What is wrong with my plan? In the six years I've been working with Kellogg Garden, I have probably
seen this question online on a daily basis, and when we're in season a lot more. One day you have
a seemingly healthy plant, and the next it takes a turn for the worst. It is frustrating. Recently,
I posted a video about a garden attack; something eating, chomping on my plants, but today I want to
talk about plant health. When you go out, and your plant is either wilting, changing color,
spotted, and you just, you have no idea what's happening. So, we'll talk about three things; One
what the causes could be, two how to investigate it, and then three some of the mitigation
techniques you can use to either stop, or correct, or help the plant. So first, let's talk about
causes. When a plant starts to deteriorate, what we look for is we look at sun, water, nutrients,
pests, and disease. Those are the five, okay? Sun and water are the easiest to correct in most
cases. Either it's getting too much sun exposure or not enough, too much water or not enough. Now,
there are times, let's say, rainy seasons where it's going to be hard to correct over watering,
right? Can't correct the weather, and with sun, you know we can shade a plant using row cover.
But, if it's planted in an area where it can't be moved out of and they can't get more sun,
then that might be something we can't correct. Nutrients, absolutely we can correct that.
Whether it needs more of your basic three, right? Potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, or in some cases
magnesium, or calcium. Those are things that we can mitigate as well. Now, when it comes to pests,
they're a little bit more difficult, aren't they? One, it's identifying what the pest is. And, a lot
of times, they're soft bodied, little, microscopic looking things, that are sucking the life out of
your plant. So, figuring that out, you'll have to do some investigation on what's happening to the
plant. And then, disease. Disease, that's another one where it could be soil borne, it could be
pest borne, it could be that the plant itself came with this disease. So, that's something else that
we look for. So, in investigating and looking at this, I'm going to show you a few plants and some
problems that I'm having, and what I'm looking for, and what the signs could possibly mean,
all right. So, let's take a closer look. Okay, here's a look in one of my garden beds,
and I actually have a few problems in here. Let's first look at this italian parsley.
So, you see here how I have these leaves here that are yellowing, they're really turning white,
I've trimmed some back, but they were really white, right. A little wilting. So now, when a
plant is wilting, or you start to see this right here, this discoloration, it starts to go white,
different causes. So, for this plant it could be that it's getting too much sun,
right? Or, it's a watering issue. Too much watering, or not enough watering. Now, I know that
this plant has been getting a lot of sun lately, so I really think that this is a sun issue.
The watering schedule hasn't really changed for it that much, we have had a little bit of rain
recently, just some misty morning, some light showers. But, on this plant I don't think it's
a watering issue. But I'm going to look at both, I'm going to watch, one sun exposure. So you know,
maybe I need to cover it, or I need to move this bed. But, those could be the causes for this.
This plant here, and this is a tri-color sage, it has tips that are browning. Again, same issue,
it could be a watering issue for this. Now, I think this one is an overwatering issue. Recently,
I started using the irrigation system in here, and I popped in this guy here, which is a bubbler,
to give more water to this plant here. This is a cucumber plant, and I think, by doing that,
I've given way too much water to this one and so I may have a problem with root rot.
So, what I need to do is really, I turn down the water on this one quite a bit.
So, it's not getting as much. And then, what I may do is move this little drip
irrigation so it's not getting drip and some of the water from that.
So, that's the issue with this plant. Now, when you start to see spotting, right,
when you start to see that there are spots that are with discoloration,
that is indicative of really something taking the life out of your plants, right?
Now, when you start to see this white, that's typically spider mites. If the color
was silver or bronze, if they're streaky, then that could be your thrips, right?
And, I don't really see that. What I do see here, this guy here, that's a leaf miner. See that
little trail there? So, the way to deal with that is, I've sprayed the underside of these
leaves with some neem oil. So, you can use neem oil, you could do an insecticidal soap
mixed with water, and then the other thing I could do is I could also bring in some ladybugs,
or lady beetles. I could bring in some of the the good bug predators to go after
my bad bugs. Now really, to bring in your good bugs, you need to have more, and I right now,
I do have some aphids, but that's really what they like to eat, are those aphids.
So for this, I'm just going to keep spraying. And now, it doesn't always
kill, so you're not going to kill these little guys right away, but you do it a few times, keep
it up, and then slowly you'll start to see them leave. And really, what I want to look at is this
new growth, is this guy okay here? Still doing all right. This one isn't too bad, so I think we're
getting it under control. I think. So, that's good. Now, another cause, and I don't have it,
I don't have any examples of it in here, but if I saw say a white, powdery substance on my leaves,
that could be powdery mildew, right? And, that's typically because of over watering from the top,
right? So that's why I like to use more of a drip irrigation, so I don't risk getting that powdery
mildew. I was hoping, I mean well, nobody ever hopes for her problems at the garden, but another
issue you might see are curled leaves inward. These are curling in just a bit. And, that can be
heat stress, right? That could be heat stress if it's curled in,
or again, not enough water. If it starts to droop then, it also could be heat stress and
not enough water. Now, throughout the day let's say you do your watering early in the morning,
then as it goes through the day it gets hotter in the afternoon and you might see drooping in
the afternoon, you need to wait and see once the sun goes down, is it still drooping right? Or,
does it bounce back? And, that will tell you if you need to water again. Now,
aphids also will cause some spotting on leaves, but normally that's going to be
yellow spotting, and then it could also wilt as well. You might see yellow spotting and wilting
on a leaf and that could be aphids there. Over here, and we'll go,
actually I have some yellowing on one of these, so here are some starts that I have.
