10 Ways to Keep Your Garden Healthy

Learn how to eliminate plant diseases by understanding and managing the conditions that cause them

One of the most beat things that can go on in your garden is when a plant gets adisease . How did it happen ? Will it spread ? Will all my flora kick the bucket ? How can I get free of it ? The most of import matter to infer about disease prevention is something called the disease triangle ( drawing , right ) . Disease can only happen when three things coincide : you have a plant that can get sick ( a host ) , a pathogen ( like a fungus , bacteria , or virus ) that can attack the plant , and environmental condition ( like humidity ordrought ) that promote the disease . If any one of these matter is not present , the disease will not happen , so bar postulate pink out at least one side of the Triangulum . Rather than waiting for a problem to protrude up in your garden , consider the best defense against disease to be a beneficial criminal offense . What follows are 10 ways you’re able to eliminate at least one side of the disease triangle and keep your plant healthy .

1. Examine plants carefully before buying

The easiest mode to restrict disease in your garden is to avoid introducing it in the first place . Getting a disease with a new plant is not the form of bonus that any of us wants . One of the hardest things to read is what a healthy plant should look like , making it difficult to recognise if the one you want is pallid .

It is a good melodic theme to roll up a few leger , cartridge , and catalog that show what a level-headed specimen looks like . Do n’t take home a industrial plant with dead spots , rotted stems , or insects . These problems can easy spread to your hefty plant and are sometimes hard to get disembarrass of once established .

In addition to checking the tops of plant , always visit the base calibre . One does not often see client doing this in a garden center , but it should be a unwashed sight . put your hand on the dirt Earth’s surface with the plant life stem between your fingers . softly invert the pot and stir the plant loose . You may have to pink the border of the pot against a firm surface to loosen the theme from the quite a little . root should be unshakable , usually bloodless , and spaced all over the tooth root - testis . Dark or mushy rootsare not a good mark . Even when the top seem levelheaded , it ’s just a thing of prison term before a molder root organization wipe out a plant .

2. Use fully composted yard waste

Not all textile in acompostpile moulder at the same pace . Some materials may have demean sufficiently to be put in the garden , while others have not . Thorough composting engender mellow temperatures for extended length of metre , which in reality kill any pathogen in the material . septic plant debris that has not undergone this cognitive operation will re-introduce potential diseases into your garden . If you are not trusted of the condition of your compost pile , you should avoid using grand waste as mulch under tender flora and avoid including possibly infect debris in your mass .

3. Keep an eye on your bugs

Insect damage to plants is much more than cosmetic . Viruses and bacteria often can only enter a plant through some sort of opening , and bug damage provides that . Some insects actually act as a transport for virus , diffuse them from one plant to the next . Aphidsare one of the most mutual mail carrier , andthripsspread impatiens necrotic smirch virus , which has become a serious trouble for commercial producers over the past 10 years . Aster yellow ( photo , right ) is a disease carry by leafhoppers and has a Brobdingnagian range of host plant . louse attacks are another room to put a works under stress , deliver it less probable to fend off disease .

4. Clean up in the fall

It is always sound to clean out the garden in the fall , even if you last in a temperate clime . This is not only an effective check to disease but also a good way to control diseases already in your garden .

5. Apply the correct fertilizer

You postulate to take care when fecundate plant since too much of any fertilizer can sting roots , reduce their power to absorb water . This , in number , makes the plant life more susceptible to emphasis from drouth , cold , and heat . Plants starve for nutrient are smaller and can be badly affected by leaf spot , while a stronger flora can oppose off diseases . An overabundance of a especial food is another way to put stress on a plant life .

Getting asoil testthrough your local university extension agency will provide you with precise information on nutrient levels in your dirt . Without it , any feeding of your plant is probable to be guesswork on your part and may lead in too much of one nutrient or not enough of another .

6. Plant disease-resistant varieties

Disease - tolerant plants are those that might get fed up with a particular problem but will fight off the disease or else of succumbing to it . For example , some tomatoes are tease as “ VFN resistant , ” which means the love apple motley is resistant to the fungi Verticillium and Fusarium and to nematodes .

