TopVeg demands return on effort so the new Home Testing Kit for Potato Blight is good news. A lot of effort goes into growing potatoes, and blight can ruin the crop in days.

If potatoes are showing symptoms of potato blight, vegetable gardeners can use Pocket Check to get a diagnosis. Read More »

Wire Stem is a condition found in brassicas, which is caused by a fungus, Rhizoctonia.
The base of the stem becomes black and shrivelled.

Seedlings often die, and those plants which survive grow very slowly. The stems are brittle and break off easily. Read More »

Watch out for potato blight, following this wet period.

There was a Smith Period in Exeter in the last week of June. Since then it has rained in most parts of the country and potato blight will be troublesome.

Click this link for information on the control of potato blight.

The broad beans are being damaged by thrips.

Click on the photos to enlarge them and see the damage caused by thrips.

Click the link for information on the damage caused to broad beans by thrips.

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease which flourishes on courgettes when the weather is warm and dry. Infected courgette plants are covered in a greyish-white mould, mainly on the upper surface of the leaves and young shoots.

Control of Powdery Mildew.

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Potato blight can devastate a crop in a short time. It is important to keep potatoes protected against attack from potato blight.

New potatoes are not a concern as they have produced the tubers and will be eaten shortly. But main-crop potatoes have not started to bulk up, and an attack of potato blight now may mean that there are no potatoes to harvest. Read More »

Blackleg, aerial stem rot, and tuber soft rot of potato are all similar diseases caused by several types of soft-rot bacteria (Latin name - Erwinia carotovora).

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This is a bad year for slugs on strawberries.

The slug population has exploded in the ideal conditions provided by the wet conditions last summer & this spring.

To reduce slug attacks on strawberries:

• surround the strawberry row with oyster grit, or a similar medium, which the slugs do not like to cross.
• place ’slug pubs’ amongst the rows. These are small containers of beer which the slugs drop in to.
• leave grapefruit or orange skins in the row, which will attract slugs, & pick the slugs out every day & destroy.
• purchase a pyramid slug trap.
• elevate the strawberry plants on poles which the slugs cannot climb - see table top strawberries.
• click the link for more info on slug control

Slugs can devastate the strawberry crop, so it is worth taking time to control the slugs, using a number of different methods.

Leather jackets have been a great problem this spring. They have attacked young cabbage plants and young courgettes. They nip the stem at soil level - killing the plant.

There are few chemicals available for use on vegetables which kill leatherjackets. The active ingredient for the job is chlorpyrifos, & Dursban is about the only product on sale. It is water soluble and should be well watered in to make sure it reaches the leather jackets in the soil.

Click this link to download a leaflet on leather-jackets and how to control them.

Now is the time to check gooseberry bushes for Sawfly.