Holes in sorrel leaves. How to spray sorrel against pests. Gray rot of sorrel

Sorrel, which we are accustomed to using for food in spring and summer, is a very weak plant. It is quite easily attacked by all sorts of pests and diseases. It is important for every summer resident and gardener to know the enemies of the crop in person. Below we will talk about the most common diseases and pests of sorrel and recipes for combating them.

Pest control measures

Let's consider the issue of caring for and controlling pests of sorrel.

Sorrel leaf beetle or firefly beetle

The size of the beetle can reach from 5 mm to 1 cm. The color of the beetle is rich green with a shiny metallic tint. It damages sorrel by leaving through holes in the leaves. Most often there are even entire paths made of holes. Females lay yellow-orange larvae on the matte side of the sorrel leaf. New beetles are born about a week after the female lays her eggs.

It is not recommended to spray sorrel; the beetle will attack the moisture even more, so you need to sprinkle the bed with fine wood ash, tobacco ash or dust. You can also combine the listed ingredients in equal proportions for greater effectiveness.

Sorrel aphid

The size of the pest can reach from 2 to 3 mm. The color of small specimens is black with a shiny waxy coating. These pests often cover the stem and the adjacent part of the leaf. Leaves damaged by aphids turn yellow and wrinkle. Even if several leaves are damaged, the entire bush becomes unusable. Aphid larvae are born on weeds and are not afraid of frost; they can easily overwinter on the roots and spores of weeds.

It is necessary to fight weeds at the earliest stages of their appearance, as well as loosen the soil before sowing seeds. You can treat the testes with special liquids to combat aphids. When the crop has already sprouted, it is worth scattering tobacco ash nearby and on the bushes themselves. And also add a steep infusion of onion peels to the bushes.

Cutworm or sorrel sawfly

The size of the cutworm butterfly can reach from 2 to 3 cm. The cutworm caterpillar reaches 5 cm or more. The color of both butterflies and caterpillars can be green, brown or gray. The armyworm can produce up to three generations during gardening seasons. The female butterfly lays eggs on the inner matte side of a sorrel leaf. The butterfly itself is harmless; it is the caterpillar that is considered the pest. Caterpillars can damage not only the leaves, but also the roots of the bush. Most often, only the main vein remains from damaged leaves.

It is important to destroy all weeds and loosen the soil in the future area for sowing sorrel seeds. Catching cutworms with bait (malt, honey or open containers with fermenting salted liquids). You can collect caterpillars when they appear near the crop. It is worth fighting the eggs with dust or dry wood ash.

Treatment of diseases

Let's consider each disease separately.

Powdery mildew

Fungal disease. It infects almost all bushes of the plant. It affects both the leaves and stem of sorrel. When infected, white dots appear on the plant, diluted with small black specks. Black spots are the fruiting bodies of the powdery mildew pathogen.

Recipes for powdery mildew:

Recipe 1. Dissolve 1 large spoon of baking soda and a small spoon of soaked laundry soap in 4 liters of water. The resulting solution must be sprayed on the affected plant and the area in which it grows. Spray twice a day for one week.

Recipe 2. Mix whey and boiled water in proportions of 1:10. It is necessary to spray the affected plants three times a day with an interval of three days. The product is suitable for use only in dry weather, since the product forms a protective acidic film on the leaves, and rain can interfere with treatment by washing it away.

Chemical remedies for powdery mildew: “Copper sulfate”, “Colloidal sulfur”, “Bayleton”, “Topaz”, “Fundazol”.

Downy mildew

Fungal viral disease. Affects young leaves of sorrel. The leaves are quickly attacked by the disease, turning yellow and curling, becoming wrinkled and covered with grayish-purple spots on the dull underside of the leaf.

Recipes for downy mildew on sorrel:

Recipe 1. Add 2 tablespoons of dry mustard powder to 10 liters of boiled water. The resulting solution should be sprayed on diseased plants twice a day. At night you need to pour a glass of the resulting mustard water under each diseased bush.

Recipe 2. Leave the rotted manure in water in a ratio of 1:3 for 3 days. After three days, the resulting concentrate must be diluted with water 1:2 and the infected plants should be watered abundantly.

Chemical remedies for downy mildew: “Previkur”, “Skor”, “Vitaros”.

Rust on sorrel

Fungal disease. Yellow-orange swellings appear on the leaves and petioles of sorrel. Spores spill out of these swellings and infect other bushes and nearby plants.

