Peas, Southern

White fungal growth reduces photosynthesis; leaves may yellow, distort, brown, and die early, weakening plants and reducing fruit quality.

Favored By

Warm days, cool nights, high humidity, crowded growth, shade, and dry foliage; unlike many diseases, free water is not required.

What It Looks Like

White to gray powdery patches on either leaf surface, stems, petioles, or buds; patches enlarge and may cover whole leaves.

Prevention

Choose resistant cultivars; provide full sun and airflow; space and prune plants; avoid excess nitrogen; remove infected residue.

Management

Remove badly affected leaves early; apply horticultural oil, sulfur, potassium bicarbonate, or another fungicide labeled for the crop before disease is severe. Do not apply oils and sulfur close together.

Seeds rot before emergence or young seedlings collapse, producing thin stands and sudden losses in flats or garden rows.

Favored By

Cold or waterlogged soil, contaminated mix or containers, poor drainage, deep sowing, dense seedlings, low light, and overwatering.

What It Looks Like

Pre-emergence seeds become soft and brown; emerged seedlings develop a water-soaked or pinched stem at the soil line and topple.

Prevention

Use sterile seed-starting mix and clean containers; sow at the proper depth; provide warmth, drainage, light, and airflow; avoid crowding and overwatering.

Management

Discard affected seedlings and nearby mix; reduce watering; improve light and airflow. Fungicides have limited value after collapse and must be specifically labeled.

Leaf, stem, and especially fruit infections produce sunken rots, reduce marketable harvest, and continue after picking.

Favored By

Warm wet weather, splashing rain, overhead irrigation, infected seed or residue, dense canopies, and overripe fruit.

What It Looks Like

Round sunken dark lesions on ripe fruit, sometimes with concentric rings of black dots or salmon-pink spore masses; leaves and stems may spot or canker.

Prevention

Use disease-free seed and resistant cultivars; rotate; mulch; stake plants; irrigate at soil level; harvest promptly; remove mummified fruit and debris.

Management

Pick and discard infected fruit; avoid handling wet plants; cool harvested produce promptly; apply crop-labeled fungicides preventively when local guidance recommends.

Soilborne vascular infection blocks water movement, causing one-sided yellowing, chronic wilt, stunting, and eventual plant death.

Favored By

Warm soil, susceptible cultivars, infested soil or transplants, root injury, continuous host cropping, and some nematode damage.

What It Looks Like

Lower leaves yellow and wilt, often on one side; brown discoloration appears in vascular tissue when the lower stem is split lengthwise.

Prevention

Plant resistant cultivars and clean transplants; rotate with nonhosts; avoid moving infested soil; sanitize tools; manage root-knot nematodes.

Management

Remove entire infected plants and roots; do not compost. There is no curative home-garden treatment; use resistant varieties and long rotations in future seasons.

Stem and crown infections cause watery rot, wilting, lodging, and plant death in beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cucurbits, and many other crops.

Favored By

Cool moist weather, dense canopies, prolonged leaf wetness, poor airflow, flowering plants, and soils containing long-lived sclerotia.

What It Looks Like

Water-soaked lesions become bleached and covered with cottony white growth; hard irregular black sclerotia form inside or on stems.

Prevention

Rotate to grasses or other nonhosts; space and stake plants; use drip irrigation; control broadleaf weeds; remove infected plants before sclerotia mature.

Management

Pull and discard infected plants and nearby debris; reduce canopy moisture; avoid cultivating contaminated soil into new beds; fungicides are preventive, not curative.

Systemic viruses stunt plants, distort leaves and fruit, reduce yield, and persist for the plant's life.

Favored By

Aphids or other vectors, infected transplants or seed for some viruses, nearby weeds, continuous host plants, and mechanical sap transmission.

What It Looks Like

Light- and dark-green mosaic, yellow mottling, rings, shoestring or curled leaves, stunting, and bumpy or color-broken fruit; symptoms vary by virus and crop.

Prevention

Use virus-free seed and transplants; plant resistant cultivars; control weeds; use reflective mulch where practical; sanitize hands and tools.

Management

Remove symptomatic plants promptly; manage vectors early but recognize insecticides may not stop rapidly transmitted viruses. No treatment cures an infected plant.

Sap-feeding colonies distort tender growth, cause yellowing and sticky honeydew, and may transmit plant viruses.

Favored By

Soft new growth, excess nitrogen, sheltered plants, and warm moderate weather.

What It Looks Like

Tiny (about 1/16–1/8 in), soft, pear-shaped insects; green, black, yellow, gray, or pink; two tailpipe-like cornicles.

Prevention

Avoid excess nitrogen; inspect leaf undersides; conserve lady beetles, lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitoid wasps; control ants that protect aphids.

Management

Knock off with water; prune badly infested tips; use insecticidal soap or horticultural oil with thorough contact coverage. Repeat only as label directs.

Rasping-sucking feeding scars leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit; some species transmit viruses.

Favored By

Hot, dry weather; flowers and tender growth; weeds and plant debris; stressed plants.

What It Looks Like

Very slender, usually 1/25–1/8 in, yellow, tan, brown, or black; adults have narrow fringed wings.

Prevention

Start with clean plants; remove weeds and spent blossoms; keep plants evenly watered; conserve minute pirate bugs and other predators.

Management

Dislodge with water; remove heavily damaged tissue; use insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, or spinosad where labeled, timed to susceptible stages.

Night-feeding caterpillars sever seedlings at soil level; climbing species also feed on foliage and fruit.

Favored By

Weedy ground, plant residue, green manure, and recently converted sod; small transplants are most vulnerable.

