Prevention, Protection and Using Natural Plant Disease Treatments

In today’s article we will be following on from the previous post, 5 Common Plant Diseases in your Garden and discussing Natural Plant Disease Treatments and what Prevention Methods are available along with a few extra steps that you could take to change the way your garden grows.

Prevention is Protection

When it comes to defending your plants against vigorous diseases, the prevention methods you put in place could make all the difference when open season hits. Ensuring that you have a good understanding of general gardening and a prevention strategy checklist to help guide you will double the chances of your plants surviving the next pathogen (or non-pathogen) apocalypse.

  • When it’s time for plant placement, allow enough space for the plant to grow and become mature a few years down the track, also ensuring your plants have a good amount of air circulation will stop many fungal diseases.
  • Research and understand the plant’s growing requirements and preferred environment.
  • Any plants that become infected with a highly contagious and fast spreading disease, needs to be removed and disposed of correctly. Do not put the infected plant or foliage in the compost or mulch.
  • Practise Garden Hygiene, proper cleaning of tools and correct storage of Chemicals & Products that will help prevent the spread of diseases.
  • Try using Natural Plant Disease Treatments over chemicals as a first treatment option.
  • Try avoiding working in the garden when plants are wet, also reducing the amount of watering at night and increasing the early morning or afternoon waters will allow enough time for the foliage to dry before temperatures cool down.
  • When watering your plants, remember to go by the infrequent deep watering method at the base of the plant opposed to frequent shallow over-head watering.

Natural Plant Diseases Treatments

Leaf Spot – There is no actual treatment or product available to eradicate the Bacteria or Fungi that hosted the disease. However, there are organic preventive methods available to help stop the spread. To further prevent the disease from contaminating more plants, cut off the infected leaves or stems and place in the bin. Don’t allow infected matter to compost around the base of the plant or break down in the mulch. Applying Cooper-based Fungicides will help contain the disease until you have picked the plant clean or removed it from your garden.

Sooty Mould – This disease is actually caused by sap-sucking pests such as Aphids, Scale and Mealybugs. The pests excrete a sticky substance called Honeydew that the mould is able to grow off. Applying prevention methods to the cause of the disease (in this case, the cause is sap-sucking pests) will see the Sooty Mould dry up and flake off as there is no more honeydew present from the pests.

Powdery Mildew – This contagious disease is caused by environmental factors and is able to spread via it’s spore being transmitted in the winds or poor cleaning of garden tools. Humidity, moisture and shade are 3 big contributing factors. Treating Powdery Mildew is as simple as combing 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda, half a teaspoon of Liquid Soap and one litre of water to create a powerful weapon to spray liberally on the plants. This can also be used as a great prevention method.

Root Rot – The best remedy for this disease is prevention. Keeping any eye on how frequent you water the plant and how the soil is draining will help eliminate many factors. If you are not able to identify which fungus is causing the Root Rot, calling in a Horticulturalist would be the best step. They can recommend a product to treat that specific fungus.

Frangipani Rust – Environment factors are the biggest cause of Frangipani Rust. Apart from having no real plant-threatening infection, it can be unattractive to have on your pretty plant. The rust spores are able to spread from plant to plant via foliage, water and wind. Stopping any over-head watering and disposing of infected matter on and around the plant will help contain the rust along allowing the plant to simply grow-out the disease.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s article on Natural Plant Disease Treatments and find the information useful. As always, please read all safety labels, follow product application instructions and wear the correct PPE.

Happy Gardening,
Katanah and the Landscape Solutions Team