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That ghostly white dust on your rose leaves is powdery mildew, and it looks worse than it usually is. The fungus behind it, Podosphaera pannosa, feeds on the leaf surface without invading the tissue underneath, and it spreads fastest on…
Your tomato plants look thirsty no matter how much you water them. They yellow from the bottom up, stay stunted while the neighbor’s plants tower, and when you finally pull one up in frustration, the roots are covered in lumpy…
Rub one white patch with a fingertip before you reach for a spray bottle. Powdery mildew on zucchini starts as small white spots that lift off the leaf as powder, and that rub test tells you more in 5 seconds…
Why are my cucumber leaves turning yellow? 9 causes sit behind that question, and the pattern on the leaf names the one you face. Match the pattern first. Treat second. I have learned that a vine with wet feet yellows…
Purple-stained soybean seeds are the work of a single fungus, Cercospora kikuchii, and in most harvests the purple color costs the grower more in grain dockage than in actual yield. Leaf damage from the same fungus usually trims less than…
Citrus leaves turn yellow for 9 common reasons, and the pattern names the cause. Yellow on older leaves first points to nitrogen or magnesium. Yellow between green veins on young leaves points to iron, zinc, or manganese. Read the pattern…
Match the browning pattern to 1 of 9 causes before you spray, prune, or feed anything. A lilly pilly turns brown from water stress, weather burn, insects, fungi, or one biosecurity disease, and each cause leaves a different mark on…
Yes, you can treat Phomopsis canker at home. Cut out every cankered branch 6 to 12 inches below the visible damage, disinfect your tools between cuts, and destroy the debris. Do the work in dry weather. That prune-out-and-dispose protocol is…
Check your state’s weed list before you sow a single kochia seed in Australia. That check takes 5 minutes and decides whether you are planting an ornamental or committing an offence. Kochia (Bassia scoparia) is Prohibited Matter in New South…
Brown spots about a quarter inch across, ringed in purple or black, on your boxwood or hydrangea leaves are most likely Phyllosticta leaf spot. Here is the honest news first: on established shrubs this fungal disease is cosmetic, and a…
Fusarium root rot treatment begins with a fact most guides bury at the bottom of the page: there is no cure for an infected plant. Once Fusarium oxysporum colonizes a plant’s water pipes, no spray, drench, or home remedy removes…
Your monstera was fine last week. Now its leaves are yellowing, the stems feel soft at the base, and the soil is still damp from the last watering. If the plant is wilting in wet soil, Pythium root rot is…
Gray spots about a quarter inch across on your St. Augustine grass are usually gray leaf spot, a fungal disease that explodes when daytime temperatures sit between 80 and 90 F with humid nights above 65 F. The short version…
You can keep Rhizoctonia out of your seedlings and transplants, but you cannot sterilize your garden against it. That is the honest starting point. The fungus behind rhizoctonia root rot survives for more than 3 years in soil as tiny…
Rhizoctonia root rot is treatable, but only if you catch it early and fix the conditions that invited it. The pathogen is Rhizoctonia solani, a soilborne fungus that attacks seedlings, houseplants, vegetables, and lawns at or just below the soil…
You find the gray fuzz on a Monday morning, coating a dying blossom at the bottom of your tomato plant like ash. By Friday it has crept 12 inches up the stem, and one fruit wears a ring of pale…
Your avocado tree looks thirsty even though the soil is wet. It takes as little as 6 to 8 hours of saturated soil for the swimming spores of Phytophthora to start a root infection, and the symptoms that follow look…
Force 20 Buds on One Thanksgiving Cactus A Thanksgiving cactus blooms when the nights get long and the air gets cool, not when you fuss over it. Give it 13 hours of darkness and nights near 60 degrees starting in…
Cowpea severe mosaic virus is a beetle-spread plant virus that can leave black-eyed peas and other garden legumes with crinkled, mottled leaves, stunted growth, and a much thinner harvest. If new cowpea leaves are coming in puckered and blotchy while…
Cottony leak is a fast-moving fruit rot that can turn a healthy cucumber, squash, or melon into a mushy, water-soaked mess within days, especially after a stretch of wet weather. If fruit resting on damp soil in your garden has…
