From powdery mildew to anthracnose, severity and types of plant disease symptoms may range from unusual, mild discoloration of leaves to rotten, unusable fruit. Fortunately, you can take some measures to contain the contagion-and maybe even prevent disease from taking hold in the first place. Of course, before you know how to treat diseased plants you need to know what's making them sick. Here are a few possibilities to consider.

Mildews

Powdery mildew isn't picky; the fungal disease will attack almost any plant, but you are most likely to notice it on bee balm, phlox, lilac bushes, roses, zinnias, begonias, and other ornamentals. Leaves of affected plants look like they've been dusted with a whitish-grey powder, and, as the disease progresses, photosynthesis slows and the plant is substantially weakened. Powdery mildew thrives in conditions where relative humidity is high and temperatures are cool.

Downy mildew exhibits some symptoms similar to those of powdery mildew. Vegetables such as cucumbers, peas, and spinach are fairly susceptible to downy mildew which causes yellow spots on the tops of leaves and covers leaf undersides with a white, blue, or grey powder.

You can keep mildews in check by making sure plants have adequate air circulation. Have they grown too close to one another? Prune regularly with disinfected tools to help increase air circulation around your plants. Also, remove any lower leaves that might touch the ground to further reduce contact with harmful fungal spores. Plants in areas which are too shady may be more susceptible to mildew, too, so make sure they are getting plenty of sunlight.

Black Spot

Black spot doesn't leave much to the imagination. As the name suggests, this fungal disease causes black spots to appear on plant leaves. Areas around the black spots then turn yellow, and eventually, the whole leaf will fall off. Black spot prefers wet conditions and is most likely to attack your roses. For plants showing signs of black spot, remove diseased leaves and stems with clean pruning shears and dispose of them. Also, keep the centers of rose bushes and other affected plants pruned to improve air circulation. Finally, because water evaporates less quickly at night, water plants in the morning rather than the evening to help prevent future outbreaks.

Tomato Troubles

Tobacco mosaic virus most commonly affects tomatoes but it can also attack peppers, eggplants, and petunias to name a few. Plants battling tobacco mosaic virus exhibit mottled foliage and distorted leaves. Overall, plants are stunted and may not bear fruit. Interestingly, this virus can be spread to plants from close proximity to ornamental tobacco plants and even by smoking while handling tomato plants. The best way to prevent tobacco mosaic is to keep hands and garden equipment disinfected, and, if you have had a tobacco mosaic outbreak, you'll want to sterilize the soil in that area before planting new crops.

Anthracnose, likewise, can overwinter on diseased plant debris so keeping the growing area clean is essential. The fungal disease will cause sunken, rotten spots on your tomatoes and can make entire fruits unusable. Unfortunately, anthracnose is easily spread to healthy plants because it travels via airborne spores.

Taking Precautions

You really can avoid serious problems by keeping an eye on the garden and keeping your garden tools clean. Look at your plants closely every day for signs of disease, and act swiftly at the first signs of trouble. Remove all diseased leaves and stems from affected plants and, to disinfect contaminated garden tools, simply rinse them with a ten percent bleach solution. For more serious outbreaks you might choose to apply a sulfur-based fungicide, but read labels carefully to make sure the product you use is right for your particular problem.

If you live in an area with a yearly average temperature of only 59 degrees Fahrenheit and an average snowfall of nearly 100 inches, it’s easy to dismiss year-round local produce as a possibility.

But an entrepreneur in Montreal saw no reason for location or climate to stand in the way of fresh produce being available to the community all year – especially if that produce is grown using hydroponics. Mohamed Hage founded Lufa Farms after a discussion with a friend about why it seemed so difficult to find local, high quality, fresh food.

“We concluded that the fundamental problem getting fresh food was that food is often grown far away from where it is eaten,” Hage said. “This meant that our food – whether grown in Quebec or in South Africa – would be handled, packaged, shipped, stored, refrigerated and reshipped perhaps dozens of times before it could appear on our dinner plates.”

The solution? Rooftop farms built in the heart of the city. The first prototype farm opened in 2011, offering customers a fresh produce basket service. These baskets are filled weekly with the more than 25 different types of produce grown at Lufa Farms, as well as with organic produce from area farmers.

