Friday, September 21, 2012

Disease Hitting the Garden

This year has not been nice to my peppers :( no seed saving for these peppers! The only plants that really look healthy are the hot pepper plants.
They have seen better days.

Sent the leaves and peppers off to the Coop. Ext. and it came back, "signs indicate a virus, most likely Cucumber Mosaic Virus." Even though when I first took them in she thought it looked like numerous problems. I wasn't really happy with the vague results.

Perfect circular patterns
mottled fruits

more mottled fruits
bean plants

I thought rust at first because they look "rusty", but after looking at pictures online I don't know, maybe a mildew.

And I don't care what you say, ANTS DO CAUSE PROBLEMS! This bed is just full of ants and they are nesting and laying eggs (correction: aphids, see comments below) around the tops of the carrots and causing them to rot! Grrrr! Can't seem to get rid of them,I have tried drowning, DE, disturbing the nests, they just won't move on! They are in for a rude awakening because this bed is going to be moved and they will seriously be disturbed then, that oughta be fun! Uck!
Good thing the season is about done, and we can start anew in the spring! And boy will we be starting new with total rearrangement and new beds! Wahooo!!!!!

BTW, I am looking forward to a few seed exchanges with friends and fellow bloggers, I posted a Seed Trading list at the top, check it out!

3 comments:

  1. The little things on the carrots look like aphids to me. Ants harvest the honey dew that the aphids put out.

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    1. You know Peggi, I had to go out and check, because I was thinking they looked like all the eggs they keep laying under my bricks and wood, but sure enough, they are a little "grayer" and have little legs upon closer look! I tried drowning them some more and poured a peppermint soap water drench all around. I hope that takes care of them! Thanks for pointing that out!

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  2. They are laying eggs on your carrots? Never seen that before. I have had field ends over aerate beds and kill the roots systems of plants and of course, they farm aphids. I'm a live and let a bug live kind of gardener. Most of the time, they share though there are a few bugs on my exclude and cull list including earwigs this year. They were destructive and in plague proportions this year. Never had a serious problem with them before. Sure they were around but not destructive. This year, huh! Never seen cucumber mosaic virus on peppers before. Educational.

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