vegetable garden

Be Proactive to Prevent Vegetable Diseases

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When it comes to vegetable diseases, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Many diseases can be stopped before they start with smart garden practices.

Spring rains cause spots, dots, and fuzzy blots to pop up in everyone’s vegetable patch. That’s fungi having fun. But whether our weather is wet or dry, fungi, bacteria and viruses stand ready to harm plants. 

So, how do you keep them at bay? Be informed and watchful. Look at your plants often to spot small problems before they get big and use the following tips to prevent disease problems.

If you have repeat offenders – diseases that show up year after year – look for disease-resistant varieties. For example, there are varieties of tomatoes labeled as resistant to both verticillium and fusarium wilt. 

Early blight is a common disease of tomatoes. Photo:  J. Traunfeld, UME

Some plants are available in certified, disease-free starts. Choose potato tubers, garlic bulbs, and asparagus and rhubarb crowns that are certified and disease-free. 

Vegetables hate soggy soil. If your garden area is wet, consider creating a raised bed to improve drainage. Or, grow in containers or move the garden to an area that drains well.

You’ve heard me preach the gospel of compost time and again. But did you know that compost actually discourages some plant diseases? Garden smart by adding compost every year. 

Help prevent disease by spacing your plants properly to encourage good air circulation. Plant labels often give spacing tips as do garden books and websites.

Warm, humid weather invites powdery mildew on squash. 
Photo: UME Home & Garden Information Center

Rain can spread soil-borne diseases, splashing infected soil up on plants’ leaves. So keep your soil covered with an organic mulch such as untreated grass clippings or newspaper covered with straw.

Fungi love wet leaves, so water wisely. Water at the base of the plant using soaker hoses or drip irrigation. And water in the morning, not the evening, so leaves dry before nightfall. 

Practice tough love. Remove infected leaves or pull entire plants if they become badly infected. It’s better to lose one bad plant than the whole row. Don’t compost sick plants: bag and trash them.

Overripe vegetables invite disease organisms. So, harvest your vegetables before they get mushy. 

A thorough cleaning of your vegetable bed at the end of the season is crucial since many diseases can overwinter in the soil. Again, if anything had a serious disease issue, bag and trash it.

If you spot a problem, e-mail your local Extension horticulturist a photo or bring them a sample to identify. Here’s a list of our county offices. We can usually get back to you in a day or two with advice.

For other growing tips and diagnostic help, visit our Home & Garden Information Center website. It has photos, management tools, and a wealth of resources. There’s even an Ask Extension link to submit gardening questions to certified horticulturists.

Enjoy your vegetable garden this year. A few seeds and transplants, some rain, sun, and a watchful eye will have you enjoying fresh, healthy homegrown food all season long.

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.

This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.

Grow It Eat It Celebrates 15 Years of Teaching and Promoting Food Gardening!

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Food gardeners are an important part of any local food system. In Achieving Sustainability through Local Food Systems in the United States (PDF) (2013), agricultural economists Dale Johnson and James Hanson, Ph.D. state: “By far the greatest, but often overlooked, local food source in the United States is gardening.”

About 35% of Maryland households are doing some type of food gardening and have lots of important questions: What’s this worm eating my kale? How do I improve my soil and test it for lead? How do I start a school garden? Where can I take a vegetable gardening class?

Since 2009 many residents and communities have received science-based food gardening answers and help from Grow It Eat It (GIEI)– one of the six major sub-programs of the University of Maryland Extension (UME) Master Gardener Program that teaches and promotes home, school, and community food gardening. This article serves to introduce this amazing program and some of its successes. I plan to write a second article later this year on some of the exciting 2023 GIEI projects from around the state.

What is GIEI?

Grow It Eat It was developed late in 2008 by UME staff, faculty, and volunteers in response to the Great Recession. Many people were already interested in trying their hand at food gardening as a way to eat more fresh produce and connect with nature. The economic collapse forced folks to find ways to reduce household expenses.

The main GIEI objective has been to increase local food production by combining the power of grassroots education and technical assistance delivered by field faculty and Master Gardeners, with UME’s digital gardening resources. Master Gardeners (MGs) have taught hundreds of classes, developed demonstration gardens, and helped thousands of individuals and groups start food gardens and learn and use best practices. Residents can learn about GIEI classes and events by visiting their local Extension web pages and connecting on social media. MGs also help residents solve food gardening problems at Ask a MG Plant Clinics around the state. The Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) supports GIEI by training MGs, creating and maintaining digital resources, and answering food gardening questions through the Ask Extension service.

GIEI intersects and collaborates with other MG sub-programs– Bay-Wise Landscaping, Ask a MG Plant Clinic, Composting, and Pollinators– and with UME’s nutrition, natural resources, youth development, and urban ag programs. This helps the program address four of the five Strategic Initiatives guiding the College of Ag & Natural Resources.

5 strategic initiatives of the University of Maryland Extension College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

As the faculty lead, I have loved every minute spent working with UME faculty, staff, and volunteers to shape, improve and expand the program. Master Gardener Coordinators and Volunteers decide how to best shape GIEI to meet local needs. The State MG Office organizes regular GIEI statewide planning/sharing meetings and continuing education classes, and provides seeds, teaching, and marketing materials. MGs responded to the pandemic by moving GIEI classes online. GIEI projects and activities steadily increased in 2021 and 2022 and should surpass pre-COVID levels in 2023.

packets of sunflower and green bean seeds
75K seed packets have been distributed to residents to promote food gardening and the UME MG Program. Sunflower and bean seeds in 2023!
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Grow your own vegetables – Veggie 101

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Become a Veg Head.  Seriously, if you’ve always wanted to grow some of your own vegetables, now is a great time to try your first vegetable garden. Why grow your own?  Taste, nutrition, availability, safety, savings and pride.

Nothing tastes like a sun-warmed tomato fresh from the garden. It hasn’t traveled miles to get to you, losing nutrition and consuming resources.  

Homegrown means you’re not vexed by limited availability at stores. And you know exactly what those vegetables have been treated with – or not.  You can save money, too. Yes, there are start-up costs. But you can save on secondhand tools, seeds from friends, DIY supports and more.  Compare store-bought and homegrown prices and you usually come out ahead.

And then there’s pride.  You will grin big time when you harvest your first handful of peas, your first whopping zucchini, your first bell pepper.  It. Just. Feels. Good. And it tastes better.

Harvested vegetables
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Comfy plant places and new garden spaces for vegetables

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Every time we plant a seed or baby plant in our vegetable garden we are hoping for the best outcome- a healthy crop and big harvest. Gardening success comes from learning about the needs of our crops and doing all we can to meet those needs. Climate change is causing us to think a little more deeply and holistically about those plant needs and our gardening practices.

In addition to making sure that plants have enough space, water, and healthy soil, we can alter how and where we plant our crops (“comfy places”) to help them adapt to increasing summer temperatures. We can also consider ways to expand or shift our food garden spots (“new spaces”) to better manage growing conditions and produce more food.

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Grow Your Own Food in a Victory Garden

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Victory Gardens are back.  

Concerns over food security have triggered memories of Victory Gardens and inspired people to revive the tradition to help feed their families.  

Victory Garden poster
U.S. Department of Agriculture

During WWI and WWII, governments here and abroad encouraged people to grow their own food to boost morale, safeguard against shortages, supplement rationed food and support the war effort. 

Just before the U.S. entered WWI in 1917, the U.S. National War Garden Commission was formed to urge Americans to grow their own fruits and vegetables so more food could be sent to our troops and hard-hit European allies. 

As the tide of the war turned, these gardens became Victory Gardens. Some credit agricultural innovator George Washington Carver with coining the term.  

The idea bubbled up again during WWII. Labor and transportation shortages, rationing and the need to feed and support troops inspired the U.S. once again to call on its citizenry to grow their own food.  

It was considered a patriotic duty. Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the White House lawn. Covers of Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post featured gardeners proudly planting and harvesting. 

Posters used themes such as “Sow the seeds of victory” and “Dig on for victory” to link patriotism to planting.

It worked. By May of 1943, there were 20 million Victory Gardens in the United States. Over a third of all vegetables produced in the U.S. came from Victory Gardens.   

Any available space was recruited. Victory Gardens sprouted in schoolyards, parks, rooftops, fire escapes, window boxes and vacant lots. Neighbors pooled resources. Communities came together to garden.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed thousands of booklets to teach food gardening basics and later, preservation and canning.   

Victory Gardens black and white poster
U.S. Department of Agriculture

As a USDA partner, Extension was in the game early. And we continue to be a player, sharing free, research-based information on growing your own food. We can help you get started and troubleshoot problems along the way.

Visit the University of Maryland’s Home and Garden Information Center website to find how-to videos, over 500 free publications, a searchable database and an Ask an Expert feature. 

Or contact your local Extension office’s gardening specialist. Just click on your county at https://extension.umd.edu/locations and look under the “home gardening” tab.   

At their peak, there was one Victory Garden for every seven people in the U.S., proving that during difficult times, nothing is more valuable than self-sufficiency. Perhaps that time has come again.  

Victory Gardens grew out of the idea that we can all do our part to help. Help history repeat itself by growing some of your own food for yourself, your family. It’s satisfying, feeding body and soul. 

I call that a personal victory.

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.

Special thanks to Washington County Master Gardener Marie Bikle for sharing photos for this article.