Gardeners are a hardy breed, contending with a variety of problems, challenges and obstacles which can at times feel overwhelming, but if framed correctly is an opportunity for growth, adaptability and resilience. In this article, we’ll explore 4 common issues with a deeper look at specific pests and diseases affecting crops and how I’ve gone on to solve them.
- The vagaries of the weather:
Sometimes we may have to deal with the vagaries of the weather, it might be too hot or too cold or too wet or dry. These kinds of problems are fairly ordinary and the solutions are easily evident.
If it’s hot and sunny, I’ve adopted a couple of solutions, my go to and favorite solution is to add mulch. This can be any material, but my favorite is to use compost which not only feeds the soil, but also minimises water loss in hot weather. I also use wood chips to cover up pathways as well- again this serves two purposes, it reduces water loss in hot weather but will also soak up excess water in the cooler seasons and of course, breaks down into great compost over time on the allotment. I am fortunate in that we have a free regular supply of wood chips available most times of the year, but if this wasn’t the case, I’d look for solutions that are cheap and plentiful in my given context.
If it gets very dry In addition to having compost added to beds, as a means of holding as much water within the soil itself, I have two further solutions. Firstly, I have installed water butts to hold water runoff from the shed and greenhouse which provide me with an alternative source of water in the dry season. Secondly, I have tried with some limited success to build up earth berms around beds. The technique being to landscape the soil and beds, in such a way that water run off is reduced or slowed down so that it feeds the plants.
If it’s too cold and wet, a different approach is required to keep plants reasonably warm. If you are lucky enough to own one, a greenhouse or polytunnel helps no end. These keep the worst of the cold weather and frost from decimating plants. Of course, it is always best to grow cold tolerant plants in this case.
I will also use fleece or other material such as old sheets to cover plants and I’ve experimented with a hot bed with reasonable success in the past. Plastic covers help too where you have a relatively square bed as does netting for more established frost tolerant plants. The main disadvantage with these additional materials, is that more maintenance work is needed, but it provides a very useful way of extending the season, particularly in spring and in autumn.
- Mildew and other damp related issues:
I made a mistake and used some slug pellets ‘to protect’ some lettuce seedlings from being eaten late last autumn. In doing this, I regretted the decision twice, reinforcing my original plan to be fully organic. Firstly, I introduced a type of mildew growth on the soil, which I could easily see as fluffy little deadly blue balls on the soil. Secondly, there was another problem as I didn’t have anywhere else to take the ‘infected’ soil, not to mention that it would be too much of a pain to move it. So I was left hoping that the little deadly blue balls would be washed away naturally in the rain and when the lettuce is harvested, I can amend the soil with new compost. An expensive mistake.
Generally mildew is a sign of poor ventilation and with the above mistake, I was able to remove infected leaves and the lettuce recovered well. Most types of mildew and damp related issues can easily be solved by increasing ventilation, opening up windows, removing fleece and any covers that are in use. Fruiting trees or bushes may also be susceptible to mildew, and in this case, some judicious pruning will easily resolve the issue. All this is possible with your gardener’s shadow beside you, observing and looking closely for any issues and ultimately solving them.
Sometimes, mildew is caused as a result of the weather, for instance a moist, wet summer will easily spoil tomatoes or potatoes and this will show as blight on the plant. The main solution I’ve applied is one of ‘insurance’ and planting successively. This means that even if one batch fails, there is an alternative batch sown in a different location or at a later time, and this will often ensure there is something to harvest.
- Pests and Diseases:
Other problems, especially those relating to pests and diseases require further investigation. This is why the saying goes that the ‘best manure is the gardener’s shadow, as you look closely and observe how your plants are growing, you get a better understanding of the plants’ needs and how you can best cater for them.
3.1 Common issues that affect the Brassica family:
It pays to look closely at your plants. There are often clues left behind by the ‘culprit’ which will give you an indication of what protection is needed.
For instance, are the leaves on your brassica plants pockmarked or torn off? If they are pockmarked, it’s likely to be cabbage whitefly caterpillars laying their eggs on the leaves. These can be removed manually or by spraying water on the leaves. If they are torn, it’s likely that pigeons are eating the leaves- and in this case both these issues can be dealt with by covering with netting or harvesting the leaves early!
3.2 Common issues that affect the Allium family:
For the allium family of plants such as salad onions, leeks and garlic, my biggest adversary is the ‘allium leek moth’. This is a small orange beetle-like insect that burrows into the plant during the months of March- April and again later in July- November depending on which source of information you use. This is a new-ish pest to me, having only experienced it last year when my entire crops of leeks, shallots and garlic all succumbed to it. I’m experimenting with netting and overwintering the crop to see if this helps and will consider growing fast maturing crops in the future if the current overwintered crop fails again.
