This guest post was written by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, authors of What’s Wrong with My Plant?, and originally appeared on their blog.

Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, hosted our first bookstore appearance of the Great ‘Here Come the Plant Docs’ Book Tour of 2010. There is something very comforting about beginning such a venture talking about a book surrounded by good books, in the company of bibliophiles and phytophiles.

On this, my first trip to Bellingham, I discovered what a delightful town it is. Kathy, at the Village Inn, greeted us with an enthusiastic, “Oh, I should have recognized you. I have your book.”  Making us feel a little like the Olympic athletes who were also staying there (overflow from the games in Vancouver, just across the border).

Naturally this welcome warmed my heart immediately and made me very predisposed to love Bellingham.

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This guest post was written by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, authors of What’s Wrong with My Plant?, and originally appeared on their blog.

David and I have been having a great time teaching Master Gardener classes the last couple of weeks.  Recently we spent six hours covering some good answers to the question they’ll get every day in Plant Clinic: “What’s Wrong With My Plant?”

Sometimes it can be difficult to determine whether you are dealing with a disorder, a disease, or a pest. But 80% of the time the problem is a “disorder”, that is, a problem with the growing conditions.

Accurate diagnosis requires detective work. Like a forensic scientist, you need to collect evidence, examine the clues, and arrive at a diagnosis. The process involves asking questions designed to detect information that eliminates, one by one, all alternative causes and results in an accurate diagnosis.

Leaf symptoms can look remarkably similar, but have very different causes. By asking the right questions about the plants’ circumstances, you can come up with an accurate diagnosis.

The leaves at the tip of the branch, in other words, the young leaves, on this pachysandra (Pachysandra) turned completely yellow. Plants that require partial shade can suffer from this condition in a variety of circumstances.

Solutions include moving the plant to a shadier area, planting a larger plant nearby to give this ground cover more shade, or constructing a small trellis overhead to cast shadows below.

Yellow leaves on Pachysandra.

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This guest post was written by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, authors of What’s Wrong with My Plant?, and originally appeared on their blog.

Kathryn and I taught a Master Gardener training class on plant disorders, diseases, and pests yesterday. We’ve learned through experience that most plant problems result from poor growing conditions. Growing conditions are physical and cultural environmental factors that affect the well being of your plants.

Light, water, temperature and soil nutrients, for example, are all physical factors of the environment that profoundly affect plant performance. Cultural environmental factors  are the things we, as plant managers, do to the plants in our care, including pruning to improve air movement, thinning heavy crops of fruit, and avoiding overcrowding among many others. Good growing conditions are the foundation for plant health, and eighty percent of plant problems are due to poor growing conditions.

Physical environmental factors include light, water, temperature, and soil.

Sunlight is, of course, vital. All green plants manufacture food from sunlight through photosynthesis. Fertilizer and mineral nutrients are sometimes called “plant food” but that is an erroneous concept. Sugar is actually “plant food” and plants create sugar out of solar energy, water and carbon dioxide. Obviously, if a plant does not get enough sunlight it becomes malnourished and could even starve to death.

Water, like sunlight, is also absolutely vital for a plant’s well being. It moves through the plant’s veins like blood in our own bodies. Water transports food and mineral nutrients to every cell. Roots absorb water, which moves up through the stem, and is lost to the air through the leaves. Losing water through the leaves is the pump that drives water movement through the plant’s body. If the pump stops, the plant can get into serious, life-threatening trouble very quickly.

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During my time at Timber Press, I’ve seen many titles come up for discussion. Most of our titles are self-explanatory — buy a book entitled Japanese Maples, and you will find it to be chock full of Japanese maples. (Truth in advertising!) Some titles, however, are a bit vague. Niwaki? What does that mean?  In these cases, it’s the subtitle to the rescue! (A perfect example of the subtitle clarifying the title is the Diagram Prize winner Bombproof Your Horse, whose subtitle is Teach Your Horse to Be Confident, Obedient, and Safe, No Matter What You Encounter. Makes a lot more sense with the subtitle, doesn’t it?)

In the realm of self-explanatory titles, I would say that our latest, What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?) is pretty darn self-explanatory. (Though I do kinda wish that the last part was in all caps. I think it would add an important soupçon of drama!)

