Physiopathies in the garden

 We often find that one of our crops or plants, whether indoors or arranged in the garden, has a problem that we cannot diagnose first-hand. Is it a plague or a disease? Well no, sometimes it is due to mistakes that we can make when maintaining the crop. They are known as physiopathies . Do you want to know them?

IT IS NEITHER A PLAGUE NOR A DISEASE, SO WHAT HAPPENS TO MY PLANT?

THE CRACKING OF THE FRUIT

This is a physiopathy that occurs in many fruits such as tomatoes or peppers. It happens that when the fruit is in the process of maturation, a kind of scar or crack appears that arises from the calyx and extends throughout the vegetable. This is a problem in terms of its commercialization (we have the automatic ability to discard an imperfect product in the supermarket through sight, even if its taste is extraordinary later).

Causes: the skin of the fruit grows at the same speed as its interior, which is known as the pulp, and as in the case of human skin, it has a limit of elasticity. A fruit that receives an extra stimulus such as an increase in temperature or extra irrigation causes the fruit to grow beyond the possibilities of the skin, which is why cracking of the fruit is formed, similar to stretch marks on human skin.

 

APICAL NECROSIS OR BLOSSOM-END ROT

This is a serious problem that can occur in plants such as aubergine, tomato or pepper. During the growth of the fruit and its maturation, a lesion appears that turns black and necrotic . This blossom end rot is often confused with some type of fungal disease, although the origins are different.

Causes: it is a physiological disorder associated with a low concentration of calcium in the fruit. When a plant supports several fruits and is not able to provide enough calcium to each one, tissue damage occurs, usually due to a soil structure that does not allow the mobilization of this mineral, drought stress, or frequent variations in soil moisture. All these examples are not the source of the problem directly, but rather they cause calcium deficiency in the plant. That is, even if there is a drought stress, apical necrosis will not originate if the calcium levels are adequate.

ROOT ASPHYXIA, ONE OF THE MOST COMMON PHYSIOPATHIES

Root asphyxia is closely linked to excess humidity when watering our crops in the garden. With this we favor the rotting of the roots and the death of the plant. There are a series of guidelines to discover this type of physiopathies , such as a generalized growth arrest, chlorosis of the leaves or their defoliation and future fruit drop.

Causes: there is no external factor other than the accumulation of water in the soil. The amount of water with which we irrigate influences but is not decisive, since it may be the case that we water normally but our soil, having a terrible drainage, is not capable of infiltrating the water and therefore causes rot. Therefore the main cause is poor soil drainage and the solution is simple, improve it. These pathogens related to garden management are easy to fix if we are careful. 😉

 FRUIT ABORTION (ABSCISSION)

The abortion or abscission of the fruits is a physiopathy that causes, to a greater or lesser degree, the fall of flowers and fruits.

Causes: it can have various origins. One of them is the tree’s own thinning mechanism when it is too loaded with fruit. Another origin is due to a bad compensation of the nutrients in the crop due to a bad fertilizer or a bad performance in irrigation.

SUNSHINE OR SUNNY BLOW

When the fruit reaches maturity just before being harvested, it is at its most vulnerable point. It is a very visible physiopathy on the skin of the fruit, in which a brown spot appears that evolves unfavorably over time, even though it has been harvested.

Causes: When it is exposed to direct solar radiation or by high temperatures just before its harvest, when the fruit flesh is more tender. There are some ways to try to alleviate the problem, one of them would be to control the foliar density in the case of the tree, avoiding excessive pruning or water stress, which aggravates the problem.

FRUIT MALFORMATION

This physiopathy has a specific nature in some crops, such as zucchini sucking , and although the problem has previously been attributed to the treatment by hormones that is carried out on the crop for its fertilization, there is also an environmental component related to water stress .

Causes: It may be due to two factors, either a lack of moisture in the soil and therefore water stress, or, on the contrary, an excess of environmental humidity. In addition there are also situations that can cause the malformation of the fruit, such as the wind. A dry wind causes a problem in the development of the crop that is reflected in the fruits. All these problems cause the plant to close its stomata and avoid fully carrying out its photosynthetic activity.

WE HAVE MANY MORE TO PUT …

There are many more problems that we can attribute to diseases, viruses or pests that then really have nothing to do with it, and they are about this type of physiopathies . Unfortunately there are many more. Little by little we will comment on it in the way we have done in this article. Greetings agromatics!

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