My topic: What worked for me this year to avoid the use of pesticides in my kitchen garden
1. Row covers. My newly found triumph. They were easier than I thought and very effective in keeping the cabbage worms away (photos here).
2. Admit defeat. Black aphids ate my fava beans this year and I admitted failure and pulled them up (pictures of the favas and aphids are here). Soon after, the lady bugs arrived in force and I haven't seen another aphid all year (my lady bug photos are here).
3. Plant many varieties: My fava bean failure was a big disappointment, but since I had many other crops, it didn't matter so much that I lost one. I also had a problem with my green beans this year - probably a bean mosaic virus (pictures here). It affected my heirloom varieties that were not virus resistant. Since I had planted at least 6 or 8 different varieties of beans, including both heirloom and new varieties, I just pulled the affected plants and enjoyed the resistant ones.
4. Encourage birds. I don't know how much the birds really help by eating bugs, but I see them out in the garden every day - rain or shine - eating this and that. I mostly get house sparrows in the bird houses I've put up around the garden. Also robins, chickadees, cardinals, blue jays and house wrens. But I think they are a part of natural pest control.
5. Wrap squash stems with cheese cloth. I didn't have many stem borers in my squashes this year, which may in part be due to wrapping about half of my squash stems with cheese cloth. It looked ugly, but I have to admit that it seemed to work. In previous years, many of my squash and cucumber plants were killed mid year by borers. The plants suddenly wilt and die. Pesticides effective against borers are toxic to bees.
6. Rotate crops. A garden plan helps with this. Mid-winter is a good time to figure out where to move your crops to next year.
7. Get a soil test: A soil test will tell you if what applications of nitrogen and other nutrients are necessary to avoid problems that can occur as a result of stressed plants. I tested my soil late last fall and the results detailed a fertilization regime, organic matter additions and pH adjustments.
8. Irrigation: I highly recommend a built in easy and effective irrigation system for use during dry periods. I have a network of small PVC pipes that I lift to work the soil every spring and then bury prior to planting. (Here are pictures.) It works great. I have a computer controlled system that I use to irrigate early in the day. This promotes the drying of leaves and decreases pests that thrive in moist conditions. (Next year, my hope is to attach a rain barrel my irrigation system. What fun!)
Nice bit ... I have long given up on pesticides and am begining to wonder about fungicides. I used to spray my roses for aphids but the strong always survived, and multiplied! I now use my fingers to kill the buggers! We get an 'onry squash bug (big and brown). No pesticide in the world kills those things and I get a sense of accomplisment when I squish them! Same for horn worm and grubs.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to the photo... Are they going to make it before first frost? Still not sure about the effort/return of a fall crop here in 5a, but I do like broccoli! We had our first hard frost the morning of 10/8 and have had a number of frosts since. Nothing survived the first, and I have pulled everything up since. I have considered row covers but night-time lows are consistently (sp?)in the 30's so I am not sure this would help protect a fall crop. Will check back soon,
Best.
-S
Thanks for such an informative post. "Plant many varieties" is a great tip--spreading risk should be obvious but sometimes that's what's easiest to forget. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for yet another informative post! I've learned a great deal from your blog.
ReplyDeleteI'd love a bit more info on 2 things, 1) where exactly on the squash stem and when do you put on the cheesecloth for squash borers, and 2) a few more details about your irrigation system! I'm hoping next year to finally set up a gravity fed drip irrigation system with my rain barrel, but I'd love to learn more about your set-up. If you can share this info, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Ali,
ReplyDeleteI don't recommend the cheese cloth method. It is almost impossible to completely wrap a stem. It looks ugly. And it falls off quickly. Sorry. I'm still looking for other methods.
The drip system was professionally installed by Autowater in Lexinton/Waltham MA. I don't know where to get similar systems. I wish I did as I'd like to add to the system myself.