Do you have healthy looking tomato plants with no fruit? Temperatures below 55°F or above 90°F can cause tomato flowers to fall off or fail to set fruit; too much shade can also result in no fruit. Lush dark green abundant leaves with no flowers may be a result of too much nitrogen. Good …
Warm days and cool nights are happening now. These are perfect conditions for powdery mildew to thrive in the garden. This common disease is easily recognized by the talcum-powder like appearance on new and old leaves, tender new shoots, some flowers, and fruits. It affects a huge range of plants – roses, crape myrtle, sycamore, …
Those leaves with the striking green and yellow marbled pattern you spy on the branch of your neighbor’s apple tree dangling over your fence may look like a cool new designer cultivar, but don’t be fooled. More than likely, it’s the result of a mosaic virus. Viruses cause many important plant diseases and are responsible …
With more than 70 inches of rainfall recorded on Mt. Tamalpais this season, the deluge may be more than some yards can handle. Did you experience torrents of water pouring off your roof and pooling around your treasured shade trees? Puddles spotting your lawn or ponding in your veggie garden? Why is too much of …
It may seem early in the season for mosquitos, but one of the wettest years in history has left standing water across the area, creating perfect conditions for these pesky insects to develop. Stagnant water creates havens for disease-spreading mosquitoes, and mosquito experts are concerned this could be a long and intense mosquito season. These …
Are your roses sporting new leaves that glisten in the sunlight and are slightly sticky to the touch? See a trail of ants crawling up the trunk of your plum tree? How about powdery black stuff on your camellia bush or the garden furniture next to it? All are indicators that sucking insects may have …
What happens when you combine mild weather, a rain that lasts for a day or two and rapidly growing plants fighting for space? Nature has provided perfect growing conditions for the disease rust. One of the most common fungal diseases of garden plants, there are thousands of different species of rust that infect trees, shrubs, …
As you drive through neighborhoods in mid-February, you may be delighted by the large trees clothed in puffy cloud looking blossoms of white. Common throughout Marin, ornamental pear trees, specifically ‘Bradford’ pears, put on a spectacular show. In the mid-1960’s landscapers and municipal planners planted lots of them – they grew fast, took any kind …
Weather so far this season has been really really cold, and of late, nice, and wet. Not a great time to be outside wording in the yard. It IS, however, a great time to do some much-needed primping of your indoor plants. If you keep your plants clean and neat, they’re not only more attractive, …
Along with the first rains of the season arrive, comes the potential for botrytis – a disease that can turn lush rose blooms into a brown, soggy mush. This wide-spread disease is also known as botrytis blight, bud rot, gray mold, wooly mold and when growing on grapes, the “noble rot” where it can either …
