Parasite attack on potato plants with such fast deterioration?
seanin
11 months ago
last modified: 11 months ago
We have a relatively recently planted crop of potatoes, maybe 6 to 8 weeks old, without using any kind of pesticides - and they had been doing fine with watering almost every day, or every other day.
Then in the space of 24 hours, all the potato plants seemed shriveled up, or kind of withered, as in the photos attached. But, as seen in photos, some other plants/ small weeds nearby survived intact.
Some of the photos are around 48 hours after they had looked absolutely fine, and healthy. Any idea why this happened. Could it be due to some kind of parasite?
Thanks.
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Comments (20)
seanin
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (14)Take the time to learn that there is not a "cure all" for every pest at every stage of it's life cycle. Some won't work if it's going to rain. Some don't work well if it's too hot, etc. You shouldn't use Sevin unless you know it will work for the insect you are trying to get rid of and in most cases there are less harsh chemicals you can use than Sevin. Pest management is complex, if you wish to use chemical products, do so responsibly which goes further than reading the label. If you want to learn, a good place to start is here: Integrated Pest Management This lecture is presented in two parts. Each part is 90-minutes in length. Recorded in Sacramento County in California's Sacramento Valley, this lecture is by Mary Louise Flint, Ph.D., Director, IPM Education and Publications, UC Statewide IPM Project and Extension Entomologist & Cooperative Extension Specialist. Education: B.S. Plant Science, University of California, Davis Ph.D. Entomology, University of California, Berkeley Appointment: 100% Cooperative Extension Research Interests: Integrated pest management of landscape, agricultural and garden pests; biological control of arthropod pests; alternatives to pesticides; adoption of alternative practices by practitioners; innovative delivery of pest management information. Topics discussed in the Integrated Pest Management Lecture: * IPM references and resources * Preventing pest problems * Natural common enemies * Making less toxic pesticide choices * Controlling aphids, scales, caterpillars, coddling moths, tree borers, snails and slugs, and lawn insects. You can watch the programs now online: Just make sure you have Real Player installed or download it free. Integrated Pest Management Part1 90 minutes Integrated Pest Management Part 2 90 minutes You'll want to bookmark the following link to Professor Flint's Lab Research on: Controlling Pests in Gardens and Landscapes: Vegetables and Melons I promise you'll learn one or two things to put in your gardening bag of pest management arsenals. ;) Take the time to learn that there is not a "cure all" for every pest at every stage of it's life cycle. Some won't work if it's going to rain. Some don't work well if it's too hot, etc. Pest management is complex, if you wish to use chemical products, do so responsibly which goes further than reading the label. If you want to learn, a good place to start is here: Integrated Pest Management This lecture is presented in two parts. Each part is 90-minutes in length. Recorded in Sacramento County in California's Sacramento Valley, this lecture is by Mary Louise Flint, Ph.D., Director, IPM Education and Publications, UC Statewide IPM Project and Extension Entomologist & Cooperative Extension Specialist. Education: B.S. Plant Science, University of California, Davis Ph.D. Entomology, University of California, Berkeley Appointment: 100% Cooperative Extension Research Interests: Integrated pest management of landscape, agricultural and garden pests; biological control of arthropod pests; alternatives to pesticides; adoption of alternative practices by practitioners; innovative delivery of pest management information. Topics discussed in the Integrated Pest Management Lecture: * IPM references and resources * Preventing pest problems * Natural common enemies * Making less toxic pesticide choices * Controlling aphids, scales, caterpillars, coddling moths, tree borers, snails and slugs, and lawn insects. You can watch the programs now online: Just make sure you have Real Player installed or download it free. Integrated Pest Management Part1 90 minutes Integrated Pest Management Part 2 90 minutes You'll want to bookmark the following link to Professor Flint's Lab Research on: Controlling Pests in Gardens and Landscapes: Vegetables and Melons I promise you'll learn one or two things to put in your gardening bag of pest management arsenals. ;)...See MoreRose breeds deterioration?
