By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia
I think I’ve finally acquired a taste for corn bread and turnip
greens.
This may sound strange coming from a country boy, but it’s true.
Mom cooked both of them a lot when I was a kid. And I had to eat
’em. But I didn’t like either one.
I’m still not really crazy about corn bread, unless it’s Hilda
Strickland’s. Hilda is a friend of ours in LaGrange, Ga. Every
now and then she’ll send us some corn bread fresh out of her oven
and a pot of her homemade vegetable soup. Now that’s some good
corn bread.
Until a few years ago I’d just as soon have eaten pecan leaves as
turnip greens. Both of those things are bitter.
Tastes change
But I kind of like turnip greens now. And that’s good, because
after all, this is the South, and boys from the South are
supposed to like turnip greens.
If you have a turnip, collard or mustard green patch, you may
have trouble with fungal leaf spot diseases. These diseases cause
ugly spots on the leaf surface, ruining the greens’ appearance.
Sometimes the diseases kill the entire plant.
The two most destructive diseases in Georgia are downy mildew and
white spot.
How to spot diseases
If you look underneath the leaves you may see a grayish mold in
spots and later a slight yellowing on the upper leaf surface.
Infected spots enlarge as they turn tan and papery. This is downy
mildew.
White spot causes pale green to gray, circular to angular spots
on the leaf. Each spot has a yellowish to brown halo or border
around it.
Cool weather, with night temperatures in the mid-40s to about 60
degrees and daytime temperatures of no more than 75, with
drizzling rains and heavy dew make ideal weather for downy mildew.
White spot overwinters on turnips, mustard, collards, cabbage and
broccoli. Each infected spot produces many spores that can be
blown long distances by the wind. White spot reproduces and
spreads at a temperature of 71 to 86 degrees.
What to do
Crop rotation is very important in controlling all of the fungal
leaf spot diseases that attack greens. So rotate your crops.
Plant something else in that spot for a couple of years.
And don’t plant your greens so thick that there is poor air
movement, because the leaves will take a long time to dry off
from rain or even dew.
If your greens develop these leaf spot diseases, try mowing them
down. But be sure to remove the debris. With luck, the new growth
will be disease-free.
And with luck, you’ll have a good crop of greens to eat with your
corn bread.
(Mike Isbell is the Heard County Extension Coordinator with
the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.)
