Managing Pests Organically in Vegetable Gardens and Orchards
Tips, Tricks
Do you have insect, grub or other pests destroying your garden plants. These simple tips of passive and active pest management have helped me become chemical free in my organic garden! Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AlbertaUrbanGarden Gardens around the northern hemisphere are coming alive and it is an exciting time of year. Then you notice a strange insect or damage on your plants. Today I am going to go through how I deal with pests in my garden. Before I get to actively managing any breakouts that you have I would like to discuss how I have passively set up my garden to help reduce the chances of a breakout or infestation. The first thing I have done is encourage population regulation through the use of predator species. I have released lady bugs in my garden a number of times to deal with outbreaks. Once released the predators are able to take care of any outbreaks I may have. By leaving some areas relatively untouched and providing a food and water source predator populations such as lady bugs and spiders become established. The presence of these predators are usually is enough to keep the pest species numbers under control. That said I like to go a little further. The second passive method is through Polyculture. This is a technique where by you intermix plants. Pest species have a harder time finding their desired victim if they are hidden amongst other non-desirable plants. If they do find them and the predators cannot keep them under control you may face an outbreak. Last year I had a huge problem with cabbage moths and maggots. They targeted all of my cabbage family crops resulting in significant damage. So this year I am fighting back by using crop rotation against them and I did not plant any crops in the cabbage family. If this generation of pests have no food their populations will significantly reduce. Last year however I did actively manage the pests to see if I could salvage the crops. The first and hardest thing to do is to identify the pest you are dealing with. It is important to know if the insect you see is actually causing the damage. Lady bug larvae look nothing like the lady bug and do a lot of pest management for you. If you can take a photo of the pest or the damage they cause it is a great start! If I don’t immediately know what the pest it is time to turn to the internet. So far the most effective way to identify foreign pests is to ask people on the Alberta Urban Garden Facebook page. Shortly after posting a photo of a pest insect we were able to identify it. My friends on Facebook gave me some great resources such as the pest identification website by the Royal Alberta Museum. After you have identified the pest its time to manage them. Each pest is different and may require a different strategy however here are some general tips to start with. Physical removal of the pest from the plant helps a great deal. I remove any pests and eggs I can see. If you would prefer to keep your distance a hose burst usually can free them from the plant without bothering the plant too much. If this does not work there are other methods you can continue with.
Comments
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Love the video. If we can get rid of pests in a way that reduces the effects on the planet, humans and pets. Then it can only be a great thing.
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Theres a new bug sweeping california. The Baragda bug or the painted bug. It destroyed all my brassica based plants. Different types of kale, swiss chards, even my carrots and in some cases my radishes. At first i only saw a few, and before i knew what happened, i had hundreds of thousands. None of my plants were harvestable after them. Ive tried, neem oil mixtures, store bought organic solutions, and companion cropping with onions and garlic. These things are vicious !!!!! And since i plant only leafy greens that are expensive in stores, this things killing my diet !!!
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Perfect!!!!
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What about pests like rats..they ate my prized tomatoe :(
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There is no such thing as pests these are bugs doing there job in nature takeing all sick and deased plants out so they can not reproduce
get you soil in corect with minarals and bacteria and the corect fungi
no pests -
flea beetles... they are my number one pest - they say nematodes will eat the larva, but will the nematodes stay in the soil long-term once I release them?
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Let the bugs battle it out I say. I just think of the bug manure. You might want to look at Land Cress as a caterpillar trap plant. It's a brassica that attracts pests but is apparently not so healthy for them. I've never seen an insect die from it but it doesn't seem to suffer from any pest damage.
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Great tips, Stephen! Fortunately, I don't have a bad pest problem in the outside gardens, but the greenhouse in the spring is a whole nother thing, go figure! I HATE WHITEFLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Well Done. Never fear bad bugs.
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I like your idea on not using pesticides that may kill off beneficial insects that are there to help you in your garden. I do use BT which I understand does not kill beneficial insects. Please let me know if I'm wrong on this, because BT has been highly effective for me in the garden this year, thanks Stephan.
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Good info Stephen! I spray minimally, only for a specific insect. I always use BT for my Brassicas and sometimes Spinosad for other insects if needed. I have worked hard to build up a healthy population of predator wasps, lady bugs, spiders, lace wings, and other beneficial insects - would hate to kill them by broadcast spraying throughout the garden. :)
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Your lucky Bagrada haven't hit your area yet. Absolutely horrific little bugs that suck the life blood out of everything in your garden. They hit your garden by the hundreds and are pretty much unstoppable if your organic on a budget, best you can do is manage the population.
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Well done Stephen! I try to keep organic pesticide to a minimum, since it also kills beneficial insects. One thing I like to keep in mind is the life cycle of pests, like with the cabbage moth. I also had a lot of damage last year. My kale was sowed early spring so it got 3 to 4 generations of them! This year I will start them inside middle of summer and plant them out for a Fall crop, they taste better at that time anyway ;)
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Manual removal sounds daunting however... This year our winter survivor Brussels sprouts were Christmas trees of harlequin bugs. I shook the branches over a large bucket with some water in it. I figured I'd be back all spring long with that approach. Nope. Two go arounds like that and we are in the clear. Just wanted to share that.
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Physical Barriers. I've been able to have hole-free kale with NO effort, by growing the kale inside a netted box. Cabbage moths can't touch 'em! You need some insect netting my friend!
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@ 1:36... Not planting stuff has been quite successful as a pest management for us too ;-D
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Good video as always!
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Lots of scents, lots of colours, all in a polyculture seems to be the way to go!
Our aussie gardening show had a special on carniverous plants that I'm also keen to learn more about for pest management too. Sticky Pinguicula (Butterwort), and Drosera (Sundew) are on my list to experiment with for whitefly and mozzies among other bugs. The lady bugs did their bit this year but it wasn't enough with our infested pumpkin - am not planting that next summer after it took over half the yard!
Also, if you bring home seedlings or plants from nurseries, make sure you give them a good wash and inspection for bugs! Green vegetable/stink bug turned up here that way... -
Excellent tips.
I mainly use soap and hot pepper sprays, even on my fruit trees.
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