Treatment: This nasty stuff grows on the honeydew that leaf-feeding insects secrete. You usually see it on Crepe Myrtles. Sometimes, a soapy water spray or Neem Oil will do the trick. The best line of defense though, is to ensure your plants are healthy and bad bugs are taken care of as soon as possible.

Treatment: Start with preventive measures. Ensure proper air circulation and watering at the base to avoid getting leaves wet. Treat the soil with Horticultural Cornmeal and spray the leaves with Potassium Bicarbonate. Try a copper fungicide (generally accepted in an organic program). You can also pull out the big guns with synthetic fungicides. Bayer and Ortho are some big names if you prefer that route. Roses may need a three-in-one product put on regularly to keep blackspot and insects in check. Some diseases require different fungicides, so try to identify the disease first.

Treatment: Some blights respond well to potassium bicarbonate, cornmeal, or copper fungicides, while others may require synthetic products to be controlled quickly. 

Treatment: Water early so the leaves can dry out, especially in shady areas. I've tried a few different synthetic products and some organics to treat lawn fungus, but I've had the most luck with Microlife Brown Patch. I also trimmed some trees to let more light in, which helped.

Treatment: Cornmeal at a rate of 2 lbs per 100 sq ft.

Treatment: Spray with neem oil or a soapy water mixture. If there aren't that many, you can remove them by hand.

Treatment: Cedar oil products help repel these little bloodsuckers. Keep leaves picked up and check for standing water. Add mosquito dunks or BT granules to gutter drains. Peppermint sprays can drive them away and even kill them. 

Some companies can come out and treat, but please do your research, as some commercially used products can harm pets. Even some products that claim to be pet-safe must be researched to ensure your animals won't be harmed. I am not talking about a quick Google search. Get comfy, read as much as you can, and consider reaching out to your vet as well.

Treatment: Fertilize with natural products and consider lowering your soil's pH. This can greatly help nutrient uptake. I tested my soil with nitrogen-deficient vegetables growing in it, and the nitrogen was very high, but so was the pH. I added some cottonseed meal and peat to lower the pH. The plants greened right up shortly after.

Treatment: Neem oil works great for this! There are a bunch of home recipes, but I will always recommend that you have some neem oil on hand. If it is on a larger plant, then you may need to use a tree/shrub sprayer. If you do this, please wear a mask. Neem is organic, but we don't need to breathe it in, either.

Root Rot - Cornmeal at a rate of 2 lbs per 100 sq ft and worked into the soil as best possible. The cornmeal stimulates the good microbes that eat the bad ones. This cornmeal can be challenging to find, so look for the least refined one available. I am also working on a theory that if it's simply about stimulating microbial activity (Trichoderma and others), can we use molasses and get similar results? If you have an issue where cornmeal is recommended and want to help me answer this question, let me know!

Treating root rot is not always easy or even possible, depending on the pathogen causing it. It's best to keep your microbial life healthy before disease sets in!

Spider Mites - These guys suck...litterally! Miticides are widely available and seem to work well. Interestingly enough, these little sap-sucking arachnids also hate seaweed products and plants love them. So, this is a no-brainer. Spray with seaweed or even better, a product that also contains molasses or compost tea. Two stones people!

Underwatered plants will wilt, and if bad enough, the leaf tips will curl up and turn brown, eventually turning fully brown and fall off. The leaves will feel crisp and brittle. It's easy enough to say that if the soil is dry, water it, but we must look into why it dried out. Is your irrigation running on schedule? Is your soil so compact that the water runs off before it soaks in? 

Practice deep watering and check the moisture level often. You can stick your finger in the soil around the plant or use a moisture meter. Ensure the wilting is not due to overwatering, as it looks very similar. 

I recently had a client with new plants that were dying. When she described the issue, I instantly thought she wasn't watering enough, even though she said she was watering daily (FYI, daily watering is not always needed). When I checked on her new plants, the soil was wet. We grabbed her new moisture meter and discovered that she was watering too shallow. Only the top inch of soil was wet. The remaining 11 inches below that and around the rootball were dry as a bone! So, using the $10 moisture meter saved her $200 worth of plants!

You will see these guys on Tomatoes, Pentas, Mountain Laurels, Oak and Pecan trees, Kale, Pipevine, Butterfly Weed, and Passion Vines. Of course, worms and caterpillars like other plants too. These are just the most common ones. 

We first want to ensure they do not become desirable pollinators, as is true of the caterpillars on Passion Vines (host plant for the Gulf Coast Fritillary), on Butterfly Weeds (host plant for Monarchs), or Pipevines (host plant for the Pipevine Swallowtail). We do not want to treat these guys! Others, like tomato hornworms, can be pulled off or sprayed with BT (bacillus thuringiensis) when on your Mountain Laurels.