Sterilizing greenhouse and pots

[Marb67]

As my lean to poly-carbonate greenhouse seems to have a lot of mould spores that have finished off some of my plants (even succulents), flea beetle (bubbling and twisting leaves) and damping off I was wondering what I could do to prevent this again for the new season using natural methods. I could use Jeys fluid for the pots but I know apple cider vinegar is a fantastic natural way of cleansing (as well as heath benefits which I use it for myself everyday). Would perhaps spraying this with warm water on the inside of the greenhouse give it a real good clean ? I know it kills mould spores. Also, would spraying plants with a dilute seaweed also give them a boost and make them stronger when attacked by pests ?

My garden is small and so far has been plagued from

Leaf Miner
Fea Beetle
Cabbage root fly
Onion fly
carrot fly
saw fly
slugs
damping off

[chris]

Increase ventilation. Damping off - cut back on your watering and/or water from underneath.

Carrot/Onion Fly - barriers.

Flea beatle - don't usually cause that much damage, but sowing in modules and planting out larger plants will help against all pests anyway. Slugs - nematodes.

[Marb67]

Every year my broad beans for example start really well like this
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And always, end like this with twisted, small misshapen beans. I have posted these pics in the past and nobody could think of what it was. It is so depressing as I have not had a single good crop of beans ever in 7 years of growing.

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[Aberdeenplotter]

It's surprising just how much even washing and scrubbing with clean water with no additions can make. Good scrub and a good rinse. Personally, I prefer to use bleach or a good garden disinstictant but each to their own

[Currysniffa]

It's surprising just how much even washing and scrubbing with clean water with no additions can make. Good scrub and a good rinse. Personally, I prefer to use bleach or a good garden disinstictant but each to their own

Same here AP spot of bleach & jays fluid in warm water... Job done.

I spray against flea beetle (bug killer). I spray the plant and soil around the plant. Not everyone likes to use bug killer but I find it works well for me.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Now I might be barking up the wrong tree here.

But can I suggest that this year you grow a couple of plants in new compost in containers, just to eliminate the possibility of some thing in the ground.

Potty

[FB.]

Most likely the biggest problem is that natural predators can't get in to eat the pests.

Mould spores are everywhere in the air and environment in huge numbers. No matter how much you scrub and clean you won't stop fungal spores getting back in. They'll be back within a few months - compost or soil will be full of mould spores.

Most plants which are adequately fed and watered will usually shrug off pest problems.

But if you grow the same thing in the same place for a long time you can get a build-up of pests and diseases which specialise in attacking what you're growing. That's why we have to do crop rotation on the veg plot.
Simply not growing something for one season can break the life cycle if you have a large build-up of pests. Problem with carrot fly in 2013? Don't grow carrots in 2014.

Have you tried companion planting, sacrificial planting, or planting varieties resistant to whatever problems you have encountered?

[Marb67]

If I grow in containers or soil I still get the same problems. Sometimes I buy new compost, sometimes I re-use or put that back in the soil.

Interesting nobody has commented on the the problem with my broad beans is. At least if I knew what it what I would know who the enemy is. I can't really rotate as my garden is so small.

[FB.]

Interesting nobody has commented on the the problem with my broad beans is.

It looks like a bug, slug or aphid attack.
But mild to moderate damage to leaves shouldn't affect the crop - and I think I can see flowers on the plants in the picture. My rhubarb leaves often look like that (slug damage) but I have no shortage of rhubarb stems.
If the plants aren't producing beans it's probably because the bees can't get to the flowers to pollinate them.

Also, how much sun does the growing area get? Which direction does if face?
Plants need quite a lot of sun to grow well and crop well. If they don't get enough sun they will grow poorly and will be less able to shrug off pest attacks. Some fruit and veg are more tolerant of shade than others.

Vegetables in particular seem to need very fertile soil to give the best crop. So if being grown in the ground there won't be enough nutrients without adding a lot of raw compost. If grown in pots, pots dry out very quickly and very easily (and dry compost is very difficult to rehydrate - most of the water runs straight through and escapes). Most people grossly underestimate how much water plants need when the plant is unable to send roots out of the confines of its pot.

[Marb67]

It looks like a bug, slug or aphid attack.
But mild to moderate damage to leaves shouldn't affect the crop - and I think I can see flowers on the plants in the picture. My rhubarb leaves often look like that (slug damage) but I have no shortage of rhubarb stems.
If the plants aren't producing beans it's probably because the bees can't get to the flowers to pollinate them.

Also, how much sun does the growing area get? Which direction does if face?
Plants need quite a lot of sun to grow well and crop well. If they don't get enough sun they will grow poorly and will be less able to shrug off pest attacks. Some fruit and veg are more tolerant of shade than others.

Vegetables in particular seem to need very fertile soil to give the best crop. So if being grown in the ground there won't be enough nutrients without adding a lot of raw compost. If grown in pots, pots dry out very quickly and very easily (and dry compost is very difficult to rehydrate - most of the water runs straight through and escapes). Most people grossly underestimate how much water plants need when the plant is unable to send roots out of the confines of its pot.

Well I can assure you it is defiantly not slugs and aphids as I have inspected them a few times. I am lucky in the fact I do not get blackfly at all. You would get slime and larger holes. These are very small, almost pin prick holes. I do have limited sunlight in summer which is frustrating.

[Kristen]

I did wonder if it might start out as Chocolate Spot. Doesn't really look like that, so I kept my trap shut! Can we discount that?

[FB.]

I do have limited sunlight in summer which is frustrating.

The growth and productivity of plants is pretty much directly proportional to the amount of direct sunshine they receive.
As I mentioned on some other topics: I tried an experiment with a Golden Delicious apple tree in semi-shade; it won't flower, won't fruit and doesn't make much new growth - the plant is crippled due to insufficient direct sun. If some pest or disease happened to come along it would probably finish-off the already unhappy plant.

[Bren In Pots]

Could the broad bean problem be Capsid bugs :-

GREEN CAPSID BUG -Garden World Images

and https://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch...e.aspx?pid=484

[FB.]

By the time we've finished buying chemicals and spraying for this, that and the other, it's probably cost us many times what it would if we'd bought the fruit and veg from the shop, and it'll still be full of chemical residues just like shop-bought fruit and veg.

Not to mention the collateral damage caused to innocent and helpful garden creatures.

My view is that if a plant can't be grown, I'll try something else - either a different variety of the same plant, or a completely different plant. There is always something that will grow well in a certain spot. But it's not always possible to say "I want".

Go with the flow; grow what does well - it'll keep time, effort, toxic-chemicals and costs as low as possible - and buy what you can't grow from the shop, or swap with someone else.

[Kristen]

By the time we've finished buying chemicals and spraying for this, that and the other, it's probably cost us many times what it would if we'd bought the fruit and veg from the shop, and it'll still be full of chemical residues just like shop-bought fruit and veg.

Good post

I saw a statistic somewhere that fertiliser "run off" from amateur gardeners is a far greater problem than from agriculture (although I presume agriculture is a much greater area, so bigger culprit overall). I suppose that can be extrapolated to other chemicals used by amateur gardeners, although I further suppose that agriculture's chemicals are more potent than those that us amateurs are able to buy. Farmers need to minimise chemical and fertiliser use to maximise profits, for most amateur gardeners another bottle (100% increase) of Tomorite and Provado isn't significant in the budget

I don't spray my vegetable crops with any chemicals at all - not because I am organic per se but because I would prefer not to. I would if there was risk of losing the whole crop - I might for Blight, for example - but mostly the bugs and birds get some, and I get the rest.