Beating the bugs....

[TKR99]

So how do you all deal with the bugs and diseases on your plants at this time of the year in particular??  Someone once mentioned to me that because my plants are in a rather secluded space with little real ventiliation (they want to have seen the tornados I've had recently in my little yard LOL!) plus the overcrowding (yep, guilty of that ok) that this would leave my plants more susceptible to disease, but it is really depressing me now.   This is the 3rd year that I've had the same problem - everything looks absolutely brilliant until about mid July or so and I'm thinking maybe this year will be different and then it all goes pear-shaped, with almost every plant coming down with something. 

I've got my perpetual sweet pea problem where the leaves are being laced by bugs, and damp conditions causing white leaf mould, and my lilies look like something "twizzled" them with leaves all curled and twisted (although they still flowered well) but now my shrubs are starting to get hit in different ways.   I've got 3 "mini melon" trees (Solanum Muricatum Pepino) which took off wonderfully all in separate pots - 2 are growing reasonably well leaf wise and not too much wrong with them, but ironically the only one that's flowered is the one worst hit with something - the leaves are rapidly going yellow with brown spots and bit by bit I can see it deteriorating, so as I'd really like my melons I'd like to do something to save it before it goes too far.  I've "isolated" this one away from the others for now until I see what to do with it.

Equally an azalea which was doing great, has just in the past week hit a similar problem with dark brown spots affecting some lower leaves - not too many but enough to concern me.   About the only thing that's not yet reared its ugly head and I hope doesn't either, is greenfly - I'd normally have an infestation of them by now too but so far so good - not a sign.

ALL these plants have been sprayed every 2-3 weeks with a proprietary bug killer and are fed regularly with phosphogen (?)   They're all potted in good compost and farmyard manure/compost (4:1 ratio roughly).  I'm really at a loss as to what more I can do to keep them healthy so any suggestions would be appreciated.   Not got photos yet, but can do if you'd rather see exactly what I mean.

[Kathy & Laurie]

By all means Romayne submit photos with your questions.  Particularly when it concerns plant diseases as the appearance can be extremely useful in diagnosing problems.

As long as you're able to keep your photos in the region of 128kb and no more than 660 pixels wide, then you can get a good sized photo for us to see.

This applies to any plants you have that you are particularly proud of and are doing well.  We all like to see other members' pride and joy in their gardens.

In the meantime, maybe some of our more experienced members can come in with some suggestions for you, and once you've got some photos up here, there may be more useful tips given for you.

Laurie.

[TKR99]

Ok - will try and get some pics tomorrow for y'all 

[TKR99]

Truly sorry about the photo quality - my camera's rather old and useless for taking any sort of close-up annoyingly, so can't get much better than these.   These are of 2 of the 3 melon trees - and before you even tell me, I've already figured out that I'm probably committing the worst of gardening sins - stuffing big plants into way too small pots, as I noticed that the only 1 of the 3 that's actually healthy is in a much larger pot, but space was at such a premium at the time I got them, it was either this size or no size and I'd truly hoped they'd be ok, but perhaps not.  Difficulty now is the one which is flowering as I presume I'd be unwise to consider potting it up until later in the season?   Have to try again to get another pic of the other plant - think it's an azalea - as I blurred it badly at the time, and too sore/tired to go downstairs to get another one now.

Anyway - this is the flowering one:




And this is as close up as I can get of the leaves I mentioned with the dark spots:



Appreciate you might not be any better off with those, but best I can do for now.

[newplantguy]

Looks like they are deficient in nutrients, try feeding with a high potash fertilizer every fornight.
Really you need to pot them on.
The black spots could a mildew - try a systemic fertilizer - you can get this from the garden centre.
You could also try organic liquid sea weed if you do not like to many chemicals.
I would change the compast to a John Innes  no2 for the Solanum.

[ideasguy]

By way of introduction since you are new here Romayne, heres the web site Paul (newplantguy) created using IG Pro.
http://www.ideasforgardens.net/meredith/Blooms_Plants/
You can see why he has registered on the forum as newplantguy

[TKR99]

Looks like they are deficient in nutrients, try feeding with a high potash fertilizer every fornight. Really you need to pot them on.  The black spots could a mildew - try a systemic fertilizer - you can get this from the garden centre.

Thanks so much for your input - I ended up taking up a couple of leaves up to my wonderful local garden centre who agreed fully with you - he's suggested I use the Camellia food for them weekly and also a fungus spray reguarly as well given how I'm fairly overcrowding.   Just so pleased to know it's a recoverable problem if I act now and hopefully that will indeed sort them out.

BTW - I HATE your garden LOL!!   Have to hate it - can't have anything like it, so get utterly jealous when I see all the beautiful ones showcased on here.   Couldn't have it even if I had the space, as I'm no way fit for looking after one now, but have always looked longingly at them wishing I'd had the opportunity when I was younger to create something more meaningful.   But small is beautiful too - and I'm very happy with my little overgrown forest as I never know what's going to sprout out of it next  .  Thanks again.

[Trevor Ellis]

Hi Romayne,

I've just been reading about the problems you've been having in your garden and wondered if you were aware of a very useful book by Stefan Buczacki & Keith Harris entitled 'Pests, Diseases & Disorders of Garden Plants'. It really is an authoritative book with lots of excellent photographs and information about the causes of problems and how to deal with them. It's published by Harper Collins and the ISBN is 0 00 220063 5. It costs19.99 GBP but is worth every penny.

Hope for better things next season for you,

Best wishes,

Trevor

[TKR99]

Appreciate that suggestion Trevor - given the propensity I seem to have for propagating bugs more than plants sometimes, might be a worthwhile investment  .  This bad weather's not helping too much either as I'm struggling to stop plants getting too waterlogged in their pots - even with what I felt was good drainage some seem to stay wet for a lot longer than I like, but thankfully the plants seem to be coping ok thus far.  More than I can say for myself, as I'm really not feeling too hot these days and it's nothing to do with the colder weather