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Gardening Tips: Avoiding Summertime Fungus
Summertime is a time of great joy for the gardening enthusiast.He gets to gaze on his garden in it's full glory and show offthe fruits of her efforts. Unfortunately, it is no time to reston your laurels, as it were, because this is one of the times ofyear that funguses can take hold and destroy your plants. Thesetype of plant diseases thrive on moisture and humidity, so theycan quickly get out of hand. Avoid Evening Watering During summer, many climate zones are subjected to highhumidity, which might result in lots of problems in your garden.To get your plants nice and dry, tuck them in for night nice anddry. In other words, watering in the evening should be avoidedto prevent damage to the plants. Plan for Powdery Mildew Powdery mildew is a common fungus mostly affecting ornamentalplants. This fungal growth creates a white film on the leaves ofthe plants in your garden. It can be partially removed byrubbing the leaves, but un...
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...less you only have a few plants thisisn't a very effective remedy. You should begin by applying afungicide product containing Bacillus subtilis, jojoba oil,sulfur or lime sulfur when the initial white patches areobserved. This fungus also favors closely spaced plants, denselygrowing plants, and shady areas. So take this into account whenplanning your garden layout if your summer climate has highhumidity. Prevention of Pythium BlightIf you're in the north, and have perennial Rye grass, then youneed to be careful not to leave your grass wet at night. Afungus called Pythium Blight may take hold, because this funguslove to grow in high humid conditions, especially at night. Ifuncontrolled, this disease can cause large areas of turf towilt, turn brown and die. Pythium blight can be readily seen inthe early morning on the top of the lawn as a white cottoncandy-like growth. Pythium blight can easily be controlled bywatering in the da...
... at the earliest possible time. Otherpreventative measures include removing thatch periodically,avoiding overly thick growth by moderating use of fertilizersand improving soil drainage through aeration. Fire BlightFire Blight, yet another culprit that likes to grow duringsummer months. This fungus attacks Pear, crabapple and Appletrees. Fire Blight can be seen as a blossom blight a week or twoafter the blooming, which turns black on pear and brown on appletrees, causing the whole blossom cluster to wilt and die.Antibiotic sprays are quite successful in countering the blossomblight phase of Fire Blight.Fire Blight can also be controlled by overwinter pruning ofaffected branches from the main plant. Cuts should be made atleast four inches below the affected areas, which can bedetected by dead bark. Don't forget the Fire Blight iscontagious, so any prunings should be burnt, and pruning shearsshould be washed or dipped in alcohol.
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