I am experiencing various disease problems but only in my containers, most of which are 40-quart self-watering containers (I have a few smaller traditional pots watered the old fashioned way).
I'm particularly worried about the Black Cherry. Leaves on a few branches have browned up/dried out at the leaf at the end of the branch, and then moved up the leaves of the whole branch, where it seems to sever from the main stem. This happened to the same variety last year, but toward the end of the season, not this early in the season in the Northeast, and after I had already gotten a phenomenal yield. This one is in a self-watering container (where 2 were planted), but last year this variety succumbed to the same thing in a traditional planter, and in the ground. Other varieties did not experience this condition in my garden. It doesn't look like fusarium (which I've dealt with before) or verticillium, early or late blight, and there aren't lesions, and no specks or spots. It's almost like a giant version of Carolyn's aptly named CRUD. I use Serenade and Messenger, and this year I started using a foliar fish emulsion - I've only used it once so far - to supplement on nutrition. Any ideas?
In another container, I also think an Evergreen is showing signs of potassium deficiency with the veins starting to get purple. Hopefully the fish emulsion will help that.
All the plants that are in the ground are healthy so far, knock on wood. I had a good season last year, which was the first time I used the Messenger-Serenade combo, with only one container plant getting really sick right away (Aunt Gertie's Gold).
Please let me know if you have any thoughts.
Robbin
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