A Greener View by Jeff Rugg

Q: Some of our vegetables are beginning to rot while they are still on the plant. How can we prevent this?

A: Extremes in moisture, especially in the spring, can cause a number of disease problems in garden vegetables, but your problem is probably an environmental one instead of a disease. It is called blossom-end rot — the result of the plant's inability to have a continuous supply of calcium.

The plant's calcium intake is regulated by the amount of moisture in the soil. Going from too much to too little causes the problem. The end of the fruit, opposite the stem, develops a water-soaked area that becomes sunken, brown to black and leathery.

Usually, only the first crop of fruit is affected. Remove the fruit and keep the garden watered evenly so that the soil does not go through the wet-dry extremes. It can be a problem on tomatoes, peppers, squash and watermelons.

Q: I planted peach trees a couple of years ago. They are finally looking like they might have some fruit that I can keep, but I am worried that they have a problem. The leaves are starting to curl up and are getting quite lumpy, for lack of a better term. Is there a cure for this? Will it affect the fruit?

A: Hopefully, you only have this on a few leaves. It is the fungal disease known as peach leaf curl, which can be severe when the leaves expand during cool, wet weather. The leaves become puckered and deformed and often turn red or other colors. The leaves will fall off and new ones will come out that are normal-looking.

Stems and fruit can be infected, too. They also have swollen, distorted shapes and colors. Over the years, continued infections will weaken the tree.

This fungus hides in the leaf buds over the winter and infects the new leaves as they develop. Fungicide sprays are effective only during the fall, winter and early spring before the new leaves begin growing.

You will have to wait until this fall to spray, but in the meantime, you can remove all the infected parts as they fall off the tree. If the tree only has a few infected branches, prune them. But if it is all over the tree, just pick up the stuff that drops and spray when it is dormant.

Q: I heard you say that using a weed barrier cloth is a good way to keep weeds out of a vegetable garden. How should I do this with seeds?

A: A weed barrier cloth is a great way to keep the weeds under control in any garden. It is definitely easier to plant seedlings into holes cut into the cloth compared to plant seeds. If the seeds are planted in a long row, you can make a slit or cut small holes to drop the seeds through. The sprouting seeds may have a hard time finding their way up through the small holes. Since the material usually comes in rolls, you may be able to space the garden plants so that the row of seeds are planted between the rolls.

The material often comes with a 20- or 30-year warranty. To last that long, it needs to be buried under some mulch to prevent UV rays from breaking it down. In the long run as organic mulches decay, they form a new soil layer on top of the cloth, which will eventually support weed growth on top of the cloth. In a vegetable garden, it is still a good idea to add organic mulch on top of the cloth. Then at the end of the growing season, dump the organic matter on the garden and roll up the cloth.

E-mail questions to Jeff Rugg, University of Illinois Extension at jrugg@illinois.edu. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM