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A couple of people have posted threads about problems with diseases and I thought it might be interesting to pull everything together into one thread. These are the problems I have had (so far) this year, along with what I intend to do about it next year.
Pests
Cats - digging up beds on the allotment, fighting in my garden. Net beds at allotment, chase cats out of garden/squirt with water.
Birds - a little damage to strawberries at allotment, but the main problem has been digging in the raised beds and uprooting plants. Net beds at allotment, grow peas in tunnel.
Slugs and snails - particularly bad at allotment, completely destroying young plants, especially leeks and carrots. Grow carrots in buckets at home, start leeks off in pots. Sprinkling "slug gone" around plants seemed to help.
Wasps - carving up and eating partly ripe strawberries, particularly perpetuals. Net strawberries with enviromesh as soon as finished flowering, ditch perpetuals.
Caterpillars:
Cabbage white butterfly - one got into the tunnel and laid eggs on the calabrese. Check netting for holes/gaps.
Tortrix moth - a perennial problem here, will eat anything but particularly seems to like blueberry flowers and strawberry leaves. Insect mesh doesn't help and the only course of action appears to be to remove the caterpillars when damage is seen. They stick the leaves together with silk, so are quite easy to find, but less easy to catch as they are very wriggly.
Silver Y Moth - a European immigrant that seems to come here in hot summers. Particularly seem to like carrot foliage but will eat almost anything. Nets don't keep them out - I have caught over 30 in my carrot cage so far this year.
Angle Shades Moth - less of a nuisance than Silver Y. I found a couple of caterpillars on brassicas in the tunnel.
Cabbage moth - another one that seems to be able to get inside nets. Eats brassicas and tends to be found much earlier than cabbage white butterfly.
Cabbage root fly - found a couple of these on early turnips under a net, although insect mesh usually stops them.
Raspberry sawfly - reduces raspberry leaves to lace in a remarkably short time. Completely defoliated the hanging basket raspberry at home. The plants at the plot showed some damage on the lower leaves. Difficult to control as the flowers need pollinating so insect mesh is not an option.
Codling moth - damage evident on several apples.
Fruit fly - I tend to get these at the stalk end of strawberries. They are extremely small so insect mesh is no help.
I have basically given up trying to control caterpillars that are not kept out by insect mesh. I pick them off if I find them.
Beetles:
Flea beetle - tiny beetles that make lots of small holes in brassica leaves. Turnips seem to be their favourite, seedlings are vulnerable. Grow brassicas in pots and plant out when big enough to survive the flea beetle.
Raspberry beetle - small grey/brown beetles whose grubs make a mess of raspberries and blackberries. Another pest that is almost impossible to get rid of.
Strawberry beetle - small beetles that live in the soil and eat strawberry seeds, leaving brown marks on the underside of the fruit. Most of the fruit at the allotment was affected to some degree, a lot of it badly. Damage provides a weak point of entry for other pests, eg slugs. I've dug up the strawberries and I'm looking at options for growing them in raised containers so that the fruit doesn't rest on the ground.
Vine weevil - I've found adults both at home and at the allotment. They like fibrous rooted plants like strawberries, particularly in pots. I use nematodes twice a year to control them.
Aphids etc:
Greenfly - these have mainly confined their activities to fruit bushes this year. Their sticky honeydew attracts ants and wasps which can be a nuisance when you are trying to harvest fruit. The best remedy I have found is to let the predators find the aphids, although I keep bushes with ripe fruit under insect mesh as I don't like wasps buzzing round me when harvesting.
Blackfly - almost killed the nasturtiums I put near the beans as decoy plants. The beans were slightly affected. Again the ladybirds came to the rescue and the plants have now recovered. I am unsure of the wisdom of putting nasturtiums near beans as the blackfly love them. The only times I have had blackfly on beans have been when there have been nasturtiums nearby.
Grey cabbage aphid - these somehow appeared on my cabbage seedlings under an insect mesh net at home. The plants became badly infested and eventually died.
