Tag Archives: organic pest control

Garden Advice

Organic Integrated Pest Management

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As lovely and romantic as organic gardening can be it can also be really tough. A huge struggle for many organic gardeners is dealing with pests in an efficient and economical way without the use of pesticides or rodenticides. Developing an organic integrated pest management system or IPM can help.

Monitor & Identify

The first step is to monitor your garden and identify any pest issues. Record any problems in a garden journal and be as specific as possible. Research the type of pests you’re seeing and their life cycles. Are they cabbage worms or cabbage loopers attacking your broccoli plants? Also record dates and conditions when they attack your garden. Do aphids destroy your fall crop of lettuce or do the only impact your spring sowings? The more you learn about these pests the easier it is to prevent them. You should also consider at this time if the pests are actually a problem. Having to pick off a few tomato hornworms may not be worth putting major preventative measures in place if they’re not actually affecting the productivity in your garden and are otherwise easily managed.

Prevention

This is the most important part of an IPM. Once you’ve gathered information you can put preventative measures in place. Knowing a pest’s habitat and life cycle can be key. Examples of of preventative measures include planting a crop late or early to avoid a major pest season (ex. planting quick maturing cabbage early when it’s too cold for cabbage moths), attracting certain bird species to keep pest populations in check, encouraging or purchasing native predatory insect species (ex. ladybugs can be purchased online and are excellent at reducing aphid populations), growing pest resistant varieties, or using row cover over your most vulnerable crops. Sometimes you’ll need to employ a combination of these strategies. Often a well planned preventative strategy can keep your garden productive without a lot of additional work.

Control

In severe situations where pest prevention has been ineffective control measures are used as a last resort. These controls may be very effective against pests however they’re typically costly in other ways. Some, like handpicking can be very time consuming while others may actually be pricey for the small gardener like neem oil. Even though they aren’t as problematic as chemical pesticides they also may have unintentional environmental impacts despite the fact that they’re organic. Organic pesticides like neem oil, diatomaceous earth, or milky spore powder may be implemented with the intention of only harming a single pest species but unfortunately there’s no way to protect the good species. These organic pesticides can still kill beneficial insects like butterflies, bees, parasitic wasps, predatory beetles, and more.

Using integrated pest management can help you successfully maintain an organic garden. While no strategy is perfect, researching and recording your specific pest problems and then implementing preventative strategies can be effective.

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Garden Advice

Combating Mexican Bean Beetles

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Beans seem like the ultimate beginner crop. They’re easy to grow and save seed from, they’re nitrogen fixing and unfussy about soil conditions, and there’s tons of varieties for gardeners to choose from. They’re also a great source of protein for those looking to produce more of their own diet. Beans are perfect until you come out to your garden to find all parts of the plant have been thoroughly chewed on.

Mexican bean beetles can become a huge problem for gardeners hoping for a great bean crop. You may first notice them by the damage done to the leaves of your plants. Bean beetles eat the leaves from the underside and leave them with a lace-like appearance. If left to continue they will eventually kill the plant. They also eat the beans and you may notice chunks missing from them or a brown, scabby spots.

The beetles themselves are easy to identify. They lay small yellow eggs in clusters glued to the underside of the leaves. The larvae are bright yellow and spiny and will stand out on your bean plants. As adults they look like a light orange colored ladybug and are in fact as species of ladybug. Note that other species of ladybug are beneficial and eat harmful insects and aphids.

There are several ways to combat bean beetles and what works well for one person may not work well for everyone. Every garden is unique.

Use Neem Oil

Neem oil can be purchased as an OMRI (Organic Materials Institute) certified pesticide or fungicide derived from neem seeds. It’s effective at combating Mexican Bean Beetles however it may harm beneficial insects in your bean patch as well.

Handpick

Not the most fun option, but some people find hand picking to be effective. You can just smash the eggs and pick off the larvae and beetles and place them in a bucket of water and a little dish soap to kill them. However if the beetles are particularly abundant in your garden or you have a large bean patch it may be difficult to keep up with them.

Let Chickens Eat Them

Most of the time it’s good to keep your chickens out of the garden. You don’t want them eating your harvest or digging up seedlings in their quest for grubs.  However if you have bean beetles you may want to let your chickens into your bean patch for a snack.

Install Row Cover

Although it may seem like a drastic and expensive option row cover is very effective if used from the start of the season. It can be used multiple years.

Use Milky Spore Powder

Milky Spore is a bacteria that kills Japanese beetles however some gardeners say that they’ve successfully used it to kill Mexican Bean Beetle larvae. Milky Spore Powder is OMRI certified and safe to use on organic gardens.

Plant Late or Early

Mexican bean beetles don’t hatch out in the early spring or fall so you may be able to get a crop in before or after they’re really an issue.

Try Different Varieties

Some varieties will attract more bean beetles than others. If you find one that’s a favorite you may be able to use it as a trap crop to draw the beetles away from your other varieties. You can burn your trap crop plants and the beetles on them.

