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UC Marin Master Gardeners

Top 20 Edible Garden Problems

What Edible Gardens Need | Best Choices for Marin | Preparing | Planting & Spacing | Edibles in Containers | Planting Calendar | Grow & Care Sheets | Tips & Techniques |  Maintenance | Top 20 Problems in Edible Gardens | Fruit Trees | Cover Crops & Soil Enhancements | Conserving Water
Common Pests & Problems in Edible Gardens

Edible gardens are certainly not immune to pests and diseases. Pests can take out tender young plant shoots in one night, eat holes in mature leaves and fruit, and leave slimy tracks all over. 

The best way to treat pests is to prevent them:
• Plant disease resistant varieties or edibles that are relatively pest free
• Keep the garden clean 
• Maintain healthy soil 
• Provide habitat for natural enemies
• Monitor plants regularly for pests 
• Use an integrated pest management approach

Top 20 problems in edible gardens  

Got pests or other problems in your veggie garden and want to know how to manage them? Here are some of the common plant problems and pests in Marin. 

INSECTS, SPIDERS & MITES, SNAILS & SLUGS:
Button Aphids
Button Cucumber beetles
Button Cutworm
Button Earwig
Button Grub
leafminer
BUtton Snail
hornworm
whiteflies

Don't see your problem above? Here's more information about other types of  insects, mites, mollusks and nematodes.
 

DISEASES
damping off
downy mildew
Fusarium Wilt
Button Blight potato
mosaic viruses
Button Peach Leaf Curl
Button Powdery mildew
Button sooty mold
verticillium

Didn't find what you were looking for? Here is more information on other types of plant diseases.


OTHER PROBLEMS

Some garden problems aren't caused by pests or diseases, but by environmental or cultural problems including watering issues, nutrient imbalances and physical issues.

Blossom end rot
Button Chlorosis

 

> BACK TO EDIBLES
> What Edible Gardens Need
> Best Choices for Marin
> How to Prepare
> How to Plant
> Edibles in Containers
> Planting Calendar
> Grow & Care Sheets for Vegetables, Herbs & Fruits
> Tips & Techniques
> How to Maintain
> Fruit Trees
> Top 20 Edible Garden Problems
> Cover Crops & Soil Enhancements in the Off-season
> Conserving Water

•••••••••

Visit our EDIBLE DEMO GARDEN at IVC Organic Farm & Garden

 

hornworm
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Tomato Hornworm

Often the largest caterpillars seen in vegetable gardens – up to four inches long. Horn or thorn at rear end. Adult moths have wingspan up to five inches.CategoryInsectSigns/SymptomsHornworms feed on blossoms, leaves, and fruit. At high populations they can extensively defoliate plants and scar the fruit…
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whitefly
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Whitefly

Piercing, needle-like mouth parts suck sap from food-conducting tissues in plant stems and leaves. Like aphids, whiteflies excrete sugary liquid called honeydew, so leaves may be sticky or covered with black sooty mold. The honeydew attracts ants, which interferes with the activities of natural enemies that…
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yellowjacket
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Yellowjackets

Yellowjackets are one-half to one inch long with jagged bright yellow and black stripes. Their narrow “waists” are barely visible. Unlike other common wasps, yellowjackets scavenge on food. They nest in holes in the ground, inside wall cavities, or in hanging nests totally enclosed in gray paper with a…
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Ant
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Ants

In the Bay Area, the most frequently found ants populating our gardens and invading our homes are Argentine ants. Argentine ants are small (1/8”), and their queens are slightly larger. Their bodies are constricted, giving them an appearance of a thin waist, which distinguishes them from termites. …
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Aphids
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Aphids

 Small insects that suck fluids out of stems, leaves, and other tender plant parts. Soft pear-shaped bodies with long legs and antennae and may be green, yellow, brown, red, or black. A few species appear waxy or woolly due to the secretion of a waxy white or gray substance over their body surface…
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Cucumber beetle
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Cucumber Beetles

Common vegetable garden pest that also attacks ripening stone fruit. Adult beetles are shiny with black heads, long antennae, and about one-quarter inch long. Striped or spotted depending on species. Larvae are whitish and slender with three pairs of short legs; the head and tip of the abdomen are darker…
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cutworm
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Cutworms

 Cutworms are dull brown caterpillars one to two inches long when fully grown. They curl into a C-shape when disturbed. Some clip off seedling stems, while others chew or bore holes. CategoryInsectSigns/SymptomsCutworms feed on blossoms and leaves of many ornamental plants and attack most edible…
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Earwig
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Earwigs

 Earwigs can devastate seedling vegetables or annual flowers and often seriously damage maturing soft fruit or corn silks.  They also have a beneficial role in the landscape and have been shown to be important predators of aphids. Although several species occur, the most common in California…
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Grub
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Grubs

 Masked chafers are also called white grubs. They are beetle larvae, white with brown head, up to one inch long with bristles on underside. Produce one generation each year and overwinter as mature larvae. In spring and early summer, they pupate three to six inches deep in the soil.CategoryInsectSigns…
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Leafminer
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Leafminer

Leafminer larvae attack many vegetables and ornamentals. Male and female flies pierce leaves and suck sap. Female lays eggs between the leaf layers. When the larva hatches, it uses its mouth parts to rupture plant cells, weaving trails through the leaf. These trails are called mines.CategoryInsectSigns…
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