Gardening Tips from The Extension Office

As Spring rains appear to linger, humidity and dampness can cause garden plants to suffer in a number of ways.  Here's a few tips to managing your garden during such times.


1) Monitor often.  Disease can appear overnight, however, the extent of the damage can be curbed if you visit your garden often and inspect your plants.


2) Scout plants for diseases.  Many diseases, such as "early blight" in tomatoes or "downy mildew" in cucurbits, will begin with small yellow or water-soaked spots on leaves.  If caught early, fungicides can be applied to keep diseases from spreading and enveloping the entire plant.


3) Manage drainage.  Wet weather can cause problems other than providing a suitable environment for disease.  Poor drained soils, even on slopes, can cause yellowing, or "wet feet," and even root rot.  Though many problems as such are corrected on their own as dryer periods come, if you have this problem, it's a good idea to add organic matter, sand or other material to your soil between now and next year's garden that will loosen the soil and allow water to drain more readily.  A good practice is to plant a cover crop (rye, wheat, crimson clover) in the fall and til it in the spring to loosen soils.


4) Develop a pest management plan.  Many disease have enough head start by the time we notice them, then get them diagnosed and to the store to find a suitable product to use to manage them.  So, simply having an idea of what tools you can use or are available can give you a jump on diseases.  The Organic Gardening class coming up on June 21, can help provide you with some ideas.  We can also help provide you with conventional solutions and products at the Extension Office.


5) Prevention.  Keeping plants dry is the one of the best disease preventions.  To do so, it's important to keep good spacing between plants to allow ventilation.  Also, it's best, when irrigating plants, to use drip lines, soaker hoses or water low to the ground as opposed to watering the entire plant.  Keep in mind that the roots are the part of the plant that needs the water.  


6) Watering tips:  Water in the morning so that the plant has the day to dry off.  Water adequately during the dry season.  Plants need an average of 1 inch of water per week.  If you're using a sprinkler, you can set a tuna can (usually about an inch in depth) or other basin in the garden and cut the water off when you reach the one inch mark.  Watering too little, or just sprinkling the garden, especially during the dry season will not go very deep and can actually lead to scorching of the top layer of feeder roots of plants.  One to two soakings per week is sufficient.  Watering daily is more than the plants need and will also wash out, or leach, needed nutrients, such as Nitrogen, out of the soil.