Help Their Predators

There are many creatures that feed on Mexican bean beetles including toads, some birds, several species of parasitic wasp, tachinid flies, and spined soldier bugs. By creating habitat for them in your garden you may be able to reduce your bean beetle problem. Some insects like parasitic wasps and spined soldier bugs can also be purchased and released into your garden.

 

Don’t let bean beetles stop you from planting beans. There’s plenty of ways to combat bean beetles so you can still have an excellent harvest.

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Garden Advice

7 Benefits of Companion Planting

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By Jordan Charbonneau, photos by Ira Wallace

At first companion planting may seem like an odd idea. However if you consider how plants grow in nature, there’s never sections of just one species. There’s always a mix of species with different niches and ecological functions. While scientists have really just skimmed the surface studying the interactions between plants we do know that many plants have beneficial relationships and that applies to garden plants too! That’s why when we plant monoculture sections of crops we’re setting ourselves up for less healthy and productive gardens.

Companion planting is one of the easiest ways to mimic a natural ecosystem more closely. There are many benefits you’ll see in your garden if you use companion planting this year.

The list below contains some of those benefits and easy ways to achieve them in your home garden.

Companion planting saves space.

It’s perfect for people trying to make the most of their small gardens. A common way to use companion planting to save space is by planting a vining plant under a taller one. It uses space that would otherwise stay empty or fill up with weeds. Another method is to plant quick growing crops in between rows of slower growing crops. My favorite two plants to tuck in around our garden are radishes and green onions. They can be stuck in just about anywhere and harvested before the other crops start to fill up that space.

It keeps soil moist and helps prevent erosion.

Not having large spaces of open soil not only allows you to grow more plants but helps hold the soil and keep it moist. Vining plants like squash and cucumbers are especially useful for shading the soil. In a time where droughts have become a real problem in much of the United States this is perhaps one of the most important aspects of companion planting.

It keeps weeds out.

The same way that having soil covered in plants hold water it also blocks weed growth. In the well known Native American method, the three sisters garden, vining squash is grown beneath corn and beans to shade the soil and prevent weeds from growing.

Companion planting can decrease pest issues.

When you ditch the conventional monoculture garden layout it will be harder for pests to destroy your crops. They won’t find a solid patch of their favorite food. Some plants even deter certain pests. For example, wormwood can be planted among cabbage and other brassicas to help deter cabbage moths and marigold can be planted with beans to deter Mexican bean beetles.

Companion planting can help with disease issues.

Just like with dense gatherings of people disease is spread more quickly through your garden when plants of the same type are all in one big group. Adding different species to a planting can help break up your garden and slow the spread of disease. As previously mentioned plant interactions aren’t fully understood but certain plants have been shown to make other plants healthier therefore lowering their susceptibility to disease. Good examples of this are beans in the three sisters garden method providing nitrogen for the corn and squash and growing basil with tomatoes which many people believe makes for healthier tomatoes plants.

Companion planting can be used to attract pollinators and beneficial insects.

Beneficial insects of all sort will be more likely to spend time in and travel throughout your garden if there’s plenty of habitat and food available. Throughout our garden we include patches of of flowers and flowering cover crops like clover, vetch, and buckwheat. It’s good to choose varieties that have extended bloom periods.

Companion planting can eliminate the need for trellises.

The most common living trellis is probably the corn which pole beans grow up in a three sisters garden. However there’s many other tall plants that are suitable for lightweight climbing plants including sunflowers, sorghum, Jerusalem artichokes, amaranth, and fruit and nut trees.

Companion Planting Examples

Asparagus, Parsley, & Tomatoes: plant together for better harvests.

Beans & Marigold: the marigold deters Mexican bean beetles.

Cabbage & Buckwheat: the buckwheat attracts parasitic wasps that will kill cabbage worms.

Carrots & Rosemary: the rosemary deter carrot flies.

Lettuce & Chives: the chives can help deter aphids.

Melon & Radishes: You’ll get two crops out of one bed as the radishes can be harvested before the melon plant spreads.

Tomatoes & Basil: intercropping basil makes for healthier tomato plants.

Radishes & Spinach: radishes attract leaf miners which don’t harm the radish bulbs but will destroy a spinach crop.

Beets & Garlic: intercropping garlic improves the health of the beets.

Peas & Fruit Trees: Peas can use the tree as a trellis and are so early they’ll be done before the tree shades them fully.

Squash & Borage: the borage deters harmful worms and improves the squash plant’s health.

Nasturtiums and Cucumbers: nasturtiums add another edible to the same space and attracts beneficial insects.

Corn, Pole Beans, & Squash: the corn provides a trellis for the beans which provide nitrogen for the corn and squash. The squash shades the ground beneath the beans and corn keeping soil moist, blocking weeds, and utilizing space. Check out the Three Sisters Garden Package!

Using these examples and other plant relationships to your advantage can help you to achieve a productive and beautiful garden without resorting to conventional agricultural methods. Companion planting is one of the easiest ways to deter pests and present plant diseases organically. It’s abundance of benefits make it great choice for anyone looking to make the most of a small and/or sustainably focused garden.

Have you tried companion planting? Comment and let us know!