By growing produce on the rooftops, not only is it possible to provide a large amount of local food to a large number of people, but it also puts less strain on resources like arable land (which is becoming more and more scarce) and water (they use rainwater collected on the roof for their plants, and recirculate everything). They’re also able to avoid pesticides by using beneficial insects, and have made a commitment to not use any unnatural or synthetic pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides.

Lufa Farms hopes to expand in coming years and use its existing farm as a prototype as an example that hydroponics could be the future of gardening in cities across the world.

“Our prototype 31,000 square foot farm will feed approximately 2,000 people and provide them with an excellent selection of fresh and nutritious produce,” according to the website. “Our future greenhouses will feed more. Every roof in the city should be able to do the same. Our farm is meant to prove that it's possible and viable.”

Learn more about Lufa Farms at https://lufa.com/en.

Next week, check back with us to learn about a Virginia farm striving to produce high-quality, local and fresh leafy greens to consumers, even in January.

We’ve been able to add handfuls of jalapenos, grape tomatoes and more cucumbers to the list of things ready to come to our table, and I’m looking toward next summer already and thinking of what else we can plant. The basil, oregano and cilantro plants have also been quite a help in the kitchen (there’s nothing quite like thinking “Wow, a good bunch of oregano would be great in this…let me go grab a handful off the plant!”). I can’t stop thinking about what other herbs I absolutely need to have next time around. I’m almost getting veggie greed – what else could I plant now? Is it too late? I need more out here! More, I tell you!

While it may be mid-July, that doesn’t mean I can’t add anything new to my garden. True, it is too late for some things to fruit before the first frost (a time I hate to think about while I look out the window at sunshine and 90 degree temperatures). But in the planting zone here, there are still things I could add to my list of successful produce if I’m able to find the room.

In Zone 5, cauliflower can be started indoors in July, planted in August and harvested at the end of September. Beets, carrots, spinach, broccoli, lettuce and kale can all be started later this summer and be ready in the fall for use in some awesome salads. Some cucumber plants can also produce in as little as 48 days. This handy website can help you find lists of what plants you still have time for, if you are also suffering from veggie greed. Not sure what zone you’re in? Use the USDA Hardiness Zone Finder on the National Gardening Association website.

Unfortunately I might not have the room necessary to plant some broccoli or cauliflower (two of my favorite vegetables), but it is nice to know that if I was to come into some plot of garden-ready land, I would still have time to utilize it. Hopefully if you were starting to wish you had more to plant this summer, these resources will help you find something new to sow!

When I was about 12 years old, I started to believe that weeding wasn’t really an aspect of gardening, but was actually an inexplicably legal form of tortuous child labor. My dad had huge vegetable gardens in our yard every summer, and I was always dismayed when I was the one tasked with weeding every morning of my summer vacation. I whined. I complained. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those evil, tiny clovers and masses of chickweed never seemed to surrender their attack on the garden, and I asked myself the same question every summer: why on earth would anyone go through the trouble of planting all of these vegetables when it’s just so much work?

Fast forward about 10 years and here I am again, planting my own vegetable garden and eating my words about the amount of work it takes. Weeding is still awful. The first couple times, it can be kind of relaxing and nice to be outside with the plants for a few hours. But when the weeds keep coming back…man, that gets irritating really fast.

Fortunately, we live in the 21st century and tools have been around for a long time to help ease this pain. One of my favorites is the stirrup hoe. It makes it so easy to go through each aisle, run through with this guy really quick and pluck out the larger weeds from the loosened soil so their seeds don’t spread and create more annoying offspring, then move to the next aisle. Keeping the aisles free of weeds will cut down on the amount of weeds growing in harder-to-reach areas, because there are fewer of them going to seed and spreading themselves around.

Another way to help reduce the amount of weeds spreading through your garden is to go around the perimeter of your planting space and apply a weed killer . Just be extremely careful when applying – these are typically not selective and will not differentiate between a weed and a healthy tomato plant. The fewer weeds around that are able to hop on the wind and float seeds into your garden, the better off your plants will be.

