Problem & Fix
Problem & Fix
Diagnose and fix what is going wrong: yellowing leaves, blossom-end rot, pests, and disease. Each guide ties the fix to the right products and the plant data behind it.
Alternaria leaf spot in the garden
Alternaria leaf spot makes dark, often ringed spots with yellow halos on brassicas, cucurbits, and many crops. There is no cure, so slow it with base watering, spacing, clean seed, sanitation, and rotation.
Anthracnose: managing this fungal disease
Anthracnose causes dark sunken lesions on leaves, stems, and fruit in warm wet weather. Manage it with sanitation, base watering, airflow, and clean rotation.
Aphids: how to identify and get rid of them
Aphids cluster on new growth and leaf undersides. The fastest fix is a strong water spray plus insecticidal soap, backed by encouraging ladybugs and lacewings.
Aster yellows: the leafhopper-spread disease
Aster yellows is an incurable disease spread by leafhoppers that causes yellowing, distorted, weirdly green or hairy growth in carrots, lettuce, and many flowers. Manage it by removing infected plants and excluding leafhoppers.
Bacterial spot on tomatoes and peppers
Bacterial spot makes small, dark, water-soaked spots with yellow halos on tomato and pepper leaves and scabby spots on fruit. There is no cure, so manage it with clean seed, base watering, sanitation, and copper.
Bacterial wilt: the cucumber-beetle connection
Bacterial wilt collapses cucumber and squash vines and has no cure. The fix is stopping the cucumber beetles that spread it, with row cover, timing, and sanitation.
Black rot in brassicas
Black rot is a bacterial disease of cabbage, broccoli, kale, and cauliflower with no cure. Manage it culturally: clean seed, rotation, sanitation, and airflow.
Blossom end rot: why it happens and how to fix it
Blossom end rot is a calcium-delivery problem driven by uneven watering, not a soil calcium shortage. Fix the moisture and the rot stops.
Bolting: why crops flower early and how to prevent it
Bolting is when crops flower and go to seed early, triggered by heat, long days, and stress. Prevent it with timing, bolt-resistant varieties, shade, and steady water.
Cabbage loopers: identification and control
Cabbage loopers are smooth green caterpillars that hump their backs as they crawl and chew ragged holes in brassicas. Stop them with row cover, hand-picking, and BT.
Cabbage maggots: protecting brassica roots
Cabbage maggots tunnel into brassica roots, wilting and killing young plants. Stop them with row cover at transplant, stem collars, timing, and rotation.
Cabbage worms and loopers: protecting brassicas
Cabbage worms and loopers chew ragged holes in brassicas and hide in heads. Stop them with row cover, hand-picking, and BT, and learn to tell the green caterpillars apart.
Catfacing in tomatoes
Catfacing is the puckered scarring on a tomato's blossom end, caused by cold weather during flowering. It is not a disease and there is no spray. Here is the fix.
Clubroot in brassicas: prevention and management
Clubroot causes swollen, distorted brassica roots and wilting, stunted plants. There is no cure. Manage it with liming, long rotation, drainage, and strict sanitation.
Colorado potato beetles: organic control
Colorado potato beetles defoliate potatoes fast and resist many sprays. Control them organically with row cover, hand-picking, egg crushing, rotation, and mulch.
Corn earworms: protecting your sweet corn
Corn earworms are caterpillars that feed at the ear tip of sweet corn, hidden under the husk. Reduce damage with oil-and-BT in the silk, tight-husk varieties, and timing.
Cutworms: protecting seedlings from being cut down
Cutworms sever young seedlings at the soil line overnight. The most effective fix is a simple collar around each stem, backed by nighttime hand-picking and clean soil.
Damping off: why seedlings collapse and how to prevent it
Damping off is a fungal disease that topples healthy-looking seedlings overnight. It is almost always preventable with drier soil, warmth, and airflow.
Downy mildew: how to spot and slow it
Downy mildew shows as angular yellow leaf patches with gray fuzz underneath, driven by wet foliage and cool humid weather. Slow it with airflow, dry leaves, and resistant varieties.
Early blight on tomatoes and potatoes
Early blight causes target-ring brown spots on lower tomato and potato leaves, spreading upward in warm wet weather. Slow it with base watering, mulch, spacing, and rotation.
Flea beetles: damage, control, and prevention
Flea beetles riddle leaves with tiny shotholes and hop when disturbed. The most reliable fix is a floating row cover over young plants, backed by sanitation and trap crops.
Fusarium wilt: a soilborne disease
Fusarium wilt is an incurable soilborne fungus that yellows and wilts plants, often one side first, with brown streaks inside the stem. Manage it with resistant varieties, rotation, and sanitation.
Gray mold (botrytis): control in the garden
Gray mold (botrytis) coats decaying tissue in fuzzy gray spores in cool, damp, crowded conditions. Control it with airflow, base watering, sanitation, and dry foliage.
Growth cracks in tomatoes
Growth cracks in tomatoes are caused by uneven watering, not disease. Fix them with steady moisture, mulch, and consistent timing. Here is exactly how.
