So my husband and I are relatively new to vegetable gardening. We tried several years ago in Colorado and everything I had died . I had tomato plants and everything I grew was eaten my a squirrel, I tried to feed it other food but it ate both. Then last year we grew a few things in containers and learned about every type of insect we could from experience, yay. Well this year we finally own a home and no more Military moves for us. We did our first raised beds and we are still container gardening. We are in Ga/Al area pretty south. Well I had to pull and believe that all 7 of my zucchini have/had mottled mosaic virus of some type. After poor production or fruits dying even before they could be fertilized and then the leaves started turning and growing in that mottled light green and white speckled color, I cried. Then my two basil plants near them started the same so I pulled them hoping not to spread. Since I used the same pruning shears I am afraid everything I have will die. I am hoping not because we have a lot of plants. We have contained the aphids as much as possible, we seem to have a ton in our yard, and other insects. Any advice would help or photos of early signs would be appreciated. My big question is about the soil. I’ve heard Tomato and tobacco MMV will ruin the soil for 2 years. And that CMV will not affect the soil. Any experience would help. We have a long grow season and would love to out a few more zucchini down, but will probably put them in containers. And how screwed am I for my other plants? Thanks in advance and sorry for my super long post.
Help with mosaic virus and Soil? Long post
So my husband and I are relatively new to vegetable gardening. We tried several years ago in Colorado and everything I had died . I had tomato plants and everything I grew was eaten my a squirrel, I tried to feed it other food but it ate both. Then last year we grew a few things in containers and learned about every type of insect we could from experience, yay. Well this year we finally own a home and no more Military moves for us. We did our first raised beds and we are still container gardening. We are in Ga/Al area pretty south. Well I had to pull and believe that all 7 of my zucchini have/had mottled mosaic virus of some type. After poor production or fruits dying even before they could be fertilized and then the leaves started turning and growing in that mottled light green and white speckled color, I cried. Then my two basil plants near them started the same so I pulled them hoping not to spread. Since I used the same pruning shears I am afraid everything I have will die. I am hoping not because we have a lot of plants. We have contained the aphids as much as possible, we seem to have a ton in our yard, and other insects. Any advice would help or photos of early signs would be appreciated. My big question is about the soil. I’ve heard Tomato and tobacco MMV will ruin the soil for 2 years. And that CMV will not affect the soil. Any experience would help. We have a long grow season and would love to out a few more zucchini down, but will probably put them in containers. And how screwed am I for my other plants? Thanks in advance and sorry for my super long post.Since you are new to the area. It might be a good idea to check out what the neighbors are growing and ask them what varieties work for them.
You can also contact the extension service in your area and get a soil test.
The extension website may have varieties that are suitable for your area and you can find out what diseases are prevalent and which varieties are resistant. Flavor is often a tradeoff for disease resistance but there are a lot of cultivars out there and if you look around it is still possible to find some good ones.
I like the Cornell website. It has specific information on growing specific crops as well as ipm. It also has a disease resistance chart for many vegetables. That being said, some of the advice is not applicable for me because I never have to worry about frost damage or last frost dates.
Most fungal diseases are crop specific. Viruses can be overt in some crops and lay dormant in others. TMV, TYLCV, CMV,PRSV to name a few. Most viruses require a vector so you have to choose resistant varities, get clean seeds and if you have the disease, you need to wait until the virus levels have dropped in the vector population and rotate out of that family for a while.
In my case I have no winter to kill off pests, so they are present year round. Some diseases are endemic and the only way around them is to plant resistant varieties or plant something else
Sanitation,rogueing diseased plants, cleaning ,and sterilizing hands and tools are important cultural methods to limit disease transmission.
https://extension.umn.edu/diseases/viruses-cucurbits
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/pest ... varieties/
You can also contact the extension service in your area and get a soil test.
The extension website may have varieties that are suitable for your area and you can find out what diseases are prevalent and which varieties are resistant. Flavor is often a tradeoff for disease resistance but there are a lot of cultivars out there and if you look around it is still possible to find some good ones.
I like the Cornell website. It has specific information on growing specific crops as well as ipm. It also has a disease resistance chart for many vegetables. That being said, some of the advice is not applicable for me because I never have to worry about frost damage or last frost dates.
Most fungal diseases are crop specific. Viruses can be overt in some crops and lay dormant in others. TMV, TYLCV, CMV,PRSV to name a few. Most viruses require a vector so you have to choose resistant varities, get clean seeds and if you have the disease, you need to wait until the virus levels have dropped in the vector population and rotate out of that family for a while.
In my case I have no winter to kill off pests, so they are present year round. Some diseases are endemic and the only way around them is to plant resistant varieties or plant something else
Sanitation,rogueing diseased plants, cleaning ,and sterilizing hands and tools are important cultural methods to limit disease transmission.
https://extension.umn.edu/diseases/viruses-cucurbits
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/
https://www.vegetables.cornell.edu/pest ... varieties/
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applestar
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I don’t have much experience in this area, but I think it’s a good idea to focus on building good healthy soil system in your garden which will help to grow healthier, stronger plants. For me, this means no pesticides, herbicides without identifying the specific target, and introducing biodiverse beneficial fungal and bacterial microbes, and higher organisms.
Here are links to both Geogia and Alabama extension services on varieties and planting dates.
https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/lawn-g ... n-alabama/
https://secure.caes.uga.edu/extension/p ... eChart.pdf
Realize that you cannot focus on treating the problems of one plant. You have to consider the entire ecosystem that everything exists in. You need to control pests on other plants and control weed hosts. Prepare the ground well and plant at the right time. You need to set some time aside pretty much everyday to look at the plants especially under the leaves. Identify problems early.
If you have virus problems, you need to control the host plants as well as the vectors. Do not plant the same family of plants until the vectors are no longer carrying the virus. How long that takes depends. Usually, you need to destroy all the host plants as well as asymptomatic hosts and wait until the current population of vectors die off. If you have a winter, it usually takes care of most diseases. Plant certified virus free seeds or resistant varieties after the waiting period is over.
Use ipm methods to invite beneficial insects into your garden. A good garden patrol is worth its weight in gold.
https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/lawn-g ... n-alabama/
https://secure.caes.uga.edu/extension/p ... eChart.pdf
Realize that you cannot focus on treating the problems of one plant. You have to consider the entire ecosystem that everything exists in. You need to control pests on other plants and control weed hosts. Prepare the ground well and plant at the right time. You need to set some time aside pretty much everyday to look at the plants especially under the leaves. Identify problems early.
If you have virus problems, you need to control the host plants as well as the vectors. Do not plant the same family of plants until the vectors are no longer carrying the virus. How long that takes depends. Usually, you need to destroy all the host plants as well as asymptomatic hosts and wait until the current population of vectors die off. If you have a winter, it usually takes care of most diseases. Plant certified virus free seeds or resistant varieties after the waiting period is over.
Use ipm methods to invite beneficial insects into your garden. A good garden patrol is worth its weight in gold.