Recipes for rust on sorrel:

Recipe 1. Mix 20 grams of laundry soap and 1 gram copper sulfate. Dilute the resulting mixture in 1 liter of boiled chilled water. Spray the affected plants twice a day for one week.

Recipe 2. Dissolve 5 grams of potassium permanganate in 10 liters of water. Remove the most affected sorrel leaves from the bush. Spray infected plants 2 times a day until signs of the disease completely disappear.

Chemical agents for rust on sorrel: “Fitosporin”, “Plangis”, “Copper sulfate”.

Gray rot

Fungal disease. Affects sorrel leaves. Large brown spots form on the leaves. These spots may increase in size. Rot spreads very quickly throughout the neighboring bushes of the plant. The leaves soften, become flabby and watery, and eventually rot completely.

Recipes for gray rot on sorrel:

Recipe 1. This recipe applies to treating contaminated soil. Vegetation on contaminated soil must be completely eliminated. The soil should be sprinkled 0.5 cm with fluff lime and filled with plenty of water. Planting in such an area can only be done in the next summer season.

Recipe 2. 1 kg of hot pepper needs to be crushed and poured with 10 liters of water. Leave for 2 days. After 2 days, you need to boil the infusion, cool and strain. Remove sorrel leaves affected by rot from the bushes. Spray sorrel with infusion once a day before sunrise. Repeat the procedure every day until the disease disappears completely.

Chemical remedies for gray rot on sorrel: “Fundazol”, “Topsin-M”.

The cute little emerald-colored beetle, otherwise called the sorrel leaf beetle or firefly, is actually a nasty garden pest. Every gardener should be able to timely and effectively treat sorrel against green bugs, so as not to be left without a harvest, since this pest also destroys other cultivated plants.

This beetle is a representative of a large family of leaf beetles. Extremely widespread. The length of an adult sexually mature individual reaches 4-6 mm. The color of the beetle is very attractive - rich green, with a blue metallic tint.

The first sign of a beetle appearing on sorrel is that the leaves of the plant begin to resemble a sieve, and the number of holes increases in proportion to the increase in the insect population.

Beetles overwinter right on garden plot- in the ground. With the arrival of warmth, they come to the surface and begin to intensively feed on young greenery. The end of May and the beginning of June is the period of mating and reproduction. Clutches look like small clusters of orange eggs of 40-50 pieces. Within a few days, their faces hatch. They are the ones who cause the greatest harm to culture. If the beetles eat holes in the foliage, the larvae, which have a spindle-shaped dirty yellow body, eat the greenery completely, leaving only the hard base.

The grown larvae leave the sorrel bushes approximately 8-10 days after emergence and burrow into the soil. Pupation and development underground lasts about a week. After this, a new generation of beetles comes to the surface, which will continue to destroy the sorrel plantings. During the spring-summer period, 2-3 generations of pests change in central Russia, and even more in the southern regions.

In September-October (depending on climatic conditions), the last generation is hatched. Before the onset of cold weather, the larvae go into the ground until spring. The beetles themselves quickly die, but their larvae overwinter in loose soil, under a layer of plant debris.

You can see green bugs not only on sorrel; pests feed on any varieties of this crop, as well as on the foliage of bird knotweed, rhubarb, rheunutria and other plants.

Chemicals

Sorrel is a crop that is eaten from spring to late autumn, so it is not customary to treat it with insecticides. However, pesticides are a very effective remedy for pests, and they should not be neglected if the fight against the beetle has been prolonged and brings little results.

The main rule is to withstand the waiting period specified in the instructions. For some products this is a few days, for others it is about 3 weeks.

Experienced gardeners recommend treating sorrel for holes with insecticides in the fall, when the threat of frost is near. Sorrel is no longer consumed as food, and the last generation of beetle larvae gathers for the winter. In this case, you can greatly reduce the pest population on the site, or even completely destroy it.

You can influence the sorrel leaf beetle using the following methods:

Means homemade: dissolve 50 g of liquid soap and 15 g of anabasine sulfate in 10 liters of water. Then you should thickly spray all the beetle’s favorite crops in the fall, maybe twice, and not eat them until spring.
Treat with chemical insecticides against any insects sucking juices from plants (Aktara, Decis, Iskra, Fufanon and others).

Treatment in the fall is the safest, but you can spray sorrel at any time, the main thing is to then wait the allotted time.