Sadly, I have yet to find a fast and simple solution for getting at all of the little clovers and other weeds that like to crop up directly under my plants and hide from man made technology, so I do still have to spend time plucking these ones out one by one. But I do find ways to pass the time: I have a portable iPod dock that I bring with me so I can listen to music. I name the worms I find while weeding. I think about all the different things I can preserve and can with my plants when they start fruiting (I’m already plotting a stockpile of salsa for the cellar – we’ve got the tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, and onions, and I can tell they can’t wait to hook up).

So while I realize that in the long run, being able to eat and even preserve some of my vegetables later in the season will pay off, right now this gardening thing is hard work (enjoyable, yes, but still hard work). I’m sure you’re reading this because you also love gardening, but you have to admit there are some things that drive you up the wall. So, what are your gardening pet peeves?

Who here loves sweet corn?  I do.  I grow my own corn in my garden every year and thought I’d share some tips and information I’ve picked up over the years.  Corn is one of the only vegetables I know of that the hybrids far exceed the heirloom varieties in flavor.  There are 5 main classifications of sweet corn varieties, Heirloom, Regular Sweet Hybrids, Sugar Enhanced (S.E.), Super Sweet and Triple Sweet.

Heirloom or open pollinated corns are sweet with an old fashioned corn flavor but does not hold the sweetness long after picking.  If you grow this type of corn it’s best to start your water boiling before you head out to the garden to pick, shuck it on the way back to the house and drop it in the water.  It will loose its sweetness mere hours after picking.

Regular Sweets have a traditional old fashioned corn flavor without an emphasis on sweetness.  These varieties also do not hold flavor long.  Both Heirloom and Regular Sweet must be separated from other types of corn by at least 25 feet to prevent cross pollination.

Sugar Enhanced are sweeter than regular strains and hold their flavor for about a week after harvesting.  S.E also does not require isolation from other corn varieties

Super Sweets are bred for twice the sweetness of regular corn and will hold that sweetness for up to 2 weeks but must be isolated from other types by at least 200 feet or at least 14 days planting time.

Last but certainly not least, my favorite, Triple Sweet, the cream of the crop.  Triple Sweets are superbly sweet but are bred to hold more of the original corn flavor and will keep after harvest for 3 weeks or more!!  No isolation required. 

I’ve tried many varieties of corn over the years and though I still love my Silver Queen (Regular Sweet white kernel) my new fav is a Triple Sweet called Honey Select.  I’ve grown it the last 4 years.  I don’t have a huge garden and corn takes up a lot of room so this is how I plant my corn.  I start my seeds indoors in a light well draining potting soil like Black Gold Seedling Mix ($ 9.50 for a 16 qt bag at worm’s Way MA) on a heating mat under fluorescent lights (also available at Worm’s Way).  I’ll start the seeds around mid May to give them enough time to sprout and grow to about 5-6 inches before I plant them outside AFTER Memorial Day (here in MA).   Corn is wind pollinated so always plant it in blocks rather that one or two long rows.  The pollen from the tassel at the top of the stalk has to fall onto the silks of the ears.  Each silk is attached to a kernel.  If that silk doesn’t get pollinated the kernel won’t develop.  Ever get a mutant ear of corn with missing kernels?  Now you know why.  Since it takes up so much room in the garden I always plant 2 seedlings to a hole.  I space them 1 foot apart in at least 4 rows planted 2-3 feet apart.  I like to do successive planting so I don’t get all my corn at once.  After I plant out my first set I’ll start new seeds indoors and plant them out 2-3 weeks later. 

I fertilize my corn with a high nitrogen organic fertilizer like Alaska Fish Fertilizer (you know where to find it ?) every couple weeks until the tassel start forming then I switch to a higher phosphorus fertilizer.  Jamaican Bat Guano is one of my favorites.  When the silks form you may want to spray them with a Neem Oil or BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis) to prevent corn ear worms from getting in.  About 20 days after the silks formed the ears are ready for harvest.  To be sure, pick one ear and pop one of the kernels, if the juice is milky white the corn is ripe.  If it’s clear give it another week or so. 

Till next time…………………….