If you start looking for these code on flowers , you ’ll probably be disappointed because disease resistance is seldom identified on flora tag . This does n’t mean that numerous flower variety show are not resistant to disease . Many rose company offer plants that are insubordinate to disease like powdery mildew and mordant billet .

Nursery employee and fellow gardener can help you place the good or most resistant varieties of many plants . Reference book and catalogs may also list plants and varieties resistant to particular diseases .

7. Prune damaged limbs at the right time

Trimming trees and shrubs in late wintertime is good than waiting until bound . Wounded limbs can become infected over the winter , allow disease to become established when the plant is dormant . former - winter pruning keep disease from spread to new ontogenesis . Although tardy - winter storm can cause fresh damage , it is still unspoilt to trim back a broken limb than ignore it until spring is underway . Always use needlelike tools to make clean cuts that cure rapidly , and make trusted to cut back to healthy , living tissue .

8. Choose and site plants appropriately

Successful gardening is base on using plants appropriate for your zona and web site . If you gear up a wraith - love plant , like an azalea , in full sun , it will produce poorly and be easily attacked by disease and insects . I once had a crepe Vinca minor institute where part of its leaf were in the shade . This was the only part of the plant that hadpowdery mould .

Plants have defenses similar to a man ’s resistant system , which sweep into action when plants are under attack from an dirt ball or disease . If plants are under tension , they can not respond with full strength to fight off or recover from diseases . Stressed plants , therefore , are more potential to succumb to these affliction .

9. Water properly

Watering your garden is a good thing , but since many diseases need piss just as much as plant do , how you go about it makes a braggy difference . Many pathogen in the filth and atmosphere need water to move , grow , and regurgitate . To avoid giving these diseases an surroundings they love , choose watering methods that limit wet on a plant ’s foliage . Soaker hose and drip irrigation accomplish this . If you are water by hired hand , obtain the leaf out of the way as you irrigate the roots .

The most common leaf problem are exacerbated when leave-taking are besotted , so overhead sprinkling is the least desirable option . If you opt this method , however , piddle at a time when the leaves will dry out quickly but the root still have clip to absorb the moisture before it evaporates .

Also call back that more is n’t necessarily better when giving your plants a crapulence . Waterlogged territory or wad promotes some theme - rotting fungi and can also stifle roots , making them soft target area for the rotting fungi .

10. Don’t crowd plants

Take care when spacing transplant , and keep an eye on established plant life as they spread . Crowded plants create their own humidity , which allows disease like powdery mildew ( picture , proper ) , rust , and downy mold to flourish . ameliorate flow of air around your plants reduces this mellow relative humidness and allows foliage to dry out more quickly .

plant that are placed too close together tend to arise ill due to contender for light , water , and nutrient . These weak plants are more susceptible to assail . disease also sometimes circularize when an infected leaf comes into contact lens with a healthy one , which is more potential when plants are next to each other .

To lessen the likelihood of disease , trim out crowded , discredited , or old stalks on plant that are prostrate to powdery mildew , likePhlox paniculata . Dividing or rearranging your plants when they require it will also assist .

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

Razor - Back Potato / Refuse Hook

o.k. Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through inter-group communication on this web site , including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs .

Dewit 3 - Piece Tool Gift Set with 3 - Tine Cultivator , Forged Trowel and Forged Hand Fork

Get our up-to-the-minute gratuity , how - to articles , and instructional videos sent to your inbox .

Signing you up …

The Science of Garden Soil Health: What You Need to Know to Keep Your Garden Growing

How to Get Big Flowers from Bigleaf Hydrangeas

10 Perennials Easily Grown From Seed

Mulch for a Healthy Garden

link Fine Gardening for a free engaging live webinar featuring Dr. Janna Beckerman , a renowned industrial plant pathologist as well as professor emerita at Purdue University and the ornamentals technical manager …

When I spotted a special sand dollar cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few months ago , I know I was in trouble . With a delightful color pattern …

When we only prioritize plant we want over plants our landscape needs , each time of year is fill with a never - ending leaning of chore : pruning , abstract , watering , treating , amending , and fertilizing , with …

Disease Triangle

Good roots

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden designer Jeff Epping — not because you ’re potential to trip up on something , but because you might be dive - bomb by a pair …