Pests and diseases of turnips and the fight against them with chemicals and folk remedies, how to treat them and how to protect them

The reason for the wilting of turnips and other cruciferous crops is often the attack of harmful fungi and insects. Unfortunately, turnip pests are a fairly common problem in summer cottages. Under favorable conditions, they can damage plants and even destroy the entire crop. What diseases affect cruciferous crops and how to fight them? First things first.

Turnip pests and their control

Turnips are a cruciferous crop that is famous for its tasty and juicy root vegetables. Unfortunately, not only people, but also harmful insects prefer to feast on them.

To protect the garden, it is important to pay attention to the condition of the plants and take effective measures if any living creatures are found on them. Below is a list of insects that often attack turnips and other cruciferous plants.

Cabbage butterfly

It is a yellowish-white butterfly with black dots on its wings. An adult does not cause much harm to turnips. More often than not, it is the larvae that cause problems for the gardener. At one time, cabbageweed can lay from 300 to 600 eggs on turnip leaves. Under favorable conditions, after 10-14 days they turn into voracious caterpillars that destroy plants, eating away the juicy pulp of young leaves.

In order to preserve the harvest, it is necessary to combine several methods of treating the area from cabbage:

1. Mechanical (collecting tracks manually).
2. Biological (attracting birds that eat pests).
3. Chemical (spraying with insecticides and biological preparations).

Cruciferous flea beetles

If the turnip foliage has acquired a lacy appearance, it means that the plant has been attacked by cruciferous flea beetles. Black jumping bugs belong to the leaf beetle family and attack all cruciferous plants - turnips, cabbage, rutabaga.

At the end of spring, insects finish wintering under the remains of fallen leaves and go outside to feed. Their activity peaks on sunny and hot days. At this time, flea beetles eat the foliage of cultivated plants especially intensively and are capable of destroying a large amount of crops.

It is better to destroy the bugs with harmless insecticides (Bankol or Actellik) or using folk remedies. The most effective and common folk methods:

1. Spraying with tobacco solution. To do this, take 100 grams of shag and pour 5 liters of boiled water. After cooling, add 50 grams of grated soap to the solution. Turnip leaves are sprayed with a spray bottle after each watering.
2. Spraying with vinegar solution. 200 grams of vinegar are diluted with 10 liters of cool water. The leaves are sprayed with a spray bottle.

Turnip white

In appearance, the insect is similar to cabbage grass, but is smaller in size. Caterpillars that emerge from eggs and feed on tops or roots are considered harmful, which is extremely dangerous for turnips planted not only in a greenhouse, but also in open ground. The caterpillars are greenish-blue in color and have characteristic black dots all over their bodies.

Pests adapt to any weather conditions, and their life span is 20-30 days. This is enough to cause significant damage to the crop. To destroy harmful insects use:

1. Onion infusion. A liter container is filled with onion peels, poured with boiling water and infused for 3-5 days. Afterwards, half of the grated soap is added to the infusion and the damaged plant is sprayed.
2. Ordinary wasps cope well with turnip white larvae. To attract the salvation army, you need to spray the turnip beds with sweet water and wait until Mother Nature deals with the disease on her own.

Spring cabbage fly

One of the most dangerous pests that damages the main part of the plant is the root. The spring cabbage fly is similar to the common house fly, but the former has a characteristic stripe along the abdominal cavity and is lighter in color.

Insects appear in early May and actively reproduce on the leaves of the plant and in the upper layers of the soil. The danger comes from their small larvae, which feed on the roots of young turnips, destroying the crop in the shortest possible time.

To prevent insect attacks, it is necessary to take preventive measures by digging up the soil as early as the beginning of May. In this case, the larvae living in the soil will die. If small white caterpillars are found on the leaves, you need to treat the leaves with insecticides. Experienced gardeners consider Topaz, Rovikurt and Karbofoz ampoules to be the best remedies.

Summer cabbage fly

The summer fly appears in June-July and is a direct descendant of the spring fly. However, the first generation is more tenacious, voracious and dangerous. Therefore, if the spring attack bypassed the garden, then less aggressive control methods can be used for summer pests. For example, folk remedies. Turnip leaves can be sprayed:

1. Tobacco solution.
2. Burdock solution (1 kilogram of crushed burdock leaves is poured with 5 liters of boiling water, left for 24 hours and half of the grated soap is added).
3. Copper sulfate (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water).

Stem nematode

Small transparent nematode worms parasitize any part of the plant. A factor contributing to the active development and reproduction of the parasite is increased soil moisture and rotting in the garden. Pests affect not only cruciferous plants, but also berry bushes and greens.

