Various Diseases/Pests!

Hi all,

Thanks to all the great advice I've read on here, our tiny back yard is now full of mostly productive veg plants, despite our total lack of growing experience.

I'm now having a few disease/pest issues though that I could do with some advice on. And I know, I know - try to grow disease resistant strains next year!

First up, the runner beans:

These were overrun with what I think were Blackfly. I sprayed them everyday for about a week with washing up liquid solution which seems to have got rid of the bugs. Will the plants recover?

Next the strawberries:

Any ideas what's going on here? I don't think it's slugs, not seen any or trails. These plants were producing loads of fruit, starting very early because of the good weather we had around Easter, but now seem to have given up the ghost a bit

Finally, the tomatoes:
Yet to get any fruit of these, though there are flowers near the top of the plants. But the leaves are turning yellow/brown and drying up working up from the bottom of the plant. Can't see any stem damage, only leaves. I read that it could be some kind of soil based fungus, but these are planted in a self watering container (watered through a spout) and the soil is covered with black plastic to retain moisture. So there is little chance of splashback off soil.

If anyone has some tips I'd be most grateful. I'm trying to remain organic if possible, but I guess that will depend on what's going on here!

 

1/ Runner beans, too much spraying with chemicals, washing up liquid contains bleach.
2/ Strawberries, I would say scorch, nothing to worry about.
3/ Tomatoes, they are older leaves so remove.
Don`t overwater though.

 

Thanks for the response. Hopefully the runner beans will be ok - a lot of leaves and flowers were lost to the flys - they just fell off. I read quite a few places about washing up liquid prior to spraying. Was that a bad idea then?

With the strawbs, would scorch definitely affect the output? Been a definite drop off in size and amount of fruit.

 

MrJ, don`t tell anyone you are using washing up liquid as an insecticide, it is illegal, The flowers didn`t drop off because of the flies, but probably because they weren`t pollinated. Scorch will not affect the output of strawberries, you have to remember we are coming to the end of the Strawberry season now.

 

Hi Mr J,

The strawberries never do brilliant in the first year, and what with the drought & cold weather so far this year, mine haven't done too well.

They'll give a better crop next year.

Problem with the beans seems to be they are growing sideways:WINK1:

 

Ziggy, that is where lateral thinking comes in.:WINK1::WINK1:

 

First thoughts on looking at the pics.

The runners seem to be in a grow bag?
The spraying has probably not helped, but they look starved to me, also the tomatoes look very underfed.

The strawberries have obviously been chewed by some thing or other, but not enough to cause any real problem.

 

Oops! I would never have guessed this. They are in a container (large window box trough type thing) though, so there won't be any seepage into any wider area!... honest officer! :D

I hope you're right about the flower drop - just the the bugs were usually inside the flowers so just assumed they had been eating them!

@Pete - I will give everything a good feed. Do you think this accounts for the colour of the Tom' leaves then, or is this something you've noticed besides the problem I posted about originally?