Twelve problems affecting roots

Crop rotation will help to prevent a build-up of the serious troubles listed here.

• Cabbage root fly Maggots eat fine roots of cabbages and relations, until all that remains of root system is a blackened rotting stump. Wilting occurs. Treat soil with chlorpyrifos/ daizinon or pirimiphos-methyl when sowing and planting.
• Carrot flyMaggots tunnel in the roots of carrots and parsnips. Treat seed drills with chlorpyrifos/diazinon or pirimiphos-methyl; carrots should be lifted as soon as they are ready to avoid damage from maggots.
• Caterpillars Chief culprits are those that feed on brassicas: the large and small cabbage white butterflies and the cabbage moth. Pick off small numbers by hand; alternatively, apply a chlorpyritos/diazinon soil insecticide close to the stems, or spray the plants with fenitrothion.
• Clubroot Disease that results in swollen distorted roots and severely stunted top growth. Affects all brassicas. Usually more troublesome in acid or lime-free soil. Apply lime if the soil is acid. Treat seedlings before planting by dipping roots in beno-myl or a solution of thiophanate-methyl.
• Cutworms Soil-dwelling caterpillars of certain moths. They feed on roots, especially of lettuces, but of other vegetables also. The damaged plants wilt. Treat soil with a diazinon-based insecticide before sowing.
• Onion fly Maggots tunnel into the base of the bulbs and allow rots to enter. Treat the soil with a diazinon-based insecticide when sowing or planting.
• Onion white rot Fungal disease, showing as a white fluffy growth on roots and at base of bulb. Yellowing and subsequent death of leaves occur. Dig up and burn all affected onions.

Dust seed drills with benomyl and spray plants with a solution of benomyl.

Parsnip canker Shows as rotting of the shoulder tissues of parsnips in autumn/winter. Grow resistant varieties such as Avonresister’, and carry out crop rotation.

Potato blight The most serious disease of potatoes. Yellow- brown patches occur on the leaves, which eventually turn brown or black. A reddish-brown dry rot affects the tubers. Spray maincrop potatoes in mid-summer with a copper fungicide or treat with mancozeb. Grow resistant varieties such as ‘Maris Peer’.

Potato scab Causes superficial raised scabs with ragged edges on potato tubers. Common in dry, sandy or gravelly soils. Improve humus content. Liming encourages the disease. Grow resistant varieties such as ‘Arran Pilot’, ‘Maris Peer’.

Slugs Small black soil-dwelling slugs make holes in tubers of potatoes and roots of other vegetables. Metaldehyde (see p61 BAA) slug pellets will help reduce the slug population. Avoid organic fertilizers where there is a slug problem. Harvest potatoes as soon as possible rather than leaving them in the ground to be eaten. Another method is to set slug traps, which you sink into the soil and fill with stale beer.

Wireworm. The larvae of click beetles: thin, wiry, orange. Mainly a problem in new gardens, feeding on tubers of potatoes and roots of other vegetables. Treat soil with chlorpyrifos/diazinon or pirimiphos-methyl at sowing or planting time.

Eight troubles affecting stems and leaves

Avaried assortment of both pests and diseases can harm stems and leaves of vegetable crops.

• Aphids Greenfly and blackfly congregate on shoot tips of such vegetables as broad beans, runner beans, potatoes and peas. Spray with a specific aphicide such as pirimicarb.
• Birds Wood pigeons peck destructively at foliage of brassicas, especially in winter. Grow in a netting cage.
• Downy mildew White fungal disease found on leaves of lettuces, onions, spinach and young brassicas. At first signs of trouble, remove affected leaves and spray with mancozeb.
• Flea beetles Tiny beetles which eat holes in leaves of brassica seedlings. Control with rotenone, gamma-BHC seed dressing or pirimiphos-methyl.
• Glasshouse red spider mite Common greenhouse pest, causing fine pale mottling on leaves, which adversely affects growth. Keep atmosphere moist. Spray with bifenthrin or fatty acids at 7-day intervals; or use biological control.
• Glasshouse whitefly Tiny white fly, another serious pest of crops grown under glass. Spray with fatty acids, pyrethrins or dimethoate methyl at 7-day intervals, or use biological control.
• Powdery mildew Leaves and stems of several vegetables become covered with a white powdery coating. Control the disease by spraying with benomyl sulphur or carbendazim, repeating as necessary.
• Slugs and snails Attack many vegetables, particularly seedlings. Sprinkle slug pellets, based on metaldehyde, thinly around plants before trouble starts.

Three troubles affecting fruits and pods

Do not let fruits, such as tomatoes, succumb to rots, nor peas to attacks by insects.

• Greymould This a fungal disease, showing as a grey fluffy mould. Most prevalent in wet summers, it can cause rotting of tomatoes, marrows and other fruits, and pod. As soon as you notice it, pick off affected fruits and spray affected plants with benomyl fungicide.
• Pea moth The caterpillars feed on the developing seeds inside pods. Peas which come into flower between early summer and late summer should be sprayed with fenitrothion (at dusk) 7 days after the start of flowering.
• Pea thrips Tiny black insects which feed on pods and foliage of peas. Shows as a silvery-brown discolouration on the pods, which may be malformed and contain only a few peas. Worse in hot dry summers. Spray with fenitrothion or malathion as soon as noticed.

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