It is difficult to fight them, since small worms are sometimes elusive to the human eye. However, their presence can still be noticed by certain signs:

1. Slow plant germination.
2. Sprouts, fruits and leaves are deformed and have an unhealthy appearance.
3. Yellow spots appear on the leaves.

The stem nematode is destroyed by treatment with aggressive poisons - BI-58 or Ruskamin.

Wireworms or click beetles

Females click beetles They are particularly fertile and lay a large number of eggs. They hatch into larvae called wireworms. They pose a great threat to the health of turnips.

The body of wireworms is worm-shaped and has a brown color. The larvae feed on the turnip pulp and gnaw through it from different sides. Living in the ground, the pest does not disdain other parts of the plant - stems and roots. In some cases, the click beetle larva destroys the entire crop even before the first shoots appear.

When planning agrotechnical measures to combat the pest, you need to follow the main rules - deep plowing in the fall and destruction of weeds. If insects do appear on turnips, treatment with insecticides is necessary in accordance with the instructions. Effective chemicals against wireworms - Tabu, Prestige and Aktara.

Cutworm

Cutworms are polyphagous pests similar to moths. There are about 100 species of these insects, but the most dangerous for the garden is the cutworm. Cutworm caterpillars appear in the spring and cause significant damage to the turnip crop. They completely eat the leaves, as well as the pulp of the fruit, gnawing deep holes in it.

To eliminate pests, gardeners often resort to the help of their natural enemies - frogs, wasps and sparrows. If they were unable to completely rid the garden of cutworms, they will have to use more reliable weapons - insecticides.

However, do not forget that it is important to spray at least a month before harvest. Otherwise, toxic substances that can harm human health remain on the plant.

Cabbage scoop

Another harmful representative of the noctuid species. Despite the name, the pest eats more than just cabbage leaves. Gluttonous larvae are not averse to feasting on fresh turnip leaves and even its pulp. Methods of pest control are standard - weeding, insecticides (for example, Eurodim or Akiba), ethnomophages (frogs, wasps, birds).

How to prevent pests

The most effective method of pest control is to prevent their occurrence. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the condition of the plantings and take some preventive actions:

1. Dig up the soil in the spring so that any harmful insects overwintering in it die.
2. Promptly combat weeds that attract cabbage butterflies or cutworms to the garden.
3. Apply mineral fertilizers.
4. In the immediate vicinity of the turnips you need to plant wormwood, celery or marigolds. Their smell repels insects.
5. The ridges are mulched with coarse wood chips or covered with dark non-woven material so that flying pests cannot lay eggs on the leaves of the plants.

Turnip diseases and their control

In addition to being attacked by voracious insects, turnips and other cruciferous vegetables are attacked by fungi and harmful microorganisms. The most common diseases are:

White rot

Appears during the growing season or at high humidity during storage. A fluffy white coating forms on the turnip, which causes rotting of the fruit. To combat white rot, it is necessary to follow the rules of watering, as well as cut off the infected areas.

Gray rot

The cause of infection is rotting due to high humidity or poor garden hygiene. The fungus is dark gray in color and multiplies in plant debris.To protect turnips from gray rot, it is necessary to store root vegetables in a dry place and not overdo it with watering.

Blackleg

It affects young seedlings not only of turnips, but also of other crops. When the disease occurs, the root collar of the plant softens and turns black, and the stem becomes thinner, forming a characteristic constriction. The development of the disease is facilitated by high air and soil humidity and the presence of a large amount of plant debris.

To get rid of the disease, you need to disinfect the soil with bleach. Thickening of seedlings and soil compaction should not be allowed.

Downy mildew

Affects leaves and roots. Yellow oily spots form on the upper side of the leaves, which grow and cause the death of seedlings. The development of the disease is favored by prolonged heavy rainfall.

The infection persists on seeds and plant debris (which is why they must be burned). An effective method of control is heating the seeds in hot (48-50 °C) water for 20 minutes, followed by cooling in cold water and drying.

Powdery mildew of cruciferous vegetables

The fungal infection is spread by insects and wind. The first symptom of the appearance of dew is a powdery white coating on the leaves, petioles or shoots of the plant. The fungus attacks during sharp fluctuations in air temperature, as well as if the gardener applies too large doses of nitrogen fertilizers, which reduces the turnip's immunity to harmful microorganisms.

The disease is treated with fungicides, which are sold in specialized stores. The best of them are Skor, Previkur, Switch, Vectra.