growers know
ROOTS
“Among the other issues to check
for are tracks on the soil, bite marks on
leaves, chemical residue or honeydew,
egg masses, frass, or other signs of a pest.”
• roots are too close to soil surface
• roots are dark colored or limp
• swollen or galled
❯ lumps or bumps
• root bound
❯ too many roots at edge of pot
• root girdling
SOIL
• white crust on soil
• mold or moss on soil
• mushrooms on soil
• surface is always wet,
• significant number of insects
❯ know beneficial versus pest
• cannot locate fibrous roots
• pulling away from
the edge of the pot
• is there enough mulch on soil
• soil is very hard
❯ water penetration is poor
FRUITS
• scabs of surface of fruit skin
• spots/markings on skin
• too small
• cracking
• visible insects
• rotting or discoloring on tip
• holes
• too few fruit or new fruit
drops off
• nearing harvest
• time to harvest
134
grow cycle
Make it a point to walk through your garden routinely to take
a look at how everything is doing. Do any plants stand out?
Are some doing better than the others or perhaps considerably
worse? Notice whether some whole sections of your garden
are faring differently than others. When you see these things,
you’ll want to know why. Discovering the reason could be
the beginning of correcting a watering, drainage, or lighting
problem. Maybe making improvements to the other areas will
help them catch up with that area doing the best. Doing these
check-ups every week or two, depending on your available
time, is vital for maximum crop yield. Making seasonal
inspections based on the type of crop or plant and comparing
observations to what is anticipated during that time of year
can also be very helpful. Catching that problem that only
shows up at a certain time of year before it gets out of control
is a real money saver.
The troubleshooting and steps for correcting
the various symptoms that you may find
when doing a plant checkup are beyond
the scope of this article. Click on this QR
code to review the reference articles for
this piece as some will contain partial
information on correction.