3.3 Common issues that affect Solanaceae (nightshade family)
As mentioned above, in my experience, these plants are susceptible to blight. This is often due to prevailing weather conditions or interior warm, damp conditions such as in a greenhouse. The solution is to look to increase ventilation, you can often also prune back leaves especially those that are at a lower level, if the plant is fruiting successfully. Of course, as soon as you see infected fruit, it pays to remove it immediately and compost it (if the heap is hot enough this should reduce the chance of re-infection).
Sometimes, the fruit is not ‘big’ or has cracks in it- particularly with fruits such as aubergine, tomatoes and sometimes in peppers. Small fruits are a sign that there wasn’t enough ‘feed’ in the soil. Adding compost is the secret solution early on in the season before you forget! For cracked fruit, this is a sign that watering has been inconsistent and if it has already set (i.e. matured), there is not much else that can be done other than try to water regularly. The fruit will still be edible, so go ahead and eat it!
3.4 Common issues that affect Apiaceae or Carrot family
Whilst I’ve had reasonable success with plants such as parsnips and fennel, carrots and celery remain a tough nut to crack. In my climate, parsnips thrive often with little to no major issues, other than perhaps getting too forked or huge! Similarly fennel and other herbs such as parsley, coriander take very well, without many significant issues.
However, carrots are often attacked by ‘carrot fly’ and its treatment is shrouded by myths and folklore as to when it flies, how often it attacks and so on and so forth. In this case, I’ve referred to Charles Dowding of ‘No Dig’ fame for some advice on the best care and protection for carrots. He advises that early sowings of carrots are susceptible to slug damage, and that it is best to plant away from any overgrown areas where slugs may be hiding. He also recommends keeping up with weeding around small seedlings, and suggests intersowing with radishes to enable easy identification of the carrot seedlings as the radish seedlings will pop up first before the carrot seedlings and provide a good clue as to where you sowed them.
‘In early May, swap fleece for cooler mesh, preferably supported on hoops to keep away carrot root flies looking to lay their eggs in the soil around plants. Carrot fly larvae can cause serious damage and adult flies are active from mid-May through June so its best to have early sowings covered all the time. For summer sowings, there’s a period from late June until the second week in August when flies are not laying eggs and carrots can be left uncovered but always cover before 10th August to avoid the second generation of flies. Insect mesh will keep most root flies off, but even with the edges secured with stones or heavy sticks some slides will wriggle underneath.’ As such, it appears that it is inevitable, there may be some losses to carrot fly, but hopefully with the care and protection given early on, the majority of your carrot harvest will still make it to your table.
For celery plants, Charles Dowding recommends covers such as a thermacrop or mesh cover to help plants establish quickly and protect them from possible rabbit or aphid damage. He mentions that ‘celeriac’ flourishes in moist soil and will need more watering if your underlying soil is chalk or sandy but it doesn’t need the same plentiful watering as celery. My underlying soil is sandy, and the general climate in my area is typically dry with the least amount of rainfall in the UK. Having high levels of compost is an additional solution to consider, as it means that moisture levels remain higher within the soil, supporting growth of the plants.
Lastly he notes that ‘Celery late blight (Septoria apiicola) is a fungal disease that causes brown patches on leaves in autumn. Affected leaves can be removed to compost, but this does little to prevent its spread. Slugs and woodlice love celeriac, so avoid growing them in beds with edges of decaying wood, which afford those pests the perfect place to hide.’ If you have the space, growing plants in succession, or in different locations will also help ensure you get a harvest, should a particular batch fail or succumb to these pests and diseases.
3.5 Legumes- Pea and bean family
Broad beans are often first to be sown in autumn and will survive some cold frosts over winter. However, the timing of sowings matters a lot and this should not be any earlier than November, so that plants are no more than 5-10 inches tall during the cold winter months. Once they establish in early spring, they come on fast, and will be ready to harvest in four months from late winter and early spring sowings. At harvest time, they are often susceptible to ‘black fly’ – a small aphid-like creature that is active in spring (May-June).
There are a number of mechanical interventions, including spraying off the black fly with a high pressure hose, or simply running your finger along the stem or affected areas. Many allotmenteers recommend pinching off the tops of the plants once their main stem is full of flowers. These tips are apparently edible and make a nice handy early harvest in the year. I’ve had some limited success with companion planting using flowers such as nasturtiums which act as a sacrificial plant. The black fly is then attracted to the flower instead of the broad beans, and will reduce the impact of the infestation without requiring much human intervention.
Warm loving beans such as ‘dwarf beans, climbing beans and french beans’ are not often troubled by many pests, other than snails and slugs in my experience at the germination stage. The evidence will be fairly obvious as first leaves show signs of being nibbled and in serious cases, you may find that the stem has also been eaten. The best thing to do in this case, is to remove all snails and slugs manually if you can, and of course try any of the many suggestions that abound such as copper coins, beer traps or using sheep’s wool or wool pellets.
