August in the NC Vegetable Garden

Green Peppers Sauteed with Onions

Since I last wrote about the vegetable garden in early July (only a month and 1 week ago), plants have peaked and crashed. In what I referred to as a "winding down" period, most plants are no longer producing.

Tomatoes, eggplants, and squash provided great meals and side dishes. The tomatoes, especially, experienced a premature end as a wilt fungus crept through the garden. This situation is described in more detail, in my posted article about wilt.

Wilted Eggplant July 21, 2017

It is a challenge to write about the garden of August and not list a bunch of negative situations, but it is August. The bugs are multiplying, microbes are spreading, and squirrels will be squirrels.

I've started the garden cleanup and all yellow and zucchini squash has been removed with, hopefully, all the families of squash bugs, pickle worms, and vine squash borers with them. It's important to resist the urge to compost infected plants. Stink bugs and the like will overwinter in compost and leaf litter.

Spaghetti Squash

Squash with Downy Mildew

A beautiful spaghetti squash gourd appeared and grew rapidly, but rotted from the inside. After its removal, the remaining plants choked of powdery mildew. Spaghetti squash is a delicious vegetable, but, because of the long growing season, is challenging to bring to maturity.

Some Creature Likes Jalapenos

Small Tobacco Hornworm

My extra-large Jalapeño crop continues to produce along with a smaller number of green pepper plants. Only in the last 2 weeks have 4 plants been affected by wilt. Like I said, the wilt fungus has truly crept through the garden in a random pattern. For some reason, the peppers have been very resistant to this problem. I'm very pleased with this year's harvest. The tobacco hornworm came back in a second wave of young worms that had a taste for hot peppers 😏 and eggplant leaves.

There are 3 eggplant plants left out of 12 (wilt). I am optimistic about getting enough for a side dish.

Bush Beans

My original bush beans planted in late April are still producing! A few plants dried up, but others thrive. This is such an easy crop that I planted more seeds in spaces where the tomatoes were pulled.

I like to grow sunflowers with the vegetables to attract pollinators. This year a squirrel ate a lot of seeds before germination. A spectacular Mammoth Sunflower survived and was 13 foot in height when a squirrel climbed up and broke the stem. The flower wasn't even open yet.

I hope everyone is having a good vegetable gardening season. Some of my Twitter friends are just starting to harvest in other parts of the country. All the best and thanks for reading!

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Wilt in the Vegetable Garden

July 21 Eggplant showing wilt on one stem

During the busy vegetable garden season, I write articles about garden harvests, problems, and solutions. There's a problem in this year's garden that deserves it's own post. The topic is wilt and I'm seeing it from early plantings through mature plants with fruits. One-at-a-time eggplant, tomato, and sunflower plants exhibit wilting as if drought-stricken. Over the course of 2 weeks, the plant shrivels, and must carefully be removed to avoid contamination of other plants.

July 21 Wilted Tomato Plant

The good news is that the wilt has followed a spaced out pattern affecting single plants. I have not had entire rows of tomatoes or eggplants wiped out at the same time, and have had plenty of vegetables for my small household.

At the time of this writing, my 12 eggplants have gradually died off to leave 3. I've lost 7 of the tomatoes except for one Cherry tomato plant.  All this has happened over the course of a 3 month growing season.

July 21 Wilted Eggplant with Squash in Background

As described in this article, "What's Killing my Tomatoes?" wilt can be caused by root knot nematodes, fungi, or bacteria.

All these causes disrupt the flow of water and nutrients up the plant's stem. This disruption is seen as wilt moving throughout the plant until it dies.

Side note:  Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and many others are part of the Nightshade family of plants and are affected by the same problems. Under watering has been ruled out because of regular rain and irrigation.

July 21 Roots of a Wilted Tomato Plant

Root nematodes leave knot structures on the roots. I examined the root system of a wilted tomato plant and found it was clear of knots.

July 21 Wilted Eggplant Cross Section

July 21 Healthy Eggplant Cross Section

In comparing the cross sections of a wilted eggplant stem and a healthy eggplant, the wilted shows a brown staining in the plant tissue. This is a sign of wilt- either fusarium or verticillium.

July 21 Healthy Tomato Cross Section

July 21 Wilted Tomato Cross Section

Shawn Bank's article (link is above) further describes a test for bacterial wilt where a cut stem is observed in a water glass. White streaming indicates a bacterial infection causing the wilt. I cut several eggplant and tomato stems and didn't observe bacterial streaming.

So there we have it. No root knot nematodes, no bacterial streaming, so the cause of my wilting is fungal. What is the solution? The article recommends (1) rotating out of the area (2) solar heating the soil (3) using disease-resistant plants.

These are all reasonable suggestions and things I can try. Most of the tags on my nursery-bought plants listed no disease resistance. However, the Cherry tomatoes listed V and F resistance, but one of the 2 wilted anyway.

Have you had an experience with vegetable plants wilting? I would love to hear about it in the comments below! Thanks for reading my blog. I post daily about garden activities on Twitter @gopamnc .

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Thanks!😊