The commonest vegetable diseases include early and late blight (ekibabuko), powderly and downy mildew, bacterial specks and yellow leaf curl.
Control
Avoid an environment that favours fungal diseases by avoiding stagnant water on the leaves, avoiding weeds in the garden they can become alternate hosts, remove diseased leaves that have fallen the ground.
- Conduct regular scouting in the garden to check for signs of disease.
- Do preventive sprays of preventive fungicides, namely, Mancozeb and copper based fungicides
- Preventive sprays should be done at least twice a week in a dry season and thrice in a wet season
Incase of manifestation of disease curative fungicides should be used e.g Ridomil, tatamaster or emexyl they all have the same active ingredient like mancozeb and metalaxyl. These can be got from certified dealers around the country.
Curative fungicides can prevent, cure eradicate diseases
About 70g of preventive fungicides in 20 litres of water should be Ideal dosage for control of the disease, whereas for curative fungicides 50g in 20 litres of water is ideal.
Common pests
Mites, thrips, aphids, whiteflies. They are commonly sucking insects
They suck sap out of the leaves, causing leaves to lose the photosynthetic potential because of loss of the green colour.
Some like thrips feed on the flowers causing flower abortions
They also feed on the fruits, hence affecting the market quality of the fruits.
Control
Regular scouting for pests is a must. Destroying alternative hosts like weeds from the field.
Conducting insecticidal sprays. Recommended pesticides include Durban, larva, tarfgor, cypermethrin, rocket, fenenvalate and malataf. Costs start from sh15,000, depending on the quantity.
