August Garden Pests & Diseases

August 4, 2022

We’ve had a beautiful summer filled with warmth and finally some rain, and the pests are enjoying it too! Here are some common insects and diseases we’re seeing in the garden now, and helpful tips for control.

Potato Scab

If you’ve dug a first crop of baby potatoes and notice scabby skin, don’t worry, the potatoes are still edible! Next season, do ensure not to add any compost or manure to your potato section of the garden – rich soil can bring on scab. Also, toss a generous handful of garden sulphur into your potato planting hole to help drive down a high soil pH, which can contribute to scab.

Blossom End Rot

Noticing dark spots on the bottom of your tomato fruit? This popular disorder is due to a couple of issues. Firstly, a lack of calcium. When planting, it’s beneficial to incorporate a slow release fertilizer such as Dr. Earth right into the planting hole. Alternately, if you didn’t incorporate this at planting, you can fertilize your plants once they start to bloom and fruit once a week with a water soluble calcium fertilizer such as Simply Calcium.

Powdery Mildew

So common on so many garden plants, powdery mildew is at it’s best mid-summer. It loves warm days, cool nights and high humidity. And though we haven’t had much rain, we’ve been watering a lot, creating the perfect amount of moisture around plants for the fungus to thrive. Clip off heavily powdered foliage, and spray remaining foliage with a sulphur based fungicide. Note that this works as a barrier to new spores, but will not actively treat existing mildew. Reapply weekly for best control.

Aphids

Want to know why aphids are so prevalent? When an aphid deposits several young nymphs on a leaf, those young aphids are ready to produce their own young in just 7 days, AND those young aphids can produce 40-60 young each. This cycle repeats itself numerous times, creating a population explosion! Control starts with this; aphids are very soft bodied, so squish as many as you can, and use the garden hose to knock them off foliage. Once dry, you can try an application of Safers End All or Doktor Doom House and Garden to control any remaining insects.