Traditional methods

Fighting with folk remedies is most popular among gardeners and, with regular use, gives good results.

If a gardener notices that someone is eating sorrel plantings, leaving holes in the leaves, then measures must be taken immediately. A cute little bug can settle in a garden plot for a long time, destroying cultivated plants. Timely measures taken will help save the sorrel harvest.

In order to decide what can be used to spray sorrel against pests, you need to find out who attacked it. No matter how carefully this plant is cared for, it is likely to be attacked by pests.

Pests and diseases of sorrel

Like any other plant, sorrel has pests. They mainly attack young and succulent leaves, but can attack the roots.

Leaf beetle. Eats through holes in sorrel leaves. Eggs are laid on the leaves on the underside. Over the course of the summer, more than two generations of the pest can develop.
Sorrel sawfly. It eats all the pulp from the leaf, leaving only the veins. The greatest damage to the crop occurs closer to autumn.
Aphid. It multiplies quickly. Up to 15 generations can develop over the summer. Lives on the underside of the leaf. It sucks the juice out of the plant, after which the leaf curls, turns yellow and dies.
Winter armyworm. A butterfly with almost black wings that attacks in late spring. It chews large holes in the leaves.
Naked slugs. They leave behind silvery traces. The leaves are eaten away at night when there is high humidity.
Wireworms. Click beetle larvae. They feed on underground parts of the plant. If the top layer of soil dries out, they go deeper into the ground.
Medvedka. Lives in the soil, very rarely crawls to the surface. Can fly and swim. The underground part of sorrel is damaged. The plant dries out and is easily pulled out of the soil.
Mildew. Appears in the form of blurred spots with a grayish tint on the bottom of the leaves.
Rust. It is characterized by brown-yellow spots appearing on the leaves of the plant. Dark brown spores form on top of the spots.

Spraying sorrel against pests

When fighting pests that attack sorrel, you can use both solutions with a chemical base and without chemicals. When spraying poison on a plant, it is important to remember that in most cases it is impossible to do this immediately before collecting leaves. All procedures aimed at destroying pests and fighting diseases are recommended to be carried out in the autumn, when the crops are no longer harvested.

Use of chemicals when spraying sorrel against pests:

hexachlorane dust is used against sorrel sawfly;
a solution of anabasine sulfate with added soap is diluted in water at the rate of 15 grams of the drug and 40 grams of soap per 10 liters of water. Used when sorrel is damaged by aphids;
a solution of washing powder or chemicals such as “Phenoxina PLUS” have a detrimental effect on the mole cricket;
Bordeaux mixture is sprayed onto sorrel 10 days before harvesting leaves when affected by downy mildew.

You can spray sorrel against pests with solutions prepared from natural ingredients:

infusions and decoctions of burdock, dandelion and tomato help defeat aphids;
spraying sorrel with a solution of pyrethrum powder will protect against attack by the leaf beetle;
against slugs use a tincture of hot pepper. Take 0.5 kg of crushed pepper for 5 liters of water and leave for 2 days. 200 g of concentrate per bucket of water is enough;
Greater burdock is used against the fall armyworm. Fill 1/3 of the bucket with freshly cut leaves and add water. Leave for 72 hours. Strain and apply 3-4 times a week;
Chamomile will help in the fight against sorrel sawfly. 1 kilogram of dry or 3 kg of fresh chamomile is poured into a ten-liter bucket and filled with hot water. After 12 hours, dilute with water - 1:3 and add soap at the rate of 40 grams for every 10 liters.

Pests and diseases of sorrel can cause significant damage to tasty and healthy greens, which are among the first to appear on our table in the spring. Most often, delicate leaves are damaged by leaf-eating insects, which leave numerous holes. If not properly cared for, sorrel suffers from various fungal infections. To save the beds from harm, you need to identify the pest and carry out insecticidal or fungicidal treatment. And proven folk methods will help with this.

Sorrel is a relatively resilient crop that is avoided by many agricultural pests. However, there are those who are not averse to eating delicious greens. The reasons for the appearance of holes in sorrel are:

leaf beetle;
mole cricket;
slugs;
fall armyworm;
sorrel sawfly.

If holes are found on the leaves, you should identify the pest and treat the sorrel using any of the available traditional methods. All recipes for such “treatment” are absolutely safe for human health, so greens can be safely eaten literally a few days after spraying.

