Problems with growing veggies

Allana1313 starts with ...
Hi everyone, I'm quite new to having a veggie garden and have stumbled on a few problems which I'm not sure what to do. Firstly my veggie gardens are raised off the ground. There about 1 metre high. We used seedlings brought from bunnings in trays. Everything has been growing great except for my squash plants. They were doing really well until in the last week the plants have started to not look so great. There no longer a nice green colour (some leaves are but the rest are yellow) and now the baby squash are just falling off the stem before they even get the size of a 5c piece. It's not a pollination issue as I've seen plenty of bees, I also hand pollinated them myself to make sure. I'm not sure weather squash are just very fragile and do fall off easily or there is something wrong. The other issue I'm faced with is some of my plants have just broken off at the stem. A couple of chilli plants as well as a few broccoli and cauliflower. It's hard to explain but basically the plants are nice and strong and then one day I'll go out there and that same plant is very wiggly, as soon as you touch it the stem just completely lets go right down at the root with no effort at all. Hope that makes sense can't really explain it any other way. I'm not sure weather I'm over watering and that's the problem or not?. The soil we used was A grade stuff which we purchased from a sand and gravel store (as our soil is quite sandy). This soil also has a bit of sand in it. They said it was pre mixed with compost, manure etc. We also added to it a few more bags of compost on the top and some fertilizer. But nothing has been added since (approx 4 weeks). I recently purchased some sugar cane mulch to put over the top of the garden bed as I did find that on hot days the soil was drying up quite fast. The water drains a bit too much some times due to the height of the bed but it's not too bad so we thought we would just add this to help keep it in. I must say since doing that, I have noticed this is when the squash plants started to go. The rest of the plants are doing great which includes different varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, beans, snow peas, lettuce, carrots, capsicum, gooseberry and more. I also haven't seen any bugs but there is quite a few black ants running around in the garden (could they be what's eating these stems away at the roots?). Sorry for the long post, just hope someone could help. Our local nursery didn't seem to know bugger all.

rev says...
its a mildew fungus

remove heavilly infested leaves, bin, burn or bury deep
spray the remaining leaves with Milk once a week
increase airflow

try and prevent overhead watering

amanda says...
Could it be slaters Allana? U might need to go out with a torch at night - or set up a trap to catch whatever it is. Could be cutworm also.

amanda says...
Don't know Allana! maybe someone else can tell us? I don't have cutworm problems...but slaters will also do what u are describing - have u seen slaters around?
In the meantime you may need to put a little protection around the stems (eg a small plastic pot with the bottom cut out)

amanda says...
Good point. It will probably kill off many of the good guys in the soil too....I won't even use in on my dogs - it smells evil!

Lorna says...
To stop the cutworm, I have to start my corn and beans in pots or old toilet roll tubes. When large enough to plant out, I then take away a little of the top soil, and surround the stem with a loose collar of tin foil, pressed flat. I put it on loose to allow for expansion of the stem. When I plant them, I put half the tin foil above the ground, and half below the soil. It takes more time to plant things out, but at least I end up with a full crop. The cutworm only seems to chop the seedlings off right on soil level, so this "foils" them big time! I have had brilliant success with this method.

Allana1313 says...
I finally found some green caterpillars chewing my raspberry bush this morning so I have at least figured out what was causing that harm. Now just to work out what it is attacking my fruit tree's and I should have everything sorted :), for now anyway.

Lorna says...
Brendan, there is a bit more to sprays than just the active chemicals in them. For different uses, they have different carriers, wetters and formulations. They may look like the same dog with the same leg action from the label, but are in fact the same dog with a different leg action. So just because a product has the same actives, please don't assume that they can be used for different things. I know this from being in the Agricultural retail industry for over 15 years and having the appropriate compulsory training that is associated with it (trained as an agronomist in England and Agsafe here). Diazinon was used for many years in sheep dip type products, and was deemed safe when Lucijet (fenthion) was found to be so deadly. It has now been banned from jetting product for sheep as it has been found to be carcinogenic (cancer causing) and an Anticolinesterase product into the bargain (affects the central nervous system). It is now replaced by mostly the spinosin group of chemicals (Extinosad), IGR's (insect growth regulators) and Ivomectin based products, until they are deemed unfit...

Allana1313 says...
Thanks, no I haven't had the soil tested. These fruit tree's have only been in the ground about 3 weeks. Pictures 789 are the sour sop tree which is the worst affected. The others are the lychee's. It wasn't the greatest looking plant I must admit when I got it, but wasn't quite that bad. I haven't applied any fertilizers at all since I planted them, and in regards to the salt well I guess it's possible I live about 150mt from a salt water creek but it's never affected anything in my garden before as were a fair distance. I think whatever these fly type things are is what is killing it or making it not happy. I was watching them today and it does look like there stinging the leaves. They put there bum down and up constantly. Are they a fruit fly?, I couldn't find any pictures of any that looked like them on google. I also have another one that is the same in looks however it's body is fluro purple/blue's like oil. I just don't understand why fruit fly would sting leaves of the plant and if they actually do harm these plants but there is heaps hanging off. Really lost with this one. I will try the potash as you mentioned. I'm thinking I might just dig these plants up and put them in pots, move them up on the verandah for now with the other fruit tree's which don't have anything like that happening to them.

amanda says...
Hi Allana - i freaked out a bit today as I was doing my spring-thing in the orchard...I came across the very same bug!? I noticed it because of the solid spots on the ends of the wings - from your pics. It is only on my nectarine tree - I will post a pic 2morrow just to prove this!

I don't know what it is - but no - it is not fruit fly. They are not doing any damage to my nectarine, as yet.

Spring sees an enormous amount of "activity" from our insects - most of them are harmless.

For what it is worth - fruit trees are much more susceptible to salinity than veggies etc.

What are your temperature and rainfall stat's like at present? It looked a bit "soggy" in your pics? Do you have any established fruit trees? If so - what and how are they doing? What are your neighbours growing and how well?

Don't worry - your trees should make it :) Just don't kill them with kindness in the meantime!?

peter says...
try googling lacewing insect pictures
and hoverfly pictures to see if they look like the second type of fly you
have. these are both good bugs.

Allana1313 says...
well I may have found the culprit for the fruit tree's. After pulling off a few damaged leaves and having a careful look upstairs. At first the outside of the leaves look like they have been stung. But when I turned them over I found a bug stuck to the leaf, it was dead like a dried up shell, white with dark bum and little legs. Tiny about the size of a grain of sand. Further looking under the leaves looks like shells off the bug that have been shed stuck here and there. There is also smaller white dead bugs that almost look like a shell stuck to the leaf. There so small though I can't really see what they are. I would say these are what have done the damage. However there so tiny I can't get a photo, and I haven't been able to find anything on the net because I don't really know what I"m looking for.

paul ynot says...
keep all your plants well hilled , as high as possible , I have found this is a goo practice for all veggies at all times. This also reduces the need to water as often ....Thus saving wqater as well as keeping plants at a more evan moisture at roots.

paul ynot says...
that is certainly one approach to think about.
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hum


Maybe we are all trying to hard ...do you think ?

Charles cant spell says...
Haha same same Allyb Fat hen is a pioneer growing in uninhabitable crap dry sand, easy to put out and thin if desired, edible and nutricous, decent green chook fodder, good seeds if you let it seed, great annual shade plant for summer heat in Perth, and versatile enough to be eaten raw or cooked.