23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Looks like a classic case of verticillium wilt. There's not much you can do about it except letting the plant produce as long as it can before it dies. I deal with it in my garden as well. Some plants continue to hang on and produce, while some plants die quickly. It depends on how much fungal inoculum entered the plant, how aggressive the particular strain is, the weather, and many other factors.
It will get worse every subsequent year if you continue growing eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes or peppers in this bed. Since I have limited space, my plan is to inoculate all my Solanaceous transplants next year with the antagonistic fungus Trichoderma harzianum, as well as inoculate the soil with corn meal mixed with Trichoderma. I have read anecdotal evidence that this can help limit verticillium and fusarium infections in subsequent years although there will always be some incidence of infection.
Management options that may suppress the severity of Verticillium infections in subsequent years include keeping relatively high levels of ammonium nitrogen in the soil (such as by using slow release ammonium fertilizer), mulching soil with plastic to keep it warm/hot and maintaining an acidic soil pH. The stones (or bark mulch? I can't make out in the picture) probably keep the soil cool, which encourages this fungus.
Verticillium is extremely long-lived in the soil. My garden used to be a grassy hay field for at least a decade. The good thing is that strains of verticillium adapted to other families tend to not kill Solanums (and vice-versa) but still cause symptoms such as those you're seeing.
I should also add that you are overwatering. Although too late to correct it this year, limit how often you water established plants next year in order to limit the growth of fungal pathogens. Eggplants are fairly deep-rooted and especially with that bark mulch, once every two days is FAR too much water. I water mine every two weeks once they've become established - in your hotter climate, once a week should be adequate.
This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Tue, Aug 5, 14 at 22:53
Thanks I would have to see what Home Depot offers and decide what wood is best. I don't want it to rot. If anything pressure treated or I will stain the wood before it goes in. The pathway I think will be with gravel to eliminate the weeds as mulch I have headaches when blowing grass etc.
Gravel is certainly another option. I like the look of pea gravel. I just like to kneel on something softer. [g] Pressure treated wood I don't believe is recommended for vegetable beds because of the chemicals that can leach into the soil. Same for staining the wood, unless you just stain the outside, which probably won't help much. We are leaving our wood without stain to weather naturally and we'll get as long as we get from it.
I tried using cement blocks once, thinking it would last a long time, but, I didn't like the way the plants grew in it. I think the soil became too hot and something was leaching from the cement into the beds, so I finally dismantled it.
Well, my jalapenos have bought the farm now too. Squash on the border nearby are fine, and tomatoes, a few yards away, are looking great.
I think I'll clear the area, do some deep digging over the winter, and try something else here next year. I can move eggplants here, and move my peppers around the corner where the eggplants are now.
I'm not sure eggplants are any more resistant to blight, but it's probably time to do some rotation anyway.
If you have to dig up your onions, you planted them way too deep, and they will be very small.
Mine grow on top of the ground, and are very easy to just lift. Mine also seem to have finished very early this year , but they did attain a pretty good size. Unfortunately, I do not have a cool place to store them.
Guess I'll spread them out on cardboard in my shop when the tops flop over. (Some already have).
Last year, I planted bush beans over the July 4th weekend, and froze enough beans to last through the winter... I'm still eating them. The average frost date here is around October 5th, so with a frost date 10-14 days later & more heat than I have, there is plenty of time to get a good crop. This year, I planted "Emerite" pole beans on July 5th, and they are beginning to climb & bud up, so they too should bear well before frost.
Bush beans & English peas are good crops to plant in mid-summer bare spots, since they will not only give you food before frost, they will enrich the soil.
I agree with OldDutch that beans - like many vegetables - are better flavored if harvested in cool Fall weather. I usually plant my snap beans earlier, but when the weather prevents that (as it did here last year) I can't help but notice that the quality of late-planted beans has been outstanding.
Marijuana growers seem to know how to grow things inside tents very well. They could tell you about set ups...
There is a hot pepper forum too where a lot of people over winter their peppers and would have some advice for you
My peppers against my brick/stucco wall in San Jose overwinter outside and actually fruit in the winter (not near as much as summer). Still nice to get a few fresh peppers in January though....
Here is a link that might be useful: pepper forum
It's funny you mention that melikeeatplants, a lot of the links regarding indoor lighting related to marijuana growing but I ignored them figuring they would not be as applicable, and I assume much more complicated. That said I will take a look anyway and also explore the hot pepper forums! Thanks!
I experimented with Midnight Moon. When one of its tall vines flopped over on the ground, the suckers (what would be suckers on a tomato plant) started growing straight up. I threw dirt on the prone vine where the suckers joined. Yesterday I harvested a fully-developed large potato from one of the suckers. Hooray!