But the same cannot be said about chemical insect control agents. Ready-made insecticides should be used only in extreme cases, when safe methods have proven to be ineffective. After spraying with chemicals, sorrel cannot be used in cooking for 3-4 weeks: the waiting period and the start of harvesting the next harvest depends on the poisonous component, and is always indicated on the packages with the insecticide.

Important! 2-3 days after treatment with chemicals, oxalum greens need to be cut and disposed of, and then wait for a new harvest. However, he will grow up quite quickly.

Sorrel pests and methods of protection against them

Methods of pest control include manual collection of adult individuals, installation of traps, and spraying with compositions prepared according to folk recipes.

Leaf beetle

If small bugs of a black-green shiny color and 5-10 millimeters in size are found on the perforated sorrel, it means that the garden bed has been attacked by leaf beetles. They overwinter in the ground, and with the arrival of spring they begin to actively reproduce and eat crispy greens. The favorite place for laying eggs is the underside of leaves. In one season, females make 2-3 clutches, thereby increasing the number of pests exponentially.

Advice! To prevent leaf beetle attacks, it is useful to plant pyrethrum bushes (Persian, maiden or Dalmatian chamomile) next to sorrel beds. This unpretentious perennial will decorate country cottage area and will repel insatiable pests.

There are several ways to fight the leaf beetle:

Pollinate the leaves with a mixture of wood ash and tobacco dust. Take both components in equal proportions, mix and dust the culture daily for 4-5 days.
Spray the sorrel with a soap-garlic solution. To do this, dissolve shavings of one bar of laundry soap (72%) in 3 liters of water, add crushed cloves, tops or green arrows of garlic, leave for 10-12 hours, strain and use as intended. After this, the sorrel can be eaten already on the 2-3rd day, only before serving it should be thoroughly washed.
Treat the leaves with the “hot” mixture. Combine 1 cup of wood ash, 1 tablespoon of dry mustard powder and the same amount of freshly ground black pepper (it’s better to grind the peppercorns yourself).

To avoid problems with pests in the future, it is recommended to dig up sorrel beds every fall to a depth of 20 centimeters and do not forget about removing weeds.

Wireworms

The click beetle is not afraid of sorrel. But its thin caterpillars, up to 1.5 centimeters long, living in the ground and feeding on roots, cause significant harm to plants. The easiest way to save the crop is to remove weeds in a timely manner. It is useful to replant sorrel every year in a new place or treat the area with lime: the pest larvae live only in acidic soil and are not able to exist in an alkaline environment.

Medvedka

If the sorrel bushes begin to dry out, and under mechanical influence they are easily pulled out of the ground, it means that the most malicious pest gardening plants. But there are also several effective folk remedies against mole crickets:

Pour 1-2 liters of soap solution into the mole cricket's hole, catch and neutralize the insect that jumps out.
Dig a half-liter glass jar, neck up, into a tunnel dug in the ground. Moving along the usual route, the pest will certainly end up at the bottom of the trap.
In the area with sorrel, cover with crushed eggshells flavored with aromatic sunflower oil. Such a “delicacy” will be destructive for mole crickets, but will serve as fertilizer for plants.
Plant chrysanthemums, coriander, basil, marigolds or marigolds in the rows.
Water the sorrel with infusion of onion peels.

If none of the above methods help get rid of the mole cricket, you will have to resort to a radical method - use chemical insecticides (Phenaxin plus, Rembek, Boverin, Medvecid, Anti Mole cricket).

On sorrel leaves, slugs leave not only holes, but also silvery marks. Single pests can be easily collected by hand or lured into a “beer” trap - any low container filled with beer or other fermented drink.

You can protect greens from pests in other ways:

Scatter narrow strips of wood ash, broken eggshells, lime or superphosphate between the rows.
Spray the sorrel with ammonia (10%).
In the evening, place a metal sheet or wooden board on the damp soil, and in the morning collect the crawling slugs from the underside of the trap.

Naked slugs like to hide under plant debris, so it is important to remove excess organic matter from the garden in a timely manner.

Aphid

A colony of aphids sucks the juices out of the sorrel, as a result of which the greenery withers, the roots weaken, and the crop dies. To get rid of small black or green bugs, it is enough to spray the area one or more times with any of the decoctions:

tobacco;
garlic;
tomato tops;
burdock;
dandelion

Sorrel beds can be dusted with tobacco dust or wood ash. An effective insecticidal agent is an infusion of ash, combined with dissolved laundry soap shavings (72%): 1-2 treatments with this composition will permanently rid the garden of aphids.

