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Pests & Diseases
Home page of the pest, disease and weed department.
Every week something is attacking your plants. Check them out and be prepared to deal with the situation.
Identify the weeds giving you trouble and learn how to deal with them.
Simple search facility to help track down whatever is bugging you.
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Name search.
Use the search box on the left if you know the name of the pest you are looking for. The first result will load into the panel below and any other matches are listed in the right-hand panel. Only common names loaded at present.
Symptom search.
Result will be displayed below. Please scroll down to view.
If you have a sick plant with no obvious cause present, use the search box on the right entering one or two words describing the problem. Simple phrases like 'leaves eaten' or single keywords like 'yellow' work best. As with the name search, matches are listed in the right column and displayed in the panel below.
Search Results.
1 results found.
Dandelion
- Pest type - Weed
- Infects - Non-specific,
- Host plants-
- Symptoms- NULL:
This is such a lovely flower it is a real pity it refuses to grow in nice straight rows. Quick to establish in the worst possible growing conditions it never needs any water, seems resistant to all common garden pests and flowers continually.
This weed has a deep tap-root making hand-weeding pretty well impossible. A fork or daisy grubber can help to remove stubborn plants from the borders but usually the root breaks. The broken root will re-shoot and be flowering within a week or so. Any that refuse to leave will require spraying with a contact weed-killer. As always, follow the instructions issued by the manufacturer.
Dandelions are at their worst when they get established in the lawn. Here they not only look untidy but spoil the grass. The rosette of leaves spread flat on top of the grass and press themselves down below the level of the lawnmower where they are safe, suffocating the turf in the process. Good lawns don't have dandelions though as the annual lawn treatments should eliminate all traces of them.
Dandelions are useful
It may come as a surprise to you to discover that the dandelion is a very useful plant with many uses. All parts of the plant are edible so I will start at the bottom and work upwards.
Roots.
If starvation threatens, these can be cooked like any other root vegetable though a bit fiddly. However, when roasted, ground and percolated they will produce a decent cup of "coffee".
Leaves.
The leaves can be used raw like any other salad green and provide an alterative to a boring lettuce. Presumably they could be cooked as well.
Flowers
The flowers or roots are traditionally collected and turned into wine. Sorry, but I don't have any suitable recepies. I prefer the root wines such as parsnip or potato.
Seeds.
As every child knows, if you count how many times you have to puff before all the seeds blow away it will tell you the time.