Vigilance is required to keep your vegetable garden free from disease. Using a broad-based effort that combines various methods makes this chore easier.

Begin with good soil preparation and proper seed selection. If you transplant, picking healthy plants will keep disease from being introduced and spread. Remove any diseased plant before it can infect others nearby.

Water at appropriate times, usually early in the day. That gives the leaves a chance to dry before nighttime temperatures set in. Watering practices can influence the spread of disease in other ways. Water splashed off one plant onto another exposes the ones nearby to any disease the first carries. It’s similar to being near a person with a cold who sneezes into the air. Even rainfall will produce the same effect to some degree. Space your plants out.

Also, viruses can be spread by insects who carry them from one plant to the next. Controlling the insect population benefits you exponentially. There are also ways that gardeners and animals can spread disease. Gardeners gloves and the legs of rabbits can carry tobacco mosaic virus, for example.

Weeding your garden can also lower chances of disease. Many organisms thrive on weeds and will then enjoy your vegetables. These organisms can be transported by water movement, wind, and other vehicles.

Controlling various disease can be helped if you are able to identify the signs of these diseases.

When the out edges of lettuce touch the ground, lettuce mold can appear as a wet rot. The Sclerotinia mold is white and Botrytis mold is gray. The problem can be contained by removing the mold by extracting infected sections, or an entire plant.

Spinach mosaic virus is another common problem with these leafy vegetables. Leaves become mottled, and later may turn yellow. The plant acquires a stunted, wilted appearance. Growing resistant varieties can help keep the problem from occurring in the first place.

Fusarium can cause asparagus to wilt or rot. The spears look spindly and shoots may become yellow. The roots may rot and become discolored. Eliminate the infected plants by thinning the crop. Another common problem with asparagus is rust, cause by Puccinia fungus. Red spots appear on the shoots of spears. This fungus may survive through the winter. Prevent rust by avoiding excessive watering.

Leaf spots, blight and other conditions affect tomatoes. They’ll usually appear by mid-August, especially if the summer has been cool. Some soil fungi affect tomatoes in particular. Nearby walnut trees can produce a toxin that is harmful, where the roots carry it into the soil. Look out for dark concentric rings on leaves. Keeping the leaves from being wet at night will help reduce these problems.

Recognizing the signs and treating them early will optimize your chances of a healthy crop.