Preventing the appearance of winter cutworms is by digging up the site in the fall and timely removal of weeds. But if grayish-brown butterflies have already appeared on the sorrel leaves, reaching a length of 2-3 centimeters, spraying with burdock infusion will help. To prepare it, pour half a bucket of freshly picked crushed leaves with water and leave for 72 hours.

To get rid of the voracious cutworm caterpillars, namely they gnaw huge holes on the leaves, you need to spray the sorrel beds every other day for a week.

Adults can be caught using fragrant baits: hang open containers with sweet or fermented foods at a height of 1 meter from the ground. Cutworms caught in traps will no longer be able to lay eggs and give birth to a new generation of voracious caterpillars.

2-3 generations of sorrel sawfly, which appear during the summer, attack the sorrel and eat its succulent foliage, can leave only hard veins from the bed by autumn. If the sawfly caterpillars have managed to attack the crop, the easiest way is to spray the greens with a decoction of chamomile mixed with a solution of laundry soap. The frequency of spraying is once a week.

Treatment of grass diseases

There are recipes for each disease of sorrel. The list of diseases affecting leaf crops is long, but this does not mean that they all threaten to damage green beds at the same time. Each disease has its own characteristic signs and methods of control.

The main symptoms of the disease: a whitish-gray coating on the surface of the leaf blades, which darkens and turns brown over time. Leaves severely damaged by the fungus turn black and die, and sorrel bushes weaken and freeze in winter. You can get rid of harmful fungus by spraying with various compounds:

Dilute whey cold water in a ratio of 1:10.
Fill a bucket of chopped weeds with hot water so that it covers all the vegetation. Ferment for several days, strain and use to process sorrel.
Pour half a glass of wood ash into 1 liter of boiling water, leave for 48 hours, add a little laundry soap to the solution. Spray twice, with an interval of 5-7 days.

Prevention of the spread of powdery mildew, as well as other fungal diseases, is compliance with crop rotation, timely removal of plant residues, and fertilizing with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers.

Downy mildew

Peronosporosis, as they also call false powdery mildew, can be identified by the numerous yellow spots covering the leaves of sorrel. On the underside of the greenery you can see a gray-violet coating. Signs of the disease usually appear in June. Only ready-made fungicides can effectively fight infection: Vitaros, Skor, Previkur.

From folk recipes, you can try spraying the beds with a solution of dry mustard (1 tablespoon of powder per 5 liters of water) or rotted cow manure (1 part organic matter to 3 parts water).

This fungal disease manifests itself as numerous dark spots, the center of which turns white over time. It is very difficult to save a sorrel completely covered with white specks. The easiest way is to mow and burn diseased greenery, treat the beds with Bordeaux mixture (1%) or any ready-made fungicide.

Rust

Signs of rust are yellow-orange swollen spots (pustules) affecting the petioles and leaves of sorrel. When they crack, fungal spores spill out, looking like rust-colored powder. The redness of sorrel should be a signal to fight rust, and a mixture of copper (5 grams) sulfate, 100 grams of laundry soap shavings and 5 liters of water will help with this. The composition should be sprayed onto the beds every day for a week, making 2 applications per day.

A solution of potassium permanganate obtained from 5 grams of potassium permanganate and 10 liters of water is also suitable as a fungicide. It must be used daily for 7 days.

Ovulariasis

This fungal disease affects only sorrel. When infected, gray-brown or yellow-brown spots with a dark purple border along the edges appear on the surface of the leaves. Gradually, the spots increase in size, merge and lead to drying of the leaves. It will not be possible to save the crop in case of ovulariasis: you will have to cut and dispose of the diseased greenery, and treat the beds with Fitoverm or other suitable fungicide. After healthy leaves grow, the sorrel will be quite suitable for food.

Gray rot

The main symptom of the disease is a gray “fluffy” coating on the surface of the leaves. It appears at low air temperatures and high soil moisture. If the damage is minor, it is recommended to spray the sorrel with a solution prepared from 1 cup of wood ash, 1 cup of ground chalk, 1 teaspoon of copper sulfate and 10 liters of water.

In case of severe gray rot infestation, you will have to spray the beds with Bordeaux mixture or chemical fungicides.