Whitefly - these always appear in small numbers at home, and I ignore them. Huge numbers appeared in the tunnel at the allotment, and I put yellow sticky traps up to catch some of them. There are still a lot of whitefly in the tunnel, so I am not sure that the sticky traps are doing much good.
Diseases
Grey mould (botrytis) - this has affected a couple of the outdoor tomatoes. It normally appears in the greenhouse first so I am keeping an eye out for it. In my experience it occurs where the plant has been damaged, either by a tie rubbing or where a sideshoot or leaf has been removed. Not a lot you can do apart from cut off the affected part, but that simply creates another wound.
Scab - quite a bit on the potatoes, with some of the Charlotte at home particularly badly affected. I'm not sure why this has been bad this year. I normally get a little but not to this extent.
Blackleg - affected some of the buckets of Lady Christl potatoes, not for the first time. If they weren't my favourite variety I would stop growing them, but they are so nice that they are worth the risk. I will try putting the buckets in saucers and watering from underneath.
Rust - starting to appear on leek leaves in the tunnel. I grow rust resistant varieties, but they still get rust, which appears endemic in this area.
Powdery mildew - I always get this on my courgettes, although it hasn't yet appeared this year. I expect it any time. Courgettes grown in pots are always affected worse and I have stopped trying to do this.
Other problems
Bolting - onions, fennel, carrots (Samurai only), broccoli and to a lesser degree spinach and lettuce have not liked the hot weather and bolted. Other things grown for fruit/seeds such as peas, beans, some tomatoes and blueberries have all ripened at once rather than over a longer period, presumably for the same reason.
Greenback - tomatoes, particularly indoors, have suffered badly from this, caused by being too hot.
Blossom End Rot - another problem for hot and dry tomatoes.
Fruit splitting - the tomatoes have tended to split more than usual this year, particularly Shirley in the greenhouse and Balconi Red outside. This is probably due to uneven water supply.
Bitter Pit - the apples on my dwarf tree tend to get this in dry weather and a few have it even though I have watered it almost every day.
If I discover or think of anything else I will add it...
Pests
Cats - digging up beds on the allotment, fighting in my garden. Net beds at allotment, chase cats out of garden/squirt with water.
Birds - a little damage to strawberries at allotment, but the main problem has been digging in the raised beds and uprooting plants. Net beds at allotment, grow peas in tunnel.
Slugs and snails - particularly bad at allotment, completely destroying young plants, especially leeks and carrots. Grow carrots in buckets at home, start leeks off in pots. Sprinkling "slug gone" around plants seemed to help.
Wasps - carving up and eating partly ripe strawberries, particularly perpetuals. Net strawberries with enviromesh as soon as finished flowering, ditch perpetuals.
Caterpillars:
Cabbage white butterfly - one got into the tunnel and laid eggs on the calabrese. Check netting for holes/gaps.
Tortrix moth - a perennial problem here, will eat anything but particularly seems to like blueberry flowers and strawberry leaves. Insect mesh doesn't help and the only course of action appears to be to remove the caterpillars when damage is seen. They stick the leaves together with silk, so are quite easy to find, but less easy to catch as they are very wriggly.
Silver Y Moth - a European immigrant that seems to come here in hot summers. Particularly seem to like carrot foliage but will eat almost anything. Nets don't keep them out - I have caught over 30 in my carrot cage so far this year.
Angle Shades Moth - less of a nuisance than Silver Y. I found a couple of caterpillars on brassicas in the tunnel.
Cabbage moth - another one that seems to be able to get inside nets. Eats brassicas and tends to be found much earlier than cabbage white butterfly.
Cabbage root fly - found a couple of these on early turnips under a net, although insect mesh usually stops them.
Raspberry sawfly - reduces raspberry leaves to lace in a remarkably short time. Completely defoliated the hanging basket raspberry at home. The plants at the plot showed some damage on the lower leaves. Difficult to control as the flowers need pollinating so insect mesh is not an option.
