Should I Worry ?
Its almost inevitable when you are growing plants, that nature will come calling, some pests and diseases are sure to appear. The thing is should you worry? some problems are temporary and will only cause minimal damage others can build up to plague proportions.
First thing to do is try to identify your problem, try google, take a picture save to your gallery then use google lens to offer some suggestion
Once you have identified your problem, we can help you decide what to do.
Prevention is better than cure
First thing to consider is the health of the plant, plants that are under stress are more prone to diseases and may actually attract pests.
How do you stress a plant ?
Uneven watering. Over or under watering will damage the roots and leaves allowing diseases and pests to take hold
Food. A poor weak plant lacking in nutrients and the reverse a highly fed plant with soft vigorous growth are both at risk from diseases and pests
Conditions. This is more difficult to identify but the humidity and temperature that the plant is exposed to will also cause diseases to start. Hard to believe , try covering a plant in a plastic bag and in a few days the high humidity will cause diseases to start.
How can I prevent stress
Plants are like children when they are small they need constant attention, careful feeding and need to be kept at the right temperature. As they grow up what they need changes, They can venture outside, where a bit of wind and rain hardens them up and they become tougher and healthier.
If you try to treat a teenager like a baby, wrapped up in a blanket, kept inside and fed liquid food you might find they start complaining. Also leaving the baby in the garden in tee shirt and jeans with a pizza and beer is likely to have social services knocking at the door.
So what does this mean ?
Make sure your plants are given the correct conditions, look after the young plants but as they get older try to toughen them up a bit.
The one thing I have learnt over the years is that nearly every plant problem starts with getting the something wrong.
What to look out for
If we get a problem on the nursery the first thing we check is the roots
Are they growing, look at the root tips, do they look healthy. If the roots are healthy, then look elsewhere. If the roots are damaged or poor it might be food related, have they got enough to sustain growth or have you overfed them. If you think the feed is okay then it may be your over watering or lack of water to blame . They may be too cold so we would then check the temperature.
Check the temperature
All plants have a temperature range that they are happy with. If you grow them too warm or too cold problems will start. For instance Summer bedding plants are not happy when you try to grow them in the winter. Alpine plants from the top of the Alps are not happy with our mild and wet climate.
We would then look at the humidity
If they are grown inside we can control the humidity and temperature of the greenhouse to prevent diseases. We know that a high humidity of over 90% for 3 or more hours will allow botrytis (grey mould disease) to start growing on the plant, using ventilation and sometimes heat we can reduce the humidity.
That’s all very well but how does that help me with my small greenhouse ?
I would invest in an automatic vent opener to start with this will prevent extremes of temperature. If you are not heating the green house I would also leave a vent, open by half an inch at night to increase the air circulation.