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I was reading through The Complete Chile Pepper Book and came across this useful warning:

Capsaicin, the alkaloid responsible for the heat in chiles, is wonderful for making bland foods interesting, but it is far less welcome in large doses on the skin, or in any amount in your eyes. We urge everyone to who processes chiles in any form to wear gloves when handling them. This is especially important when handling the hotter varieties, because chile burns can be extremely painful and even cause contact dermatitis, redness, and blistering of the skin.

It made me think of the funny segment Jeff Gillman had on The Martha Stewart Show earlier this year. You can watch Martha’s laughter-inducing warning here.

Here’s another bit from The Complete Chile Pepper Book about what to do if you burn your mouth with a pepper:

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I have to confess I’m obsessed with Horms™ #4 SUPERthrive 50-in-one. If you’ve ever seen a bottle or ad for this amazing product you’ve never forgotten it. We all see plenty of ads in a given day — “Number 1” “Recommended by four out of five dentists”, etc. — but SUPERthrive beats them all. The ads scream the most amazing claims:

“World’s # 1 Top Plant Supply”

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Home gardeners and commercial tomato producers in the Eastern and Southern US face a potential tomato crop failure this summer. The problem is called late blight and is caused by a fungus.

What are the symptoms?

There are several different fungal diseases of tomatoes, including early blight and septoria leaf spot. But no other fungus has the specific combination of symptoms on leaves, stems, and fruit that identifies late blight. If your tomato plants have all three of the following symptoms you can be sure you are dealing with late blight.

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If you grow tomatoes in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic region, you need to read Friday’s New York Times article on late blight. It’s scary to think that a fungus can spread so quickly from garden center to home garden. Even scarier? A strain of the same disease is what caused the Irish potato famine.

The article includes tips on what to look for and how to remove affected plants. It also recommends using the fungicide chlorothalonil (a synthetic protectant that prevents disease by blocking its entry into the surface of the plant) to protect tomatoes not yet affected. Which brings is to the question of chemicals…

I looked up chlorothalonil in Jeff Gillman’s The Truth About Organic Gardening. After an explanation of the difference between the three types of synthetic chemicals used for disease control (plant activators, systemics, and protectants), he lists what he sees as the benefits and drawbacks of using synthetic protecants. I’ll let you decide what is the right choice for you and your garden:

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I’ve been gardening in the city for the past 3 years now, and have formed a strong opinion on squirrels, cats, dogs, and their, ahem, “relationship” with my garden. (I have opinions on bugs and slugs too, but those are easier to trap with beer.)

Let’s start with squirrels (who seem unaffected by beer – bummer.) Our esteemed next door neighbor has a squirrel feeder, which provides them with a constant supply of peanuts – and me with a constant supply of squirrels burying peanuts in my garden. It’s like a video game – squirrel gets peanut, squirrel comes over fence to bury said peanut, garden owner must chase squirrel off before it succeeds. Extra points for hitting squirrel with a jet of water! I wish I could designate a squirrel digging area – DIG HERE, AVOID SEEDLINGS. On the other hand, my husband enjoys laughing at my outrage, so there’s that.

Then there are cats. Honestly, I think cats are worse than squirrels. I prefer what squirrels bury to what cats bury. Coming across a peanut in the dirt? No biggy. Cat by-product? Yuck! We have two lazy indoor cats, who posture amusingly on windowsills when they see the outdoor interlopers. I encourage them to act as “guard cats”, but so far, chicken wire over my garden beds has proven to be more effective. It gives me a whole new appreciation for indoor cats – I think everyone should have them. Think of the gardens!

Lastly, though this is a rare problem, there is our neighbor’s dog. He’s usually very good, and doesn’t come dashing into my garden much. But he is large. And enthusiastic. And – well – there goes the lettuce, replaced by a filthy, squeaky toy. Sigh.

I can count my blessings, though. I have yet to see deer or rabbits. And I don’t live near a bar.

In Forest Park, here in Portland, there are a number of banana slugs. They are fascinating critters, yellow with brown spots, you can see where the “banana” came from. Plus, according to Wikipedia , banana slugs can reach up to 9.8 inches in length!

I can appreciate the banana slug. Especially because they know their place—Forest Park. The small brown garden slugs that don’t know their place (far away!), and have eaten all my carrot seedlings for the third time? I can’t muster any enthusiasm for them. I can muster some beer traps, though.