period of heavy rainfall sets in. To protect the fruit from such damage, you need to worry in advance about how to strengthen the skin, increasing its density. The introduction of a higher dose of phosphorus in comparison with nitrogen and potassium will cope with this task.

What do the gardener's mistakes lead to?

Violation of the water balance due to irregular and improper watering leads to the appearance of top rot of the fruit. It is easily recognized by the small dark green spot that appears on the top of the fruit. Over time, it becomes larger, acquires a brown color and is pressed into the flesh of the fruit. Soon, the disease covers and destroys the entire fruit - tomato, pepper. To prevent this attack from settling in the beds, the plants are regularly moistened and made sure that the watering is not superficial. As a measure to combat top rot, spraying with ammonium nitrate is used.

Sometimes top rot occurs due to the gardener's excessive concern for fertilizing and fertilizing. So, the cause of the disease can be an excess of nitrogen in the soil.

Another nuisance that arises as a result of the complex impact of unfavorable conditions and mistakes of the summer resident is the twisting of plant leaves. First of all, it is observed with excessive illumination of plants against the background of a lack of soil moisture. But it can also appear with the light hand of a gardener, when pruning shoots is carried out in hot weather under the bright sun.

Viral and bacterial diseases

Prevention of viral diseases should have been taken care of even before growing seedlings. For this purpose, both seeds and soil are disinfected, crop rotation is observed, vegetables that are weak before the same diseases are not placed on neighboring beds. For example, to prevent late blight from spreading, potatoes and tomatoes are not planted nearby. If it does appear on the beds, it is necessary to spray the plants with fungicides with an interval of 10 days.

Often in June, as if out of nowhere, there is a bacterial spot of tomatoes. With this disease, the leaves and fruits are covered with small brown specks. To save the crop, it is necessary to spray the beds with solutions containing copper. In addition, so that the incident does not repeat itself next year, it is necessary to note for yourself that it will not be possible to plant tomatoes here for at least another 3 years.