3.6 Peas:
These cool loving plants are such a delight to grow, with their beautiful snow white flowers being one of the first flowering seeds to peek through and provide an early harvest. They are not often troubled by many pests, although rats and mice will be attracted to outdoor sown seeds. As they begin to send out their tendrils and grow, birds will become the main adversary.
The solution in both cases is to ensure they are covered over with chicken wire mesh at seedling stage and then install poles and protect with plastic netting or simply let them grow along some spiky type sticks for a more organic look and feel. You could also start off pea seeds indoors to minimise losses and transplant them once they are more established.
Peas can also be susceptible to powdery ( (Erysiphe pisi) and downy mildew (Peronospora pisi). The former manifests as a whitish powdery coating on leaves, while the latter manifests as yellowish, brownish spots on the leaf and pea pods themselves.
Powdery mildew is a fungus which thrives in dry conditions and is spread by the wind. As such it is a ‘ubiquitous’ disease affecting the crop. As it spreads during warmer seasons it is more evident in late summer and autumn sowings but crucially spring sown peas are much less suscepitble and a good solution for this problem. You can also look for resistant varieties as a possible alternative solution and of course ensure plants are well watered during dry spells.
Downy mildew is often as a result of prior fungal infection in a particular area as the spores reputedly overwinter on plant debris and spread through rain and irrigation. They can persist for up to 15 years in the soil, making it difficult to control in a purely organic way. The main control is to use varieties which are resistant to mildew and practise crop rotation if possible.
3.7 Cucurbits- Squash, Courgette and Cucumber family
These warm loving plants are characterised by a deep need for water, heavy feeding and their large deep green vining leaves. They are so much fun to grow and when the first delightful harvests come, they are often bountiful and large!
They are most demanding of care and protection when they are young seedlings and can easily be devoured by slugs and snails under cover or outdoors so it is important to inspect them regularly. Once established, the leaves will often develop a ‘white dusting of powdery mildew’ which looks dramatic but is nothing to worry about and the leaves can be removed and composted.
3.8 Beet family
The beet family includes a wide variety of spinach (giant winter, perpetual leaf to name a few), beetroot and chard. They have distinctive deep green leaves, often turning to rich purple and red hues which provide a great source of fibre and vitamin C. In my climate, these plants thrive quite easily once established, with few issues apart from ensuring that they are well watered to minimise bolting. However, at seedling stage I have to contend with snails and slugs which love to munch away at the leaves, sometimes eating the whole seedling. I’ve detailed my approach to these later in the blog post.
3.9 Leafy Salad Crops
Similar to the beet family, salad crops are relatively straightforward plants to grow, only requiring attentive watering most of the time unless one has slugs and snails to contend with. I’ve detailed my approach to these later in the blog post.
3.10 Perennial vegetables and fruits
Thankfully most perennial vegetables tend to be pest and disease resistant mainly due to their hardy nature. Asparagus for instance has little or no major issues in my experience, and from observation neither do plants such as Jerusalem artichokes. Fruits each have varying types of issues which requires a separate blog post as this one is already quite long.
4. Slugs and snails:
In the UK, where warm and wet summers are a regular feature, we gardeners have to contend with an influx of slugs and snails. Their impact can be devastating especially with newly germinated seedlings. Many times, I’ve sown a batch of seeds, waited patiently for germination only to return a few days later to find stunted seedlings and a silvery trail indicating the culprit.
At present, I try to remove the snails and slugs manually and I’ve learnt to spot them when they are young- before they get big and then remove them into a far away hedge or into the compost heap where I don’t mind their presence.
This helps a little bit, but snails and slugs can cover quite large distances and move quite fast. However,my aim is to minimise damage caused by them, especially in the greenhouse where I keep most of my seedlings, rather than obliterate them.
My favorite and most effective deterrent remains in using sheep’s wool around tender seedlings. This has definitely worked most effectively, but I’ve not got a good supplier for the large quantities needed for me to use this all around the allotment. So I then revert to mechanical removal as and when I can.
I am however aware of the many many different ways to deal with snails, some of which I’ve tried over the years. For instance, copper is meant to be a good deterrent and I once laid penny coins all around my plants! This failed spectacularly as the coins got moved about in the rain. I’ve also watched other gardeners make ‘beer traps’ with modest success but these are quite time intensive to set up and monitor in my view.
Summary
These are just a few of the challenges I’ve discovered through the years and there are so many many more approaches available to try beyond what I’ve set out. Clearly depending on your region and climate, the issues you face will be different but the key principle remains, ‘your gardeners shadow plus, an investigative open approach to problem solving as we go along, will be your key to success. Over to you, have you got some innovative ways to solve common issues?
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