Diseases

Diseases FruitInsects

How to Grow: Controlling Apple Pests

Learn how to control common apple pests including diseases and insects. Listen to podcast: Apples are the quintessential Vermont tree fruit because they grow so well in our climate. Unfortunately, even after watering, fertilizing, protecting and generally pampering your trees, sometimes for years to get fruit, you only end up with misshapen, small fruits with black spots on the skin. While apples grow well here, so do their pests. The first step to growing apples without cursing or resorting to harmful chemicals is to plant disease...

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DiseasesVegetable

How to Grow: Controlling Tomato Blight

Watch this video to learn about the various types of tomato blights and how to prevent them from killing your tomato plants in summer. Learn about controlling tomato blight disease including resistant varieties. Listen to Podcast: We've all seen it happen. Your tomatoes are growing great with vigorous growth, flowers and even small fruits. Then it starts on the bottom leaves with some spots or browning. Slowly it spreads. Then more quickly to engulf the plant until by mid summer your prized tomatoes are nothing but stems with a few fruits....

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AnnualsDiseasesPodcast

How to Grow: Impatiens

 Learn how to grow impatiens including disease resistant varieties of this flower. Listen to Podcast podcast transcript How to Grow: Impatiens Impatiens walleriana   Other Name busy lizzy   Sun Requirements part sun, part shade   Bloom Period and Seasonal Color spring until frost in colors such as white, pink, red, orange, purple and bi color   Mature Height x Spread 6 to 24 inches x 6 to 24 inches   Added Benefits attracts beneficials   Impatiens is the classic shade-loving annual flower that brightens up dark areas with its...

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DiseasesInsects

How to Grow: IPM for Organic Pest Controls

No matter how well you grow your foodscape plants, eventually other critters, insects and diseases will want to enjoy them as much as you. Certainly a healthy, well watered and fed plant will be able to withstand attacks better than one that is struggling. But you should be ready to prevent damage and then jump in early to reduce a problem once an attack happens. I like to follow the integrated pest management (IPM) approach to foodscape gardening. In this approach you rely on techniques such as planting resistant varieties, using crop...

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Diseases

How to Grow: Powdery Mildew Disease

Learn about this wide spread disease on many flower and vegetables and how to control it. Listen to Podcast: I'm Charlie Nardozzi and this is the Vermont Garden Journal on Vermont Public Radio. Late summer is known for tons of tomatoes, asters and goldenrod in bloom, and white patches on lilac, birch, phlox, bee balm, squash and  other leaves. It all sounds ideal, except for those white patches. They are the sign of powdery mildew disease. Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that is ubiquitous in the environment. With temperatures between...

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Diseases Videos

How to Grow: Vegetable and Flower Diseases

Learn about some common vegetable and flower diseases in this video. The first steps are prevention. Crop rotation, interplanting and spacing plants further apart helps stop the spread of fungal diseases during wet weather. Some specific diseases to watch for during rainy periods are wilts, blights and powdery mildew. Wilts cause vines and flower stems to rot and die due to lack of oxygen in the soil and the growth of soil born diseases. Remove infected stems and mulch and cultivate around the plants to dry out the soil. Blights, such as...

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