The weather is finally warming up enough for us to leave our hibernation and enjoy the sunshine! While you are enjoying these first few days of warmth, look around your yard and garden and start thinking about spring sanitation.
 

Why spring sanitation is important

Many plant pathogens overwinter in debris — leaves, branches and twigs that have fallen to the ground, annual plants that have died and are still in the ground or pots, even dead branches still attached to trees. These pathogens emerge when temperatures warm up and can begin infecting tissue early this spring as plants leave dormancy. It’s important to practice good sanitation now to reduce the likelihood of a disease problem later.

Yard cleanup

Rake up and dispose of any leaves still on the ground. If any plants had a leaf spot disease last year, the fungal or bacterial pathogen is still in that fallen leaf tissue and will likely cause infection again this year. Remove whole plants (including roots!) that have died because root pathogens can survive in the soil for many years, especially if the diseased plant tissue is still present. Composting yard waste may destroy plant pathogens, but it’s best to dispose of diseased tissue in municipal compost, the garbage, or by burning (check local and state ordinances for burning) because conventional composting may not reach high enough temperatures to destroy plant pathogens.

Pull weeds - not only will this reduce competition and increase airflow (which reduces plant wetness, a favorable condition for plant pathogens), but certain weed species can harbor plant diseases for certain hosts. For instance, diseases that affect plants in the nightshade family (tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant) can also affect weeds in that family and spread from them.

Check trees and shrubs 

carefully for holes, cankers, and dead branches. Look for sunken, dark, or malformed areas on branches and prune them back to a healthy branch. Check for any winter, storm, or wind damage. Remove old flower blooms and any fruit mummies still on trees. Plant pathogens usually thrive in wet, humid conditions. If a plant with a dense canopy previously had a disease issue, prune it this spring to increase airflow and reduce favorable conditions for disease development.

When buying new plants for your landscape, select cultivars with disease resistance. For instance, dogwood spot anthracnose and dogwood powdery mildew are common diseases on flowering dogwood in this area, and there are a number of cultivars on the market with resistance to one or both of these diseases.