Gardeners’ queries

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 18

Gardeners’ queries

GARDENING

by

Mike Lusty

Over the past seven weeks I have lost six of my tomato plants, which seemed to wilt over night. I concluded that this! was ’ verticillium wilt until last week’s wilted plarjt, which had two stems onljl one of which was diseased. I have retained this! healthy stem and it is doling well. So, could it be something else? J. M. (Chfh). Despite your misgivings, verticillium wilt is indeed the trodble, certainly the one associated with the sample examjned. This is purely a soilborne infection which occurs only through the roots. Severely I infected plants should be carefully removed and burned. Crop rotation should be carried out but in the interim avoid planting any alternatives.which belong to (the same family, such- as potatoes , eggplant. Soil sterilisation, the use of grafted, I resistant varieties, ensuring , that : plants do not receive growth checks, and avoidance of I over watering; are all measures which will he p to avoid infection.

Could you please identify the disease that appeared on the leaves of my Golden Delicious apple tree about a w'eek ago? The tree is carrying a good crop of apples. Now approximately 25 per cent of the leaves are affected and are falling off. E. V. (Chch) lit has not been possible to identify the cause of the leaf discolouration nor the reason ; for dropping. It may I be a nutritional problem, pos- ;

sibly linked with dryness at the roots. Further information and examination/testing may reveal the answer.

I would be grateful if you could identify the two weeds which are growing in my lawn and how to remove them. The lawn was totally resown in August last year. A. C. (Chch).

Both weeds had started to rot by the time they were received, which has reduced identification to a guessing game: they are possibly a vebonica and a clover. The most effective treatment in view of the probable presence of clover would be a camba plus 2,4-D combination. Newly ■ sown lawns should . not be expected to come up weed free, particularly if unsterilised soil from elsewhere has been added. Could you identify the enclosed pink beans which I have grown for the past 30 years? I have only ever seen them grown in one other garden here in Ashburton. A point regarding blueberries may be of interest to you. They grow wild in the Scottish moss, which also supplied our annual fuel, namely peat. Tasty jam was made from the berries, but the small seeds did not make it entirely popular with dentured folk. Today, commercially grown blueberries will probably be much larger. I wonder whether cranberries are much grown locally. I made ; jelly last year from a prolific crop from a bush in my : garden. I remember a prostrate plant in Aberdeenshire from which we used to gather cranberries. J. I. (Ashburton).

! Thanks for your interesting letter which has several items which could have general appeal and" I have; taken the liberty to comment on-i The pink russeted bean is cohsid-

ered to be an Italian variety called Verlotta which is popular in dried form. The context of your other queries and comments clearly illustrate the pitfalls of colloquialism with regards to the use of common names. At least two different genera and several species | are commonly referred to as either cranberry or blueberry, hence the virtues of applying the botanical or Latin names by [Which means j universal identification is readily achieved. The shrub widely sold and! grown in New Zealand as cranberry is Ugni motinae, not a cranberry at all but nevertheless a reliable and generally heavy ' cropping edible-ber-ried! plant, pleasantly aromatic iboth in flower and fruit. The cranberry I alluded to from the Scottish moors is probably Vaccinium oxycoccus! and the blueberry may be V. myrtillusi V. macrocarpon is the recognised cranberry of American renown, while the equally celebrated blueberry is grown commercially as forms of high and low bush species. Gardeners’ Queries should be sent directly toiMr Mike Lusty, 56 Wayside Avenue, Christchurch 5. j Samples should be separately wrapped in a plastic bag with air holes. Provide representative, good-sized samples, and your {name and address. A nom-de-plume can be used for publication.