周三 | 菜园种植中五种常见问题的应对方法

What to Do about 5 Common Threats to Your Vegetable Garden

菜园种植中五种常见问题的应对方法

Did you startseeds in spring and watch them grow under your care? Did you water, fertilizeand stake your little vegetable plants while thinking aboutthe tasty food they would become?

Then one day,did you find unusual marks on your plants or some other signs of poor health?Maybe its leaves turn strange colors or its base is too soft and wet.

You are notalone, says gardening expert Jessica Damiano. She recently wrote about theissue for The Associated Press.

Damiano saysmany home gardeners lovingly raise their plants in the early weeks but stillfind them ruined before harvest time.

Here areDamiano’s suggestions for identifying and treating five of the most commonconditions that threaten your crops.

Anthracnose

The firstcondition, anthracnose, is a fungal disease. It affects beans,cucumbers, eggplants, melons and peas. Other targets are peppers, tomatoes,pumpkins and spinach.

Anthracnosepresents as small, round marks, or spots, on leaves. These yellow spots darkenover time and spread to cover entire leaves. On cucumber plants, leaves maydrop, and whole vines may die. Tomatoes and peppers show dark,sunken spots that become more apparent as the fruit ages. Round, sunken, yellowspots appear on melons, darkening over time to brown and then black.

To preventanthracnose, try rotating crops, adding compost to soil beforeplanting and spreading mulch afterward. Seek disease-resistantkinds of the plants. Avoid watering the plant from above as it wets the leaves.Wet leaves are more at risk of fungal growth.

Treat infectedplants with a fungus poison. These contain chlorothalonil or copper. Carefullyfollow the directions and safety guidance provided with the product.

Blossom end rot

Blossom end rotis another common problem for gardeners.

A lack ofcalcium causes the condition. Blossom end rot mainly affects tomatoes, eggplantand peppers. The condition presents as dark, soft spots on fruit bottoms. The disorderis often the result of uneven watering, acid imbalance in the soil, injuredroots or high levels of nitrogen.

Preventionmeasures include testing for an acid imbalance. If results are lower than 6.3,add dolomitic lime to planting area.

Treat affectedplants by spraying leaves fully with a calcium product. Fruit produced aftertreatment is usually symptom-free, although sometimes a second treatment isnecessary.

Wilt diseasesare another common danger for plants.

Verticillium andfusarium wilt are fungal diseases that spread in soil. They mainly affecteggplants, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins and tomatoes.

The diseasesdestroys the roots of the plants, resulting in curled, yellow and wilted leaves,brown, damaged tissue inside stems and incomplete growth.Entire plants wilt and die.

The only defenseagainst these funguses is a good offense. Avoid infection by planting resistantkinds of the plant. Sellers will mark the plants with a V, F, VF or VFN toidentify them as resistant to verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt. You shouldalso rotate crops, keeping infected areas free of susceptibleplantsfor three or four years. This starves the disease and clears it from the soil.Clean up fallen leaves as well as fruit and plant waste.

Squash vineborer

A fourth commontrouble for gardeners comes from the animal world -- the little killer is aninsect.

Called thesquash vine borer, the pest cancause sudden deathafter the bloomof zucchini, squash, cucumber and muskmelonplants. Look closely at these plants for signs of the insect: small holes inthe bottoms of stalksand stems.

The pests startlife as moths that lay eggs at the base of plants. Inch-long white caterpillarsresult, killing plants as they eat their way around and out. And just when youthink the damage is done, theyremain in the soil through thefollowing year as they develop into moths. Then the process repeats.

Prevent damageby checking plants closely. Look for red, flat, eggs early in the season andremove them by hand. Keep hunting every week.

Search for holesand borer waste -- thick collections of yellow dust material. If found, make along, shallow, narrow cut near a bore hole on the stem. Use your hand to pullout the borers. Then cover the cuts with soil to support new growth.

If necessary,treat plants with Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a bacterial insect-killingproduct.

Slugs

The final commonthreat to the garden is another animal -- the slug.

Slug damagepresents as jaggedholes, usually in the center of a leaf asopposed to its edges. Slugs eat basil, cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes,peppers, and ornamentalplants like hostas. The animals alsoleave a recognizable path of slime wherever they go.

A spring cleanupthat clears leaves, plant debris and slug eggs from the soil surface is animportant first step in the slug fight. Keep mulch no deeper than 7 centimetersto avoid creating a refuge for the pests.

Put a small canor jar into the soil around affected plants, leaving about 2.5 centimetersabove ground. Then, fill it halfway with the alcohol called beer. Slugs willenter the container for a drink and then they will drown. You can also attackslugs at night when they feed. The weapon in this case is salt. Shake a littleon each slug and it will die from lack of water. But make sure to keep saltlimited to the animals only, as salt can damage the soil.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

And I’m CatyWeaver.

Jessica Damianowrote this report for The Associated Press. Caty Weaver adapted it for VOALearning English.

Words in ThisStory

fungal -adj. of,or relating to, any member of the kingdom of living things (as mushrooms,molds, and rusts) that have no chlorophyll, must live in or on plants, animals,or decaying material, and were formerly considered plants 真菌的

rotate -v. inagriculture: to grow different crops in succession on the same land chiefly tokeep the productive capacity of the soil 轮种，轮作

mulch -n. amaterial (as straw or bark) spread over the ground especially to protect theroots of plants from heat or cold, to keep soil moist, and to control weeds 护根

stake -v. tofasten up or support (something, such as a plant) with stakes 用桩支撑

wilt -v. tolose freshness and become limp, especially due to lack of nutrients 枯萎，凋谢

stem -n. themain trunk of a plant （植物、灌木的）茎，干

susceptible -adj. havinglittle resistance (as to infection or damage) 易得病的，易受影响的

pest -n. aplant or animal that is harmful to humans or property 害虫，有害动（植）物

bloom -v. stateor period of flowering 开花，绽放

stalk -n. aplant stem especially when not woody （植物的）茎，秆

jagged -adj. havinga sharply uneven edge or surface 锯齿状的

ornamental -adj. adecorative object, especially : a plant cultivated for itsbeauty rather than for use 装饰性的，作点缀的