Plant Disease Control in Texas Gardens
Diseases typically attack plants that are either not growing in the proper conditions or that are not appropriate for your garden. Before you even grow a garden, you should work your soil with plenty of organic compost to balance pH, improve drainage, and provide the nutrients your plants will need. Learn more about working the soil at the Compost Guide.
Next, research the plants you’d like to grow so that you plant them in the correct place and under the right conditions. Also, educate yourself about the common diseases that may affect your plants. This way you’ll be able to quickly identity and deal with the problem. Diseases have a variety of sources: fungus, bacteria, viruses, etc. You can deal with some plant diseases quickly and easily by simply changing the way you water, correcting the soil conditions, giving your plant more or less light, and adding mulch.
This site from Texas A&M has a list a common garden plants and the diseases they may affect them, plus a list a solutions.
Here are a few other tips for avoiding and treating diseases in your Texas garden:
1. Keep the foliage of your plants dry.
2. Remove any dead and diseased plants from your garden. Don’t compost them!
3. Keep your garden clean by removing garden debris frequently.
4. Keep your garden tools clean.
5. Use natural products that will help deal with common plant diseases, such as horticultural cornmeal.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This is not a reply buy a question. Do you have any idea why my liropi is turning brown and dying out? It seems to move from clump to clump.
It could be Leaf & Crown Rot, a fungal disease that behaves as you have described. Poor drainage and overwatering are said to be contributing factors. Several websites recommend sprinkling cornmeal around the base of the plants, as this seems to inhibit the spread of the disease.
I have spots on the leaves of my squash.
I have spots on my tomato leaves
There is a bright yellow ring on the ground in my garden… it seems slimmy. Is this some kind of fungus or bacteria?
One of the least useful web sites. What about North Texas gardening. Heck the soil area dosnt even list the soil types or ph scale in regions. What is this site for? Let me go to a web site that isnt based in Texas to find the info i need for North Texas. Really should pull your site up on the lack of info here
I had two potato plant’s leaves turn black, and they both started to “die”. I sprayed them, and the surrounding plants with 50:50 clorox:water mix. The plants came back, growing new leaves, and now look fully healthy. Now I have a tomato plant that the leaves are turning yellow, and the entire plant looks sick. Adjoining plants are healthy. So, I have sprayed the “sick” plant with the clorox:water mix and will let you know if that “heals” the plant. If that doesn’t work, do you have any suggestions?
Joe Goodwin