Imported cabbage worms: protecting brassicas
Imported cabbageworms are velvety green caterpillars, the larvae of the white cabbage butterfly, that riddle brassicas with holes. Stop them with row cover, hand-picking, and BT.
Japanese beetles: how to manage them
Japanese beetles skeletonize leaves in summer swarms. The most effective fix is daily hand-picking into soapy water, plus row cover on prized plants and skipping lure traps.
Late blight: the fast-moving tomato and potato disease
Late blight is an aggressive water mold that destroys tomatoes and potatoes within days. There is no home cure: remove and destroy infected plants fast and protect the rest.
Leaf miners: stopping the tunnels in leaves
Leaf miners are fly larvae that tunnel winding trails inside leaves, hitting spinach, chard, and beets hardest. Stop them with row cover, removing mined leaves, and sanitation.
Mosaic virus: spotting and managing it
Mosaic virus mottles leaves in light and dark green, distorts growth, and has no cure. Manage it by removing infected plants, controlling aphid vectors, and using resistant varieties.
Onion maggots: how to prevent them
Onion maggots tunnel into onion, garlic, and leek bulbs, wilting and rotting young plants. Prevent them with row cover, rotation, sanitation, and good timing.
Phytophthora root rot
Phytophthora root rot is a water mold that kills peppers and tomatoes in waterlogged soil. It is driven by poor drainage. Fix the water and you fix the problem.
Poor pollination: why your plants set no fruit
Flowers but no fruit usually means a pollination problem: extreme heat, too few pollinators, or row cover left on. Here is how to diagnose and fix it.
Potato scab: causes and prevention
Potato scab makes rough, corky, scabby patches on potato skin. It is a surface blemish, not a rot, driven by alkaline, dry soil. Prevent it with acidic soil, even moisture, resistant varieties, and rotation.
Powdery mildew: treatment and prevention
Powdery mildew is a white dusty fungus that thrives on crowded, shaded plants. Control it with airflow, base watering, resistant varieties, and prompt treatment.
Root knot nematodes: signs and management
Root knot nematodes cause galls on roots and stunted, wilting plants. There is no spray cure. Manage them with rotation, resistant varieties, and soil health.
Root rot: causes, rescue, and prevention
Root rot is caused by waterlogged soil starving roots of oxygen, letting fungi take hold. Rescue it by drying out and trimming rotted roots; prevent it with drainage and base watering.
Septoria leaf spot on tomatoes
Septoria leaf spot makes many small round spots with gray centers and tiny black dots on lower tomato leaves, climbing in warm wet weather. Slow it with base watering, mulch, spacing, and sanitation.
Slugs and snails: organic control that works
Slugs and snails chew ragged holes and leave slime trails overnight. The most effective organic fix is nighttime hand-picking plus iron-phosphate bait and dry barriers.
Spider mites: spotting and stopping them
Spider mites cause fine yellow stippling and webbing on hot, dry plants. The fastest fix is regular water sprays plus raising humidity, with insecticidal soap on survivors.
Spotted cucumber beetles: control and damage
Spotted cucumber beetles chew leaves and flowers but the real danger is the bacterial wilt and viruses they spread. Stop them with row cover, hand-picking, and rotation.
Squash bugs: how to find and stop them
Squash bugs hide on stems and lay copper egg clusters on leaf undersides. Catch them early with row cover, egg crushing, and adult trapping to save your vines.
Squash vine borers: prevention and rescue
Squash vine borers tunnel inside stems and collapse a healthy vine almost overnight. Prevent them with row cover timing, then rescue infested vines by surgery and burying.
Stink bugs in the garden: control
Stink bugs pierce fruit and pods, leaving dimpled, corky spots on tomatoes, peppers, and beans. Control them with row cover on young plants, hand-picking, and cleanup.
Striped cucumber beetles: control and bacterial wilt risk
Striped cucumber beetles do little chewing damage but spread bacterial wilt that kills vines. Stop them early with row cover, hand-picking, and rotation.
Sunscald on tomatoes and peppers
Sunscald is a sunburn injury: pale, papery, blistered patches on fruit shoulders exposed to direct sun, often after pruning or leaf loss. Prevent it by keeping leaf cover, not by spraying.
Thrips: damage, detection, and control
Thrips cause silvery stippling and distorted growth and can spread plant viruses. Detect them with a white-paper tap test, then control with row cover and beneficials.
Tipburn in lettuce and greens
Tipburn is the brown, dried leaf edges on lettuce and greens, caused by a calcium delivery problem driven by fast growth and uneven water. Here is the fix.
Tomato hornworms: finding and removing them
Tomato hornworms strip tomato plants fast but are easy to control by hand. Spot the frass and damage, hand-pick at dusk, and use BT for heavy outbreaks.
Verticillium wilt: a soilborne wilt disease
Verticillium wilt is an incurable soilborne fungus that yellows and wilts plants from the bottom up, often on one side, and shows brown streaks inside the stem. Manage it with resistant varieties, rotation, and sanitation.
Wireworms: protecting roots and tubers
Wireworms are slender, hard, orange-brown click beetle larvae that tunnel into potatoes, carrots, and seeds. Manage them culturally: avoid planting after sod, rotate, trap, and time plantings, since there is no easy home spray.