The Master Gardener’s Bookshelf
The Vegetable Garden Problem Solving Handbook: Identify and Manage Diseases and Other Common Problems on Edible Plants by Susan Mulvihill
Review by Susan Wilhelm, Extension Master Gardener
If you follow “Between the Rows,” the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia’s monthly guide to vegetable gardening, you know that July’s to-do list “includes visually checking plants daily for early signs of plant disease.” However, once you find something on your plants, how do you determine the cause and what to do about it? One solution is to consult Susan Mulvihill’s The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver Handbook: Identify and Manage Diseases and Other Common Problems on Edible Plants (Cool Springs Press, 2023). This user-friendly guide explains “how to nurture your plants so they will produce well and be less likely to have problems, how to deal with the challenges Mother Nature throws our way, and the disorders that can affect our plants even when diseases aren’t to blame.”
The Vegetable Garden Problem Solving Handbook starts with basic strategies for getting plants off to a good start. These include planting at the right time and spacing plants to enable good air flow, ensuring plants receive enough sunlight, and watering correctly. Mulvihill then identifies some common problems, for example, weather-related conditions such as hot temperatures, and solutions for addressing them. And while pests are not the primary focus of the book, she also includes a table of the ten most common garden bugs, what they (and the damage they produce) look like, their favorite plants, and how to manage them.
Next Mulvihill discusses three broad categories of potential plant problems: physiological disorders, plant diseases, and critters—animals we might not mind in other settings but do not want to see in our gardens.
Physiological disorders are caused by environmental conditions or cultural issues (not diseases), and result in things like bitter tasting fruit, misshapen fruit, and sunscald. For each disorder, Mulvihill describes the problem, its causes with clear photos of what it looks like, the crops most impacted, and strategies for addressing it. For instance, blossom end rot, the soft, brown spots that appear at the blossom end of tomatoes and zucchinis, occurs when plants cannot access calcium in the soil, most often due to uneven watering. Strategies for addressing it include watering more consistently, mulching to preserve soil moisture, and avoiding overuse of high-nitrogen fertilizers.
Mulvihill starts her discussion of vegetable diseases by explaining the three main types of diseases (bacterial, fungal, and viral), how they impact plants, and the signs and symptoms of each. What gardeners will turn to repeatedly, though, is the Vegetable Crop and Potential Disease chart which Mulvihill accurately describes as “one of the most useful tools for identifying the diseases you might encounter.”
The Vegetable Crop and Potential Disease chart lists the most encountered vegetable plant diseases in alphabetical order, with the plant family name, a description of what problems or damage the gardener might see, and a disease that might be a potential cause. Each entry is cross-referenced to disease profiles, also in alphabetical order, which describe the disease, its causes with high-resolution photos of what it looks like, the crops most impacted, and organic strategies for addressing it. The strategies for addressing the problem are cross-referenced to other pages with more detailed explanations of their function and use.
Mulvihill takes the same thorough approach to critters in the garden as she does other problems. In addition to general information, she profiles common animals that can create havoc in the garden including my personal nemesis—chipmunks. Each profile describes the animal with photos, signs of its activity, its favorite plants, and strategies for preventing or lessening the damage the animal can cause.
The Vegetable Gardener Problem Solver Handbook won an American Horticultural Society 2024 Book Award. It is available from the Alexandria Public Library, the Arlington Public Library, and national booksellers.
Need help or want to learn more about identifying and addressing plant problems? Check out these Master Gardener of Northern Virginia resources: