With any type of gardening, it all begins with good soil preparation and choosing the right seeds. Also try to select the healthiest looking plants when transplanting. Immediate removal of diseased plants will protect your other vegetables as well.



Proper watering practices will help as well. Water early in the day to allow your plants to dry before cooler evening air rolls in. It would be helpful to your vegetables to water them with care. If a plant is diseased, and water splashes from it to another plant, it could spread that disease. Just use the analogy of how colds are passed from one individual to the next. Spacing your plants properly should help reduce this possibility.

Diseases are transferable between plants. Some are spread by insects, so controlling them will aid you in disease control. Humans and animals carry a level of danger by passing diseases to your vegetables too. An example of this is tobacco mosaic virus, which can be spread by a gardener's gloves or possibly on the legs of animals that walk through your garden.

Keeping weeds under control will also reduce the risk of disease. This improves the health, as well as the beauty of your garden. Different types of microbes can be transferred from the weeds to your vegetable plot. In addition to this, they can also be carried by water, wind, and insects.

Knowing which diseases to look for on certain plants will give you a head start.

Lettuce mold will show up as a rotted wet spot at the base when the edges are touching the ground. The white mold is called Sclerotinia, and the gray is Botrytis. Remove the affected areas, or if it's too bad, take out the entire plant.

Lettuce is also susceptible to the spinach mosaic virus. It will start with mottled looking leaves that, later, turn yellow. The plant will begin to take on a wilted appearance. Some varieties are more resistant to this disease than others, so keep that in mind.

Wilting or rotting of asparagus may be caused by something called Fusarium. The shoots will begin to turn yellow and the spears will be spindly. Discolored and rotted roots may also show up. Remove the affected plants as necessary. The Puccinia fungus will cause another problem with asparagus called rust. Red spots on the shoots and spears will indicate this problem. Excess watering is sometimes the cause of this.

Tomatoes are commonly susceptible to blight and leaf spots, as well as others. Especially in cool summers, these diseases will usually show up by mid August. Certain soil fungi are common to only tomatoes. The roots of walnut trees sometimes carry a toxin that is potentially dangerous to nearby tomatoes. Making sure the leaves are dry before nightfall will help reduce this.

Knowing what to look for and how to avoid it will help you produce large and healthy crops.