Comments (24)Many food plants aren't easily available anymore not so much due to their genetic instability as to their lack of being financially profitable. The only way to make a plant type economically worthwhile is to possess a patent on it. Once that patent expires, you need others to take its place to continue the cash stream. Often, older varieties are less resistant to disease and/or insect infections which may not have been issues when they were widely grown. Here in the west, we have Pierce's Disease, which was discovered near Anaheim in 1892 on grapes. It wasn't a huge threat until Glassy Winged Sharp Shooters, native to the South Eastern US were discovered to have made it across country in 1996. We had older varieties of grapes which could still be grown for a century until the wide spread pest began spreading the fatal disease throughout the susceptible types. We now have fatal diseases in citrus due to the same reason...foreign pests spreading them. Look at what is happening to Oleanders here in California. They were the perfect "weed"...toxic so NOTHING ate them; able to endure rather deep cold and blistering heat; able to exist on relatively little water; requiring virtually nothing to thrive and provide many months of unending color...until Oleander Leaf Scorch arrived, also spread by Glassy Winged Sharp Shooters. It's the Oleander strain of the same bacteria which causes Pierce's Disease, spread by the same insect. There was 12' - 15' tall, 50' long hedge of Oleanders out behind this house from the late fifties until four years ago. They existed on only rainfall and provided an excellent wind and privacy barrier. Over the period of four years, they flat out died from the Leaf Scorch. Oleander hedges all over the valley show the effects of the disease. Some nurseries aren't selling Oleanders any more due to the disease. Many older fruit and vegetable varieties are much less resistant to bacterial and fungal attacks making them more costly and difficult to raise or even maintain. "Resistant" is a huge marketing word when advertising any plant type. Unless you are insistent upon getting the exact older type you desire, most purchasers opt for "resistant" to diseases and pests over heirloom fruit, particularly when the less resistant cost more because they are more expensive to maintain and produce. Some aren't kept around because of greater cultural requirements or greater space requirements. For rose standards, IXL was the trunk stock of choice for many decades because it generates tremendous growth of very thick canes very quickly, but it also requires significantly greater room to grow mother plants and is much more susceptible to sun scald than Dr. Huey. IXL makes a better standard in less time, but Huey is the standard stock in use now because it requires less room to produce and is cheaper due to less sun scald loss. Some are being lost due to climate change. Sweet cherries are now not as successful in the more southern orchards because of insufficient winter chill and too great summer heat, as well as insufficient rainfall. If the heat continues pressing northward, it's entirely possible the high chill requiring types may be lost in favor of less winter chill types because there won't BE orchards with enough cold. Plants and animals are already moving north, taking advantage of the milder conditions where the more extremes used to prevent them success. Kim...See MoreWell I better get better at this fast
Comments (16)Leava, The watering issue always will be with us so I try not to stress over it when I have to stop watering and let plants die, which generally happens about 1 out of 3 years here. Unfortunately, it often happens 2 or 3 years in a row, but then after that, I know it likely won't happen for a while again. It is excrutiating to leave our lovingly-raised plants to suffer, but that's just how it is when you live and garden in an area prone to drought. It is a shame that some years we have way too much water and other years we have way too little, but we sure can't do anything about it. Succession planting sounds harder than it is. If you know you're planting broccoli, for example, and it matures in 60 days from transplant, just look at the calendar 60 days out from your transplant date and ask yourself what grows well if planted in that month. I usually start seeds of succession crops in tiny bathroom-sized paper cups with the bottoms cut out about 5-7 days before I expect to harvest the in-ground plants. Then, with harvest in the morning and transplanting the new crop (cups and all to lessen transplant shock) in the afternoon (or evening if the weather is very hot), that bed doesn't stay out of production long. You also can plant many succession crops by direct-sowing the seed in the ground, but with each crop you have to know your soil temps and air temps and make sure it isn't too hot for the succession crop to sprout. I just like starting mine inside in cups so I'll have an "instant replacement" and fill up that space and put it to work right away. I hate sowing seed in summer, waiting a week or two for it to sprout, and then having to thin or replant in areas as needed. I'd rather have the sure think of plugging in a growing plant into each bit of available space. Really, if you're replacing cool season crops, you have to replace them with a warm season crop so that narrows down your choices a lot, and it shouldn't be tomatoes or peppers (unless they're a new batch for fall) since they already should be in the ground before you're harvesting something like broccoli or cabbage. It can be harder to decide on succession crops for fall because you can choose from both some shorter-season warm-season crops or some of the cool-season crops. For fall, I try to plant more of whatever we have put up the least of or whatever we like the best. I don't necessarily succession crop after mid-summer if it is a very dry summer because there's no point in planting something that will struggle with a lack of water. Dawn...See MoreLemon tree fading fast
Comments (8)Thanks very much for the feedback. I've tried to dig back all the ground around the stem of the tree and leave as much of the upper root system exposed as possible, but from the sounds of your hypothesis this indeed won't be enough. Therefore I'll definitely take your advise and try going back to square one with the roots in mind: de-pot, sanitize any rotting or ill roots, and try re-potting with a lot of non-absorbing material around the root dirt pack. Will stick with terracotta unless informed otherwise. I've noticed that even though the H20 it gets (I've turned the auto-spigot off and water manually until this gets solved) drains straight through, the actual ground stays pretty remarkably wet. I'm thinking this may be the potting mixture my wife tends to throw on "to give it ground," which may not be the greatest quality -- and worse still, per your warning, just helps the root system to sink deeper into trouble. Ie. there's no mulch or leaves in there, but there is a lot of very water-retaining dirt! I'll give your suggestion a go ASAP and report back in a few weeks. Good news is, everything above ground level (apart from dying foliage) is solid and without any rot, mildew or peeling. So I'm feeling confident your analysis and remedy will do the trick! Thanks ever so much once again, and I'll let you know if the Parisian "citronnier" bounces back....See More
CA Kate z9
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agoseanin
11 months agolast modified: 11 months ago
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agoiochroma
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agoseanin
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agoNo recent frost. Judging by the photos, the way that within 24 hours the plants looked shriveled up, but mostly still green, then after 48 hours, becoming a darker colour and more shriveled up, a bit like in the third photo, and then progressively becoming smaller and looking worse.
So based on all that, I'm wondering whether those symptoms might also be similar in a pesticide spray attack? I think this photo is around 48 hours later. (with a nearby weed looking healthy)
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 months ago
beesneeds
11 months agoseanin
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agobeesneeds
11 months agofloral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 months agoseanin
11 months agoHere's a few more photos taken today. I don't know if they help to identify the cause of the problem?
We think these ones were part the crop of plants that shriveled up, or we might have planted them.
We're not sure whether this is part of the crop, or a potato we planted
Again, not sure whether we planted this one, or it's part of the crop
Donald V Zone 6 north Ohio
11 months agoCA Kate z9
11 months ago
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
11 months ago
theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
11 months ago
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