What It Looks Like

Smooth, stout, gray, brown, green, or black caterpillars, often striped or spotted; curl into a C when disturbed.

Prevention

Remove weeds and residue before planting; till before planting and in fall; use compost rather than fresh green manure; place collars around transplants.

Management

Search soil near damaged plants at dusk and handpick; treat small larvae with a labeled biological or insecticide only when damage is active.

Adults feed on many crops and flowers and may transmit bacterial wilt; larvae (southern corn rootworms) attack roots.

Favored By

Warm regions, abundant weeds, corn or cucurbits, and successive host crops.

What It Looks Like

About 1/4 in, yellow-green beetle with 12 black spots; dark head and long antennae.

Prevention

Use row cover on young cucurbits; rotate crops; control weeds; remove residue; plant robust transplants.

Management

Handpick or vacuum; monitor flowers and seedlings; use labeled insecticides only when feeding is severe, protecting pollinators from exposure.

Adults and larvae skeletonize bean leaves from below and may feed on pods, reducing vigor and yield.

Favored By

Warm humid areas, continuous bean plantings, and crop residue.

What It Looks Like

Coppery yellow adult lady beetle with 16 black spots; yellow larvae are oval and covered with branched black-tipped spines.

Prevention

Rotate beans; destroy residue; plant early where appropriate; inspect undersides for yellow egg clusters; conserve parasitoids.

Management

Crush eggs; handpick adults and larvae; use insecticidal soap on young larvae or a labeled insecticide when defoliation is increasing.

Larvae tunnel between leaf surfaces, creating serpentine or blotchy mines that reduce photosynthesis and market quality.

Favored By

Warm weather, susceptible leafy crops, weeds, and broad-spectrum insecticide use that kills parasitoids.

What It Looks Like

Tiny dark flies are seldom noticed; pale legless larvae live inside leaves; mines are winding trails or translucent blotches.

Prevention

Use row cover; remove host weeds; inspect transplants; remove mined leaves before larvae exit; conserve parasitoid wasps.

Management

Crush larvae within mines or remove leaves; insecticides often miss protected larvae, so target adults/young larvae only with labeled selective products.

Adults and nymphs pierce fruit and vegetables, causing dimpling, corky spots, discoloration, and malformed produce.

Favored By

Warm seasons, wooded edges, diverse fruiting hosts, and nearby overwintering structures.

What It Looks Like

Shield-shaped mottled brown bug about 5/8 in; alternating light-dark marks on abdomen edge and white bands on antennae.

Prevention

Remove weeds and alternate hosts near production where practical; use fine netting; seal buildings to reduce overwintering; conserve egg parasitoids.

Management

Handpick or knock into soapy water; use traps for monitoring rather than control; apply labeled insecticides only when repeated feeding threatens crops.

Microscopic roundworms induce root galls, restricting water and nutrient uptake and causing stunting, yellowing, and midday wilt.

Favored By

Warm sandy soil, susceptible crops, contaminated transplants or soil, and repeated host crops.

What It Looks Like

Microscopic; diagnosis relies on swollen knots or galls on roots, often with a weak uneven crop canopy.

Prevention

Use clean transplants; grow resistant cultivars; rotate with poor hosts; solarize soil in hot climates; add organic matter and clean tools.

Management

Remove heavily infested roots; use resistant crops and rotation over multiple seasons; soil-applied products are limited and must be labeled for home gardens.

Larvae chew seeds, roots, and underground stems or tubers, causing poor stands and holes in potatoes and root crops.

Favored By

Recently converted sod or weedy ground, cool moist soil, and high organic matter.

What It Looks Like

Slender, hard-bodied, shiny yellow to brown larvae with three pairs of small legs; adults are click beetles.

Prevention

Avoid planting susceptible crops immediately after sod; till to expose larvae; control grassy weeds; use bait stations before planting to assess risk.

Management

Trap with buried potato or carrot pieces and remove larvae; rotate to less susceptible crops; rescue treatments after planting are generally ineffective.

Browse foliage, buds, flowers, and fruit; damage often occurs high above the ground with ragged torn stems.

Favored By

High deer density, drought or winter food shortage, gardens near woods, and unfenced plantings.

What It Looks Like

Large hoofed mammal; cloven tracks and pellet droppings; browsing can reach roughly 6 ft.

Prevention

Install an 8-ft deer fence or properly designed electric fence; use cages and netting; choose less-preferred plants while recognizing none are deer-proof.

Management

Exclude first; rotate repellents labeled for edible crops and reapply after rain; protect young trees with guards. Follow local wildlife laws.

Consumes large amounts of vegetables and can flatten plants; burrows may undermine beds or structures.

Favored By

Gardens near field edges, brush, sheds, stone piles, and accessible fence bottoms.

What It Looks Like

Large stocky brown-gray rodent with short bushy tail; wide burrow entrances and tracks with four front toes and five rear toes.

Prevention

Use sturdy 3-ft wire fencing with 12 in buried or bent outward; add an outward electric wire; remove brush and block access under structures.

Management

Exclusion is most reliable; harassment and repellents have limited persistence; trapping or euthanasia must comply with state and local law.

Pull seedlings, eat newly sown seed, peck ripening fruit, and damage corn or berries.

Favored By

Visible seed, ripening fruit, nearby roosts, and unprotected beds or small fruit plantings.

What It Looks Like

Species vary; identify by tracks, droppings, peck marks, missing seed, and time of activity.

Prevention

Use secured bird netting with openings that cannot entangle wildlife; row cover seedlings; reflective or moving deterrents work best when varied.

Management

Exclude during the vulnerable period; harvest promptly; avoid toxic baits. Federal and state protections apply to many bird species.