Common Vegetable Garden Problems At Home

Gardening at Home - Growing a vegetable garden at home is rewarding but somehow you find some growing problem that makes you irritated and frustrated especially if you are a new gardener. Treating vegetable garden problem at home can be easier if you know what cause of your vegetable garden problem, the common vegetable plants disease as well as common vegetable garden pests.

Common Vegetable Garden Problems

There are 3 common vegetable garden problems you can find in your garden, which are caused by environment condition, disease, or pest attack.

Environmental Vegetable Garden Issues

This common vegetable garden problem is caused by nutrient deficiencies, drought or over-irrigation, and temperature. To treat these environmental vegetable garden problem, you may provide proper nutrition, proper irrigation, temperature and right location.

Here are some common environmental vegetable garden problem that might be found at your garden as follow:

1. Blossom end rot (which is common seen in tomatoes, peppers and squash) is a calcium deficiency caused by moisture fluxes in the soil or caused by the application of too much nitrogen fertilizer. To treat this vegetable garden problem, you need to avoid over fertilization and you may use mulch to retain water / soil moisture during periods of drought.

2. Edema is a common physiological problem found in vegetable plants when the ambient temperatures are cooler than soil temperatures, and soil moisture has high relative humidity. In this case, leaves often look as older leaf surfaces, like they have “warts” and afflict lower. To treat this vegetable garden problem, you need to control the temperature.

3. Bolting is a common problem that plants prematurely flower and elongate as temperatures rise and the days get longer. To treat this vegetable garden problem, you need to plant bolt resistant varieties in the early spring.

4. Plants fail to set fruit or drop blossoms due to temperature variables. For example snap beans may fail to flower if temperatures are over 90 degrees F or (32 degrees C) but it may resume blooming if temperatures cool down. Tomatoes, eggplant, or peppers are also affected by temperature fluctuations which can inhibit blooming or production.

5. Low temperatures of between 50-60 degrees F. or 10-15 deg C may cause fruit to become misshapen. Low soil moisture and cool temperature may cause cucumbers to grow crooked or oddly shaped.

6. Poor pollination on sweet corn may also cause irregularly shaped kernels to form. You may plant the corn in blocks of multiple short rows to encourage pollination, rather than one long row.

Common Vegetable Plant Diseases

Plant disease is caused by pathogen and here are some common vegetable plant disease as follow:

1. Clubroot – This vegetable plant disease is caused by the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae. Some vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, radish and cauliflower can be affected by this common disease.

2. Damping off or seedling blight – It is caused by Aphanomyces, Pythium, Fusarium, or Rhizoctonia in origin. Most vegetables can be attacked by this common vegetable plant disease.

3. Verticillium wilt – This common vegetable plant disease may afflict any number of Brassicae family (except broccoli), eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, potatoes, spinach, radish, watermelon and tomatoes.

4. White mold – This common vegetable plant disease is caused by pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and can be found in many crops, such as carrots, some Brassicae veggies, beans, lettuce, eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes.

5. Other vegetable plant diseases such as cucumber mosaic virus, bacterial wilt and root rot may cause wilting of foliage with dead areas apparent and mottled fruit.

Common Vegetable Garden Pests

The worst foe for home gardeners may be vegetable garden pests. These insects / pests feed on healthy vegetable plants and once they go through a metamorphosis / change stage, they may even move on to another type of plant.

Some common vegetable garden pests that might be found in your garden including aphids (feed on almost any type of crop), spider mites, stinkbugs (damage foliage on veggies as well as fruit and nut trees), squash bugs, thrips, seedcorn maggots, whiteflies, nematodes or root knot disease (causes galls to form on carrots and stunt coriander, onion and potato crops).

Treating vegetable garden pests takes a number of steps. The simplest way to deal with the problem is to prevent them from overtaking your garden in the first place. And remember to use pesticide as the last option since the pesticide may be harmful for the beneficial insect and the plant itself.

Read more: Top 10 Beneficial Insects for Your Garden

Here are some tips on treating vegetable garden pests:

1. Check through seed catalogs to find pest resistant crop varieties.

2. Keep away dead plants, weeds, and any garbage that may appear in the garden area. A clean garden makes it harder for pests to take hold.

3. Make the soil fertile and healthy with well-rotted compost. This way will also allow excess moisture to drain away from vulnerable roots.

4. Check for the normal hatching time for the worst pests in your area. After that you may delay planting your crops for about two weeks. This tip will disrupt the insects’ feeding schedules and may prevent the damage going worst.

5. Purchase or attract beneficial insects and animals that prey on common pests. For example, ladybugs and beneficial wasps will kill off many garden pests.
Putting out small enclosures can be tried to encourage lizards or toads get safe home in your area. 

 Read more: Tips on Attracting Beneficial Insects into Your Garden

So there are some vegetable garden problems and some tips on treating the vegetable garden problems as described above. Good luck and happy gardening..