Advice! If traditional methods turn out to be ineffective against fungal infections, you will have to purchase biofungicides (Fitosporin-M, Planriz, Gamair, Alirin-B, Trichodermin, Pseudobacterin-2) and apply according to the instructions. These preparations contain live bacteria that are safe for human health, but harmful to pathogenic fungi and their spores.

The tender, juicy greens of sorrel are one of the first to appear in the garden in the spring, so summer residents love it very much. Many are surprised when this crop is affected by diseases and pests, because the taste of the leaves is sour and quite specific. However, insects feed on juice, and taste nuances do not matter to them.

Pests of sorrel

The main pests of sorrel are small greenish fireflies, which are almost impossible to see with the naked eye. But if holes appear on the leaves, then, most likely, the sorrel leaf beetle has settled on them. These green beetles on sorrel can eat the entire plant, leaving only the stem, because it is too thick and tough for them. An adult insect grows to a maximum of 0.6 cm, and in sunlight its back can shine a metallic green-yellow color. The beetles wait out the winter underground, and when it gets warmer they crawl to the surface. The breeding period falls on the last ten days of May - the first ten days of June. The eggs laid are orange in color. The larvae appear in less than a week and immediately begin actively consuming plants. If adult flea beetles make small holes in the leaves, then colonies of larvae eat it all the way to the trunk.

In 1.5 weeks, the larvae gain strength and crawl into the soil, where they transform into the young generation of green bugs. The newly formed adults crawl out again and lay larvae. Thus, at least 3 generations of the leaf beetle are replaced in one season. In order not to lose the harvest completely, you need to quickly take action and decide how to get rid of green bugs on sorrel.

In addition to the leaf beetle, sorrel is destroyed by pests such as:

Aphid. It migrates to greenery from trees when their leaves lose their succulence. Lives on the underside of leaves, sucking juice. As a result, dry areas appear on the leaf, until the leaf plate completely dries out;
Sawfly. The larvae of these large moths eat the leaves to the core. They actively reproduce and destroy leaves throughout the season until autumn;
Winter armyworm. A fairly large butterfly, which begins to eat leaves in May, feeds on stems in the fall. You can make a bait against it by hanging a trap with molasses and fermented liquid over the bed;
The wireworm destroys sorrel both on the ground and underground. If it lacks the leafy part, it crawls deep into the soil and eats the roots.

Sorrel processing

Before treating sorrel against green bugs, it is necessary to properly care for the crop, because sorrel, like other plants, needs to follow the growing rules.

Rules of care

First of all, you need to properly treat the soil. The vast majority of diseases and pests overwinter in the ground, so in the fall, before the onset of frost, it is necessary to dig up the rows without breaking up the lumps, since they freeze through, which means that the insects will not survive the winter. Throughout the entire summer season, from early spring until the end of harvesting, you need to loosen the soil to prevent beetles. At the end of the dacha work, you need to remove all debris from the garden bed (roots, grass, remnants of sorrel), since adult individuals can also live on them.

Sorrel leaf beetle

Crop rotation plays an important role. Every 3-4 years you need to change the place. Good predecessors for sorrel are early cabbage and potatoes, lettuce, spinach and radishes. You can also cultivate flower beds or garlic near the sorrel. Their persistent scents repel pests. It has also been noted that you can protect sorrel from leaf beetles quite simply by planting it in the shade. In the sun, these beetles are much more active.

Chemicals against pests

There are many options on the market for treating sorrel against pests. The chemicals will definitely have a positive effect, and the sorrel will receive long-awaited relief from pests.

It's important to understand! The above-ground part of the plant is processed, which gardeners later want to eat. This means that the treated plant will present potential danger for humans, because chemicals not only help get rid of pest problems, but can also cause poisoning of the body.

You can only protect yourself from the effects of poisons by waiting for the period of complete decay. It lasts 1 month. But here another nuance arises, because young leaves, in which a large amount of oxalic acid has not yet accumulated, are considered optimal for consumption. If you wait a whole month, the sorrel will be safe for health, but the leaves will no longer be in ideal shape.

Advice. It will certainly be possible to save sorrel from pests with chemicals, but it is best to resort to them only in very advanced cases. If the plants are not yet heavily infested, you can try natural remedies that are safe for humans.

Proven insect repellents are considered to be a solution of pyrethrum (200 g per 10 liters of boiling water, leave for 12 hours) and the drug Maxim (prepared according to the instructions). The prepared solution should be sprayed through a spray bottle onto the greens. After two days, all sorrel must be cut off and destroyed.

