Most people agree, for a homeowner there is no better feeling than to be able to enjoy fresh homegrown produce from the back yard every day. For the dedicated home gardener, learning never ends; they are always looking for ways to improve next season’s produce. Here are two questions I received this week about how to make a simple backyard fruit or vegetable garden more productive.

How can I get more productivity out of my garden?

One thing I would recommend is having a rotational planting program for your seasonal garden. Crop rotation is a good practice to follow when you use the same garden site for several years. Rotation helps prevent the buildup of diseases in the garden soil and increases the ability to produce more varieties of produce, much more efficiently.

For example, follow a spring planting of English peas with a late spring planting of cucumbers; then replant the space with fall bush snap beans, leafy greens or late southern peas. Another example is to follow early sweet corn with winter squash and pumpkins in early July. Spring Irish potatoes can be followed by lima beans or southern peas, which are followed by fall greens.

How can I help cucumbers from rotting and wilting?

Belly rot is a fungus problem which shows up when moisture collects on the “belly” of the fruit, and is most often a problem following rainy periods, so anything that will keep the bottom-side of cucumber and cantaloupe fruits dry will help reduce the rot problem. Belly rot is the most limiting factor in cucumber production in Mississippi. Here are two options for helping reduce cucumbers from having this problem.

Trellising cucumbers has several advantages. The fruit are straight, have no ground spot, extended harvesting season and are not subject to belly rot. The disadvantages of trellising have to do with the expense of erecting and maintaining the trellis.

Another method used successfully is the placement of discarded egg crating or fruit crating material beneath cucumbers or cantaloupes. Crating material can be cut down to the appropriate size and placed under the fruit while they’re still small and less susceptible to infection by the belly rot fungus.

Now’s the time of year when bacterial wilt of cucumbers and cantaloupes begins to show up in home gardens. Primary symptoms of this bacterial disease include severe vine wilt followed by rapid death of plants. Bacterial wilt is severe on cucumber and cantaloupe and less damaging to squash and watermelon. The bacteria which causes the wilt are carried from plant-to-plant by striped or spotted cucumber beetles. The beetles transmit the bacterial wilt microorganism by chewing on infected cucumber or cantaloupe vines and then feeding on healthy plants. This can be reduced if these beetles are kept under control with a good insecticide spray program.

Insecticides which control striped and spotted cucumber beetles include diazinon, malathion, methoxychlor, sevin or thiodan sprays, and sevin or thiodan dusts. Refer to product labels for use directions. Note: Special precautions should be taken to apply insecticides in the late afternoon to avoid causing injury or death to pollinating insects such as honeybees.

David Carter is the Mississippi State University Agriculture Extension Office county agent for Adams County. He can be reached at dcarter@ext.msstate.edu.