If you grow blueberries, be on the lookout for these longhorned beetles.
 
No, we’re not talking about Texas longhorns. Blueberry stem borers (Oberea myops) are in a family of narrow beetles with long antennae (Cerambycidae). Also known as rhododendron borers and azalea borers, they are close cousins to raspberry cane borers.
 
Adult blueberry stem borers are slightly over one-half of an inch long (15mm), light orangish brown, with long black antennae and two black dots just behind the head, on the pronotum. Larvae can be one inch long (25mm) and yellowish.
 
Females lay individual eggs just under the bark and then mark the area by girdling the stem above and below the egg. This damage causes the stem tip to turn brown in early summer.
 
After hatching, larvae burrow lower into the stem, creating an increasingly larger tunnel where they will live and feed for two or three years. Larval feeding weakens the plant, causing wilting, stem damage, and branch loss.
 
If you look closely, you may be able to see tiny holes in the stem where larvae push out light-colored frass (poop) that looks like tiny segmented pieces of sawdust. Unlike currant borers, peach twig borers, and squash vine borers, blueberry stem borer larvae frass holes are oriented upward, so the use of a wire to stab the larvae tends to be ineffective because they stay safely below those holes.
 
Adult blueberry stem borers tend to feed on the underside of leaves, especially on the midvein, causing calluses and leaf curling. While that feeding damage is minimal, you can use it as a tool to monitor your plants.
 
Protected inside your blueberry plants, blueberry stem borer larvae are not affected by insecticides. While you can spray for adults, this is generally not worth the effort. The best control tool is your pruners.

Pruning your blueberry bushes to keep them free of old, damaged, or rubbing stems is your best defense against blueberry stem borers.

Like other flea beetles, tuber flea beetles damage fruit, leaves, roots, and tubers. Adults crawl, fly, and jump from plant to plant to eat the leaves and burrow into the soil to lay eggs. Larvae feed on roots and tubers before pupating into adults. Adult feeding causes tiny holes in leaves, creating a shothole appearance, bare patches on tubers, and leathery areas on fruit.

Fusarium yellows is a disease of the cabbage family.
 
Closely related to Fusarium wilt, Fusarium yellows sometimes goes by that name. More commonly, it is simply called yellows.
 
This disease is caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Conglutinans fungi. It occurs most often in crops grown during warm weather. The disease is at its worst when temperatures are between 80°F and 90°F (27°C and 32°C).
 
The pathogen generally enters damaged rootlets at transplanting time, so be gentle with those babies.
 
Symptoms of Fusarium yellows are easy to overlook at first. Infected plants become a paler version of their healthier selves. They develop a yellowish tint, rather than vibrant green. As the disease progresses, that discoloration becomes more obvious on one side of the plant. The leaves and stems on that side start to curve. Lower leaves, midribs, and petioles eventually wilt and die.
 
Symptoms then move to the upper portion of the plant. If you look at a cross-section of an infected leaf or stem, you can see that the sap has turned dark brown, much like black rot, which turns sap black. The other difference is that symptoms appear in the upper portions of the plant first when black rot is the culprit.

Infected plants should be removed and thrown in the trash.
 
These fungi can live in the soil for many years. The best preventive methods include crop rotation, removing plant debris at the end of the growing season, and growing your brassicas during cooler weather.