Organic Pest Control
by Ned Conwell
Anyone who has ever grown a vegetable garden will agree that pests can do horrible things. The plants we were hoping would produce beautiful fruit or flowers end up having big holes in the leaves, mold growing all over the plant or sometimes they simply disappear. All that hard work ruined can entice anyone to use pesticides. But there is no reason to use them in your family’s home garden. Rather, organic pest control can easily solve garden challenges.
Organic gardeners view plant protection in a holistic way. Pest problems are not isolated attacks but disruptions of a garden ecosystem. Working within the garden ecosystem is the key to organic pest control. First and foremost, organic practices focus on building and maintaining the fertility of the soil and growing healthy plants that are better able to withstand pests. Healthy soil equals healthy plants. Cover crops, compost and appropriate fertilization contribute to rich soil.
Successful pest control is all about prevention and creating conditions in the garden ecosystem that mimic that natural world. Experience will provide the best advice on which pests to expect and the factors that increase or decrease them, but keep these general principles in mind:
1) Pests vary in population size and location due to geography and climate. Know your USDA growing zone.
2) Pests are more or less numerous due to changes in the weather, year to year.
3) Many pests affect certain crops and leave others alone. And some crops are immune to all pests and disease. Plant a diverse garden.
4) Plants under stress such as lack of water, too much water, too much heat or not enough nutrients, are attacked by pests.
5) Chance plays a huge part in gardening. Every year is different.
How can this work directly in the vegetable garden? When possible, grow disease resistant varieties. These vegetable and flower varieties can withstand some of the more common diseases in the garden. Mechanical control methods such as row cover to protect young plants from insects. Cleaning up diseased foliage and removing it from the garden is a good way to cut down on infection. Rotate your crops so plants from the same family are not planted in the same place for consecutive years. This can break the pest cycle.
Encourage and provide food for beneficial insects. Let a few vegetables go to flower or grow flowering herbs and ornamentals that provide nectar and pollen over a long season. Given the chance, these beneficial insects will do much of the insect control for you. Don’t use broad-spectrum pesticides because they are apt to kill the beneficial insects along with the problem ones.
Organic pest control is a way that anyone with access to a piece of earth to cultivate can improve the health and quality of the environment and their families.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 am
Every year is different! That is what makes gardening - & pest control- such a challenge!