The practical library
Find crop guides, planting calendars, seed-starting help, soil guidance, pest diagnosis, harvesting information, and practical seed-saving instructions.
The complete article library
Search The Yaupon Tea without mixing the results with seed products.
8 articles in this topic
Corn symptoms must be read by plant part and growth stage. Leaf lesions, rust pustules, ear molds, smut galls, stalk breakage, nutrient striping, herbicide injury, drought firing, and insect wounds can overlap. Open ears and split stalks when necessary rather than diagnosing from one distant photograph.
Tomato leaf curl is a symptom, not one disease. Compare which leaves curl, color, distortion, plant vigor, weather, insects, and neighboring plants before acting.
Early blight often begins on older leaves with target-like lesions; late blight can spread rapidly with water-soaked lesions under cool wet conditions. Submit uncertain cases because management and regional risk differ.
Powdery mildew forms superficial white fungal growth, but natural leaf markings, residue, downy mildew, and spray deposits can look similar. Confirm the pattern, improve airflow, and use crop-labeled controls only when needed.
Begin with the damaged plant part and pattern across the planting. Holes, mines, skeletonizing, wilt, tunneling, root pruning, flower injury, and fruit feeding each narrow the suspect list.
Squash bugs feed on leaves and stems from the outside; vine borer larvae tunnel inside stems. Look for eggs, frass, stem entry, wilting pattern, and crop species before choosing control.
Confirm live aphids and damage before treating. Lady beetles, lacewings, hoverfly larvae, parasitoid wasps, and weather often reduce colonies; protect those natural enemies.
Identify host plant, feeding pattern, body markings, and life stage before removing a caterpillar. Some damage food crops heavily; others belong to valued native butterflies or moths.
