TOPIC: First seed developing and question on when to water ?

Hey Guys,

We had some really cool (cooler than usual) and wet weather in May and now June has turned into a scorcher.

We have had High's in the low to mid 90's for a couple weeks now and no rain.

I just checked my seed producing bed here on my lunch hour and found the first berry developing.

Notice the little grasshopper dude.

This is from that big stout 4 prong top (one of Billy's roots) that has the somewhat deformed leaves.



TNhunter

Most of the others have some nice flower spikes going on - hopefully they will all be making seeds before too long.

Couple of questions:

1.. It has been hot and dry now for a couple weeks, ground (in the yard) is rock hard and grass is starting to get crunchy.

When I checked on my plants in my seed producing bed just now they were all looking nice - no sign of wilting going on.

I do have a drip irrigation system in place that I can easily water them with.

Just wanted to get your take on when I should water.

I don't want this hot/dry spell to curb my berry production.

I did just check my 7 day forcast and there is a 20-30% chance of rain the next several days.

I may just wait a few more days and see if that pays off - if not may give them a 30 minute soaking some evening.

What do you think ?

TNhunter

Also have some bad news...

A week or so ago I noticed a few of the 3 leafers in one of my planting beds had little yellow spots.

I now see that a couple of the plants in my seed bed have a few small yellow spots.

I expect this may be a bit of Alternaria but not absolutely sure.

I have seen and harvested wild seng around here that had these yellow spots late in the season. Other than just a few small yellow spots they looked fine otherwise.

I know the Oscar guy in Scotts book mentioned having some type of blight that would bother his plants, but he never did anything about it and he was very successful at growing seng.

That is what I am wondering.

How do you know when you need to (do something) when you have a bit of disease showing up.

I know from being a organic gardner that pest and diseases are natural but can be controlled with organic methods (most of the time). Also that most of the time when someone sees a pest insect and starts spraying chemical/poisons to control them, the plants would have done just fine if nothing at all was done.

Have read that tomato plants can lose nearly half of their vegitation (leaves) without curbing fruit production (for example).

So - do I need to freak out and do something about these little yellow spots that are showing up now - or just hold off and see how they do and monitor things closely.

Example below.

Thanks

TNhunter

I looked thru several pics of wild seng I harvested last year and found some examples of plants from Sept 2010 - October 2010 timeframe that had similar yellow spots.

I don't ever remember seeing any wild plants that looked any worse than these examples though - mostly just every now and they you will find some with yellow spots and possibly bulls-eye type spots on the leaves.

While they may have suffered a bit from the disease, they were alive and doing well and producing seeds and had good roots on them.

Another with similar yellow spots (wild seng) but still a impressive 3 prong and had a huge root on it.

One more wild plant with similar yellow spots.

I remember finding this one late in the year last year.

It was one of the few tops I found that day that still had some green to it. The rest were yellow and many were down.



So I am wondering - are these little yellow spots something to freak about - or should you just chill out and keep an eye on things and see how it goes.

One things for sure, I will not be spraying chemicals.

Might consider removing tops of severly infected plants (have not seen any that I would call severly infected yet) - or might consider removing just individual leaves or prongs that are affected.

Your thoughts ?

TNhunter

TNhunter

It is Alternaria. I believe that large otherwise healthy plants can survive this disease. But this disease will continue to complete it's cycle and produce spores that can be carried by the wind or rain water and infect other plants that come in contact with those spores.

If it were my plants I would be dealing with it in someway as soon as I saw evidence of the disease. Would I be freaking out? Yes! Would I let the plants go without treating them? No!

I don't think you would regret treating diseased plants.

classicfur

What would you recommend treating them with?
Latt

I have not had to deal with alternaria in my ginseng. If I needed to spray I would use Azoxystrobin(derived from mushrooms). They use it in WI for several diseases. It's spendy stuff. About $ 125 for 4 oz. Heritage is the cheapest brand.

Or I would use one of the milder chemicals like Fung-onil. I have both of these on hand if needed.

Here's a note on alternaria from the Canada Growers Manual.

\"Alternaria panax overwinters on infested crop debris,
and possibly on straw. It may also be introduced on
ginseng seed. The fungus appears to become active
early in the season as plants begin to grow. Wind,
rain and irrigation splashing disperse the fungal
spores to plant stems and leaves. The disease can
keep cycling from plant to plant as each leaf or stem
lesion produces new spores. Stems are often infected
earlier in the season than leaf spots, so watch
the stems carefully.

I think its best to have a plan for treating diseases and especialy for Alternaria, have the treatments on hand.

classicfur