Spraying sorrel

Another effective one chemical agent prepared from 15 g of anabasine sulfate, dissolved in 1 bucket of water with the addition of soap. It is recommended to leave the product for several hours, then generously spray the sorrel bed. Treatment is carried out in the fall after the final harvest, so that the sorrel is not touched until spring. If necessary, the solution can be applied twice.

On a note! Also highly effective insecticides against sap-sucking pests are Fufanon, Aktara, Decis and others.

Diseases and their prevention

In addition to the fact that sorrel can be attacked by insects, the plant is often affected by various fungal diseases. The most common infections are:

Powdery mildew (downy mildew) affects exclusively plants in the first year of planting. Grows actively in conditions of high humidity. The leaves become wrinkled and curled, and noticeably thicken. A preventive measure against the disease is regular weeding and loosening of rows, as well as the removal of suspicious leaves. When the disease develops, it is recommended to spray the sorrel with Bordeaux mixture;
Rust appears as a cluster of yellow bubbles on the leaves; when they burst, fungal spores multiply. You can successfully fight this disease using preventive methods: in the fall, carefully remove remaining leaves from the garden bed and dig up the soil. After spring soil preparation, it is recommended to mulch with peat. Most often, the disease spreads during low summer temperatures. Rust may be one of the reasons why sorrel leaves turn red;
Rot (gray) most often appears when plants are planted too tightly. As the leaves grow, they begin to touch each other. This worsens air exchange and increases humidity between the soil and the lower part of the leaves. As a result, burgundy wet spots appear on the leaves, which, as they develop, lead to rotting of the entire plant. Rot is another reason why sorrel turns red. Preventive control measures include more sparse sowing and placement of the bed in a well-lit area with shading from the midday sun. You can regulate the moisture content of the top layer of soil using mulching;
Spotting. There are several varieties of this fungus, but they all differ only in the size and color of the spots: from small inclusions to large brown areas. If you remove weeds and leaves from the garden in a timely manner, and also loosen the soil, the disease can be prevented. In autumn, a bed with sorrel can be mulched with humus. This allows you not only to protect against fungus and sub-zero temperatures, but also to additionally feed the plant.

Sorrel diseases

Folk remedies

Covering the bed in early spring with material or film. This method will not help remove the beetles, but will allow you to obtain young sorrel that is not touched by pests. After removing the protection, insects will spread over the leaves, but the most useful harvest will have already been harvested by that time;
Removing insects manually. Since the beetles are very small, it is best to tear off the leaves completely and dispose of them. The same can be done with larvae. This is very hard work, as it requires patience and diligence;
Destruction of masonry by a stream of water. Adults will not disappear after spraying with a powerful stream of water, but some of the small larvae will die;
Neighborhood respect. When planning plantings, it is worth considering that there should be no plants near sorrel that are affected by the same insects and pests (for example, rhubarb and mustard crops);
Dusting with tobacco and wood ash. Before the procedure, it is necessary to cut off all the sorrel, weed the weeds and tidy up the area. After this, you can sprinkle the ash in a generous layer. Within a few days, new shoots will hatch without pests. Stinging dusting can be used against the leaf beetle. To do this, add mustard powder and ground pepper to the ash;
Spraying with infusions. As the base of the infusion, you can use garlic (0.5 kg per 3 liters of water) or tobacco (0.5 kg of dried leaves per 10 liters of water). The tobacco solution is infused for only a few hours, and the garlic solution – up to 3 days. After this, you need to dilute the concentrate: garlic – 100 g per 10 l, tobacco – 3 l per 3 l. For better adhesion of the solution to the surface of the sheet, it is recommended to add soap. The prepared solution is applied generously through a spray bottle. The procedure can be performed every 5 days;
An ancient folk method against slugs is wooden plank. It is placed in furrows or between rows, and the board can be removed in the morning. A lot of slugs will accumulate on the underside;
A good prevention against aphids is to treat the leaves with a soap solution. The product has an effect only as a preventive measure; if insects have already appeared on the sorrel, then the soap solution will be useless.

Sorrel grows and renews itself very quickly. Even if it has been attacked by insects, or a fungus has developed, you should not immediately resort to drastic measures such as chemical treatment. You can always simply mow down the infected foliage, and within a week young healthy growth will appear, which needs quality care. Preventive measures and folk remedies in tandem they are very effective and also safe for humans.