Codling moth - damage evident on several apples.
Fruit fly - I tend to get these at the stalk end of strawberries. They are extremely small so insect mesh is no help.
I have basically given up trying to control caterpillars that are not kept out by insect mesh. I pick them off if I find them.
Beetles:
Flea beetle - tiny beetles that make lots of small holes in brassica leaves. Turnips seem to be their favourite, seedlings are vulnerable. Grow brassicas in pots and plant out when big enough to survive the flea beetle.
Raspberry beetle - small grey/brown beetles whose grubs make a mess of raspberries and blackberries. Another pest that is almost impossible to get rid of.
Strawberry beetle - small beetles that live in the soil and eat strawberry seeds, leaving brown marks on the underside of the fruit. Most of the fruit at the allotment was affected to some degree, a lot of it badly. Damage provides a weak point of entry for other pests, eg slugs. I've dug up the strawberries and I'm looking at options for growing them in raised containers so that the fruit doesn't rest on the ground.
Vine weevil - I've found adults both at home and at the allotment. They like fibrous rooted plants like strawberries, particularly in pots. I use nematodes twice a year to control them.
Aphids etc:
Greenfly - these have mainly confined their activities to fruit bushes this year. Their sticky honeydew attracts ants and wasps which can be a nuisance when you are trying to harvest fruit. The best remedy I have found is to let the predators find the aphids, although I keep bushes with ripe fruit under insect mesh as I don't like wasps buzzing round me when harvesting.
Blackfly - almost killed the nasturtiums I put near the beans as decoy plants. The beans were slightly affected. Again the ladybirds came to the rescue and the plants have now recovered. I am unsure of the wisdom of putting nasturtiums near beans as the blackfly love them. The only times I have had blackfly on beans have been when there have been nasturtiums nearby.
Grey cabbage aphid - these somehow appeared on my cabbage seedlings under an insect mesh net at home. The plants became badly infested and eventually died.
Whitefly - these always appear in small numbers at home, and I ignore them. Huge numbers appeared in the tunnel at the allotment, and I put yellow sticky traps up to catch some of them. There are still a lot of whitefly in the tunnel, so I am not sure that the sticky traps are doing much good.
Diseases
Grey mould (botrytis) - this has affected a couple of the outdoor tomatoes. It normally appears in the greenhouse first so I am keeping an eye out for it. In my experience it occurs where the plant has been damaged, either by a tie rubbing or where a sideshoot or leaf has been removed. Not a lot you can do apart from cut off the affected part, but that simply creates another wound.
Scab - quite a bit on the potatoes, with some of the Charlotte at home particularly badly affected. I'm not sure why this has been bad this year. I normally get a little but not to this extent.
Blackleg - affected some of the buckets of Lady Christl potatoes, not for the first time. If they weren't my favourite variety I would stop growing them, but they are so nice that they are worth the risk. I will try putting the buckets in saucers and watering from underneath.
Rust - starting to appear on leek leaves in the tunnel. I grow rust resistant varieties, but they still get rust, which appears endemic in this area.
Powdery mildew - I always get this on my courgettes, although it hasn't yet appeared this year. I expect it any time. Courgettes grown in pots are always affected worse and I have stopped trying to do this.
Other problems
Bolting - onions, fennel, carrots (Samurai only), broccoli and to a lesser degree spinach and lettuce have not liked the hot weather and bolted. Other things grown for fruit/seeds such as peas, beans, some tomatoes and blueberries have all ripened at once rather than over a longer period, presumably for the same reason.
Greenback - tomatoes, particularly indoors, have suffered badly from this, caused by being too hot.
Blossom End Rot - another problem for hot and dry tomatoes.
Fruit splitting - the tomatoes have tended to split more than usual this year, particularly Shirley in the greenhouse and Balconi Red outside. This is probably due to uneven water supply.
Bitter Pit - the apples on my dwarf tree tend to get this in dry weather and a few have it even though I have watered it almost every day.
If I discover or think of anything else I will add it...
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