4. What is the best way to prevent disease in the leaves and the roots?

4. What is the best way to prevent disease in the leaves and the roots?

The best way to prevent most diseases is to maintain healthy vigorous plants in clean and disease free growing conditions.

Sounds obvious doesn't it?

However, if you visit a range of different growers and take note of their growing areas you will find that the best growers almost without exception are those who either knowingly or not keep their growing areas spotless in the way of fallen leaves and other natural debris. They most often also have managed to create a bright, breezy environment for their plants with a regular watering and fertilising program which suits their chosen type of plants. They are constantly checking for signs of pots that are too wet or too dry. They also invariably maintain a close eye on the condition of the potting mix and have a regular repotting program which suits their particular growing conditions.

In addition the best growers will most often have a preventative spraying program which is designed to keep the most common pests and diseases at bay. Why? Even the best maintained areas can succumb to pests or disease from time to time. By using preventive spraying these outbreaks can be almost eliminated. Close inspection of plants on a regular basis can give the best growers early warning of an outbreak of problems and a spray of the entire growing area at that time for the specific pest or disease will give best results with least effort.

Those growers who take no notice of most of the above can still succeed but they will never get the same excellence in their plants that the above grower finds easy to achieve.