Protect Your Plants

As everyone is very aware, we are in prime hurricane season right now. Lots of wind and lots of rain wreak havoc not only on our buildings, roads and cars but can be devastating for our green friends as well! Plants that is…

Excess rain can do a lot of damage to your fruits and vegetables. I know I know, plants need rain to survive so how can that be a bad thing!? The most immediate effects on your crops will be rot. Sitting around in water, and especially mud, is not good for any crops and encourages them to rot quickly. Tomatoes are possibly the most sensitive and like to crack at the top when they get too much water.

Larger fruit that sits on the ground, like pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupes, will have a rough time with excess rain as well. If they sit in the mud for even a short amount of time they can completely rot from the bottom up. Be careful when picking after a heavy rain… You might want to wear gloves!

There are some hardy plants that don’t mind the rain as much. Peppers don’t seem to mind it one bit but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to prepare when a hurricane some spinning through. Although they might not mind a little shower, windy and rainy conditions promote disease in almost every crop.

Blights and fungal bacteria are almost guaranteed to show up in your garden after a good rain storm. They can mess up a perfectly good growing season if nothing if you aren’t careful!

Pick everything! If you know a heavy/long rain is coming in, it’s important to harvest everything that’s ready to prevent rot from entering the field. Rot can also spread disease throughout the field.

The other thing that you should do is spray your plants with a fungicide to protect them from fungal infections. I know, the word “spray” is bad word, but why does it have to be? You can make your own fungicide at home with safe ingredients! Ever hear of baking soda? Yeah, the stuff you use to brush your teeth. Regularly ingested in your daily life baking soda. Well mix one big old tablespoon of baking soda in a gallon of water, add some dishwashing soap (no degreaser or bleach) to use as a surfactant so that it sticks to the leaves, and you have yourself a nice, friendly fungicide to keep your plants safe! Just make sure to test your concoction on a small portion of the plant first just to make sure that it’s properly mixed and not harmful to the plant. Put it on several hours to a day before the rain hits but make sure to apply it when it is cool and shady; preferably at night or dusk. If it is hot and sunny the spray can actually burn your plants.

Keep your plants safe during this crazy weather.