So, right here on this plant, you can see a little bit of orange, a little bit of yellowing. So,
this could be aphids on this little cucumber, here. And, I know that I found some aphids on
some of my other plants, or again, it could be spider mites. And, since this is so young
I really, really want to watch this one and make sure I take care of it right
away. Here's another cucumber plant, and I can see a little damage. These are sitting outside,
and that's yellowing there. So again, this could be aphids rather than those spider mites.
This one here, you see how this is yellowing a bit?
Okay, this is a zinnia. This is probably because of too much water. Again, we've gotten some
sun, I mean some rain intermittent. We go from hot to a little bit of rain, and so I'm thinking this
guy, and you can see it look how that soil looks, that it's getting just a bit too much water.
So, I'm going to probably pull it and control its water just a little bit more.
This little guy is drooping a little bit, but
he's fine. Right here, we have some of the gourds, they're looking pretty good.
This is an edible gourd. I cannot wait, it's my first time growing it
and I think it's pronounced 'ku-koo-zi.' If I'm wrong go ahead and let me know about that.
Back here I've got some ginger, and some turmeric,
and then I've got some sweet potatoes, and it's the sweet potatoes that are yellowing.
And, you see that, and that's because these guys haven't gotten enough water.
So, they're young, I need to watch them, and when they're in these trays I water from the bottom,
random spoon in here. I water from the bottom and so these guys, I need to keep an eye on,
because they were in a different area and they haven't gotten enough water.
I also brought them out here. This can be, sometimes when you're hardening off, or you're
transplanting, you can have a little bit of shock. So, I need to be careful, that could be that
as well. But, I really think this is a watering issue. These guys over here, looking pretty good.
The other thing when you're doing your seedlings,
over watering, especially from the top, you'll start to see a little bit of moss on here,
and that'll tell you that yeah, you need either better air flow or you need to pull down your
watering. All right so, we're in one of my beds and looking at some of my seedlings,
and you can see some of the issues that I have. I find the best remedies for pests are
having really good soil, healthy, healthy soil that's going to build a strong plant. That plant
will then be healthier and able to ward off some of these pests. I like to companion plant,
some things ward off pests, and some things attract pests. Like my nasturtium can be a nice
trap plant for a pest. Sometimes, I'll sacrifice a plant. For me, brassicas can be pretty difficult,
aphids love them in my garden, and if i have a brassica that is attracting most of the aphids,
I may just let that plant, I'm gonna sacrifice it. I'm going to let it go.
So, those are ways to deal with your pest problem. When we talk about disease,
and I don't have any disease issues right now. I talked about powdery mildew, that's one that
you'll see quite often with vegetables. You might also see blight. Blight is more of a tomato issue,
so there are a few that you see often, and again, some you can contend with. Once you have blight,
that's more about ripping that plant out, so it doesn't spread to other plants. That would
be a mitigation for that. Powdery mildew. You could have some fungal and bacterial
viruses that kind of come through. Some of them you can use a fungicide,
some of them you cut away and you change your practices. Like powdery mildew,
you water from below, don't let those leaves get wet. So really, when you start to look at these,
one get an idea of what it could be to start to investigate. Go online,
see what people are saying, and really what starts to work for you. I will put some resources
down in the description, some articles from Kellogg Garden, where you can look through,
see okay, help me identify what the problem is, and then help me figure out some solutions.
Finally, on the nutrients, right now I'm doing really well. These beds are looking great.
Of course, as the plants grow, as they take the nutrients out of the soil,
you're going to need to add nutrients back in. You want to see lush, good growth with your plants.
And then, if you, again taking notes. and you're watching your plants, if you've skipped adding in
some nutrients, or some compost that can be easily fixed. You know, your big three are your nitrogen,
your phosphorus, and your potassium. But then, there are plants that need some of those macro
nutrients a little bit more. Like tomatoes may need more calcium or magnesium so you don't get
that end rot. So really, as you go through; One. knowing what your schedule is, and then saying,
okay, you know if the leaves on the bottom of the plant are starting to, the under leaves,
are starting to turn yellow then that probably means I need more nitrogen, right? Because,
with nitrogen you're going to see a very lush, green plant. So, looking through and saying,
okay, first what is the issue, and then second what are some things that I can do? And then
starting to do those things. And my final piece of advice is just to document your garden all the
way through. Because in order to figure out what a problem is, you kind of have to look back and say,
"what have I been doing with the plant?" So, if you are taking pictures, and video,
and then also journaling. Just knowing what you're doing, and when you're doing it. That is
absolutely the best way to figure out what's going wrong with the plant, and fixing it quickly. Of
course, if you're in your garden more often, then you're going to spot it quicker, and it is easier
to fix it, if you catch it in the beginning. So, we will continue to talk about this because as we
get through the season other things will pop up, and I'll show you my garden. I get hit every year
by little things that come through, and sometimes I can turn it around and sometimes I can't. So,
I'll definitely share that with you guys. If you have any questions please leave them in the
comments below, or if you have some advice, and things that you've gone through and that you've
found have worked for you. The best thing in gardening is being part of the community, you
learn so much from what other people are doing. So, please share that. If you liked this video,
I'd appreciate if you tap that like button that way other people find it. And, I guess I'll talk
to you guys again really soon! So, thank you for joining me again. Happy Gardening.