Problem log
What you saw on your weekly scouting walk, what it was identified as and by whom, what you did and what happened next, plus wildlife damage.
Scouting
One row per problem per walk. Identification stays provisional until someone qualified, or a clear match to an extension source, confirms it. Essential for a first season: the first row from your first walk. Further rows are optional.
Wildlife
One row per animal or sign. Fence heights and barriers are in Module 10. Optional for a first season.
How to use these sheets
- One row per problem per scouting walk. What you saw goes in its own column, separate from what you think it is.
- Identification has a status. Provisional until an extension source matches it clearly or a diagnostic lab confirms it; unresolved if you do not know. Say who identified it.
- Action and result. Record the least-risk action you took and what happened the next week. Never record a pesticide unless you followed its label, and note the label's directions you followed.
The scouting row is Plot 14 (fictional): bean seedlings cut off at soil level overnight. Dale's photo-search guess was slugs, kept provisional. There were no slime trails, so two seedlings went to the county extension diagnostic service; Module 10 follows the case to the lab's answer, which settles the identification. The wildlife row is the Lindqvist garden (fictional), where a 4-ft fence did not stop deer last year.
A log is not a diagnosis. An identification from a photo on the internet stays provisional; your extension service or a plant diagnostic lab confirms it. Product questions go to the label and the National Pesticide Information Center; this course names no pesticide products or rates.