Disease

Many gardeners are starting their fall garden and landscape clean-up - which is good and bad. Garden sanitation, if insects or diseases were a problem this year, is an important step to reduce problems next year. But we need to balance pest control with allowing habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators. So, how can that be done? 

It’s so disappointing to reach mid-summer, having nurtured a vegetable for several months, only to find disease problems starting to appear!

The first step toward control should always be disease identification. Gardeners can submit pictures of plant problems to Nebraska Extension experts through our Digital Diagnostic Network, http://digitaldiagnostics.unl.edu/.  An expert panel of Extension professionals will promptly review and respond to your question.

Looking at your pine trees this time of year, you may see generalized yellowing of the tree, brown needles or brown branches. Several problems could be responsible, including winter burn and winter drying, Diplodia tip blight or pine wilt. And unfortunately, some trees can be affected by more than one problem at a time.

Roses remain one of the most popular ornamental plants for home landscapes, but unfortunately there are several pest problems that affect roses and can reduce the beauty of your plants. Two insect pests commonly found on roses, but usually causing only cosmetic damage, are rose sawfly and leaf cutter bees, but diseases such as rose rosette and black spot can serious affect the health of plants.

Blossom end rot (BER) is a common problem of tomatoes, but is also found on peppers, eggplant, squash and watermelon. It appears as flat, dry, sunken, brown tissue on the blossom end of the fruit, opposite the stem end. The rot is first seen as a small, water-soaked spot on the base of half-developed fruits and continues to enlarge as the fruit matures. The size of the rotted area varies, but can cover 30 to 50% of the fruit.

It will be time to start pruning fruit trees later this month. As pruning begins, it's important to have a good skills at identifying fire blight symptoms and have a multi-pronged approach for control, especially in very susceptible trees. Pruning and sanitation are important control strategies, but improper cleaning of pruning equipment between cuts can easily spread the disease.

It's too early to begin fruit tree pruning now, but it's not too early to prepare. For homeowners with only a few fruit trees - who can choose the ideal time for pruning their trees - it's best to wait until just before new growth begins. This is typically late February into March. Wounds heal fastest when pruned at this time. This is especially important for tender fruit trees (apricot, peach, nectarine, sweet cherry); early pruning of these trees could lead to cold damage at the pruning sites.

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose….” We’re all familiar with this popular holiday song, but have you ever wondered how to roast chestnuts? Or exactly what a chestnut tree looks like? Why don't we see them growing in our neighborhoods?

Brown Patch is a common turf disease that occurs every year in eastern Nebraska, caused by the fungus Rhizoctonia solani. In home lawns, brown patch is found on bluegrass and perennial rye, and it's the most common disease affecting tall fescue, which is usually very disease resistant. The same fungus also infects zoysiagrass, resulting in a disease called large patch.

During landscape clean up at season’s end, it’s a good time to assess your plantings’ performance and make plans for next season. If problems occurred, how did they present? Were scattered, unrelated plants affected? Or were all plants in one section of the landscape showing symptoms? How problems present can give a clue as to the potential problems and help you develop a plan to improve next year.