Austrian Winter Pea

Doves, pigeons, and jays take the big peas straight off the surface of a freshly sown bed, which is the main reason to rake the seed in 1-2 inches rather than broadcasting it bare. Later, geese and doves graze a young winter stand hard in some gardens.

Fruit disappearing from the outermost, most exposed parts of the plant first, and from the top of a tree where you cannot reach anyway. Single neat pecks and gouges in ripening fruit, with several fruits sampled rather than one eaten through - the classic sign that it was birds rather than an animal. Heads of grain or seed going visibly lighter and emptier as they ripen, with hulls and chaff scattered underneath. Freshly sown seed vanishing off the surface of a bed before it germinates. Bird traffic in and out of the plant picking up as the crop colors, and birds waiting on nearby wires and branches. Wasps arriving at the pecked and split fruit shortly afterward.

There is no treatment once a crop is being taken - only protection and timing, so the answer is to get netting on and to pick what is ready. Reflective tape, flash ribbon, spinners, and decoy predators do work, but only for a few days at a time: birds habituate fast, so move and rotate them and never rely on them as the main defense for a crop you care about. Cut and gather grain or seed heads a little early, at firm dough, and finish drying them under cover instead of leaving them standing for the flocks. Plant a little extra, or a decoy crop the birds prefer, and accept sharing anything that crops heavily. On a wild or foraged patch, fruit going to birds and small mammals is the point of the plant rather than a problem to solve.

Net, and net early. Bird netting draped over a frame or hoops so it stands off the fruit, with the edges closed at ground level, is the only thing that reliably works at harvest scale - and it has to go on before the crop starts to color, because once birds have found the food they are far harder to displace. Keep fruit trees small enough that netting them is actually feasible; that decision gets made years earlier, at planting. Bags of mesh, organza, or paper slipped over individual heads, clusters, or prize fruit protect a small crop without netting the whole plant. Then shorten the exposure: pick promptly and completely rather than leaving ripe fruit hanging as a lure, clear split and dropped fruit that draws birds and wasps alike, and where a crop can finish off the plant, harvest a little early and ripen or dry it under cover. Rake in or cover broadcast seed so it is not lying in plain view.

Birds find ripening fruit and seed before you do. Robins, waxwings, starlings, catbirds, jays, sparrows, finches, blackbirds, and doves all work a garden, and the pressure arrives in a narrow window - the last days before harvest, when sugar rises, color changes, and the crop softens or the grain hardens. A flock can strip a small planting in a day or two, and birds that only peck rather than take whole fruit still leave wounds that rot or draw wasps. Squirrels, chipmunks, and other wildlife usually turn up on the same crop at the same time. This is competition rather than disease: the birds are not harming the plant, and a big tree or a heavy-cropping bush often has enough for everyone - but on a small planting it can be the difference between a harvest and none.

Rinse shoots well, and pick past a colonized tip rather than spraying a crop you are eating raw.

Colonies of large pale-green aphids packed onto shoot tips, tendrils, and flower stalks, thickest on the softest new growth. Aphids dropping off the plant the moment you brush against it - a habit fairly specific to this species. Sticky honeydew on the foliage below, ants running the stems, and white cast skins where a colony has been. Yellowing, stunting, downward-rolled leaves, or a mottled stand that does not grow away, which points to a virus the aphids brought rather than the feeding itself.

On a cover crop, usually nothing at all - the predators arrive and the stand outgrows it. Knock heavy colonies off with a jet of water, or pinch out and remove the worst-infested tips. Insecticidal soap sprayed directly onto the insects works if a stand is genuinely being checked, but it also hits the beneficials, so keep it to spot treatment. Never spray a stand you intend to pick shoots or flowers from without checking the product label for that use and its pre-harvest interval.

Encourage the beneficial insects that legume flowers already draw, and skip broad-spectrum sprays that remove them. Do not over-feed nitrogen, since soft lush growth is what the colonies build on - and a legume should not be getting nitrogen anyway. Check the growing tips weekly through spring, and rub out the first colonies by hand while they are small. Where virus has been a recurring problem in a legume rotation, avoid planting a new stand immediately downwind of an old one, since that is how the winged aphids move.

The pea aphid is a large, long-legged, pale-green aphid that specializes on legumes - peas, vetch, clover, alfalfa, lentil, faba bean - and colonizes the growing tips, tendrils, flower stalks, and developing pods. It builds fastest in the mild weather of spring, when a handful of overwintered females can become a coating within two weeks, and it drops off the plant readily when disturbed. On a vigorous cover-crop stand the feeding itself is usually cosmetic and is held in check by the ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps that legume flowers attract. What matters more is that it transmits viruses between legumes, including pea enation mosaic and bean leafroll, which stunt and yellow a stand out of all proportion to the number of insects present.

It does end the shoot-picking season, since mildewed tips are not worth eating.

Round white powdery spots on the upper leaf surfaces that spread and merge until whole leaves look dusted. It usually starts on the oldest, lowest, most shaded leaves and works upward, so check there first. Look at the undersides too, and at stems, buds, and flower stalks, which get coated as it advances. Leaves that yellow, brown, curl, or go crisp and drop early under the coating. New growth that opens small, crumpled, or twisted where the fungus has reached the shoot tips. On plants where it gets onto the fruit, a dull gray film, russeted or scarred skin, and cracking. Late in the season, tiny dark specks scattered through the white felt - that is the fungus setting up to overwinter on the debris.

Start early: sprays protect healthy tissue, they do not clean up leaves that are already coated. Pick off and bin the worst leaves as soon as you see them, and open the plant up by thinning or pruning so air moves through. On anything that regrows quickly, shearing the whole plant back forces a clean flush and beats spraying. If it keeps spreading, potassium bicarbonate, horticultural oil, or neem applied weekly will hold it - cover both leaf surfaces. Sulfur also works, but it burns the foliage of some plants, should never go on in heat, and must not be mixed with or applied close behind an oil spray. Whatever you use must be labeled for the plant you are treating: follow that label and observe its pre-harvest interval on anything you eat. Do not compost badly infected material. Late-season mildew on a plant that is finishing anyway is usually cosmetic; on a crop still filling out it is worth acting on.

Give plants room. Crowding and still air are the biggest single driver, so space at the full recommended distance, thin seedlings properly, and divide or prune out congested growth until air moves through the plant. Full sun and an open position help; deep shade and a still corner against a wall are where it always starts. Water at the base rather than overhead, and water early in the day so nothing stays damp overnight. Keep plants evenly watered - drought stress at the roots leaves them far more susceptible, even though the fungus itself likes dry air. Go easy on nitrogen, since soft lush growth is the most vulnerable. Where resistant varieties exist for what you are growing, choosing one is the single most effective thing you can do on a plant that mildews every year. Clear infected leaves and stems away at the end of the season rather than composting them.

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that coats leaves - and often stems, buds, and fruit - in a white-to-gray powder that looks like spilled talcum. It is not one fungus but a large family of them, each fairly specialised to its own group of plants, which is why mildew on one crop rarely jumps to an unrelated one beside it. Unlike most leaf diseases it does not need wet leaves: it thrives on warm dry days followed by humid nights, and it takes hold fastest where plants stand crowded in still air or in shade. The coating blocks light, so heavily covered leaves yellow, brown, and drop early. On many plants that is mostly disfiguring and arrives late enough not to matter; where it strips away the leaves a crop still needed to finish, it costs you size, sweetness, and quality.