We home gardeners are lucky. We don’t depend on the garden for our livelihood. Gardening is not a business for us. We don’t have to worry about keeping our crops totally free of blemishes and damage so they will bring top prices at the market. We can afford to share a part of the harvests with insects and not get upset by it. We can use and enjoy slightly damaged crops.
Check your garden at least every 2 or 3 days so you can spot bugs before they do much damage. When you see some unusual insect activity, take a good look at it. Be sure the bugs actually pose a serious problem before you take steps to control them.
Fight insects with “home remedies” first. A home remedy is often the easiest and simplest control measure you can take, especially if you are close to harvesting the crop. There’s no point in delaying the harvest with a chemical spray or dust when a home remedy can do the job.
The only exception is the bacterial insecticide spray, sold under such names as Dipel and Thuricide, which kills worms that bother cabbage family crops, tomatoes, and corn. Dipel is not a chemical spray; it contains bacteria which paralyze the worms’ digestive systems. You can use it even on the day of the harvest. It is very safe for people, pets, and plants. I heartily recommend it.
Use organic pesticides such as rotenone or pyrethrum spray or dust, and choose chemical pesticides such as Sevin or malathion only as a last resort. Follow all label instructions carefully.
A home-made duster saves money
Dusters cost money, but you can make one for free that will do a perfect job. I make a pouch out of a porous cloth material, such as a cut-out section of burlap bag. I put the dust in, and tie the pouch at the top. To apply it, I hold the pouch over a plant and shake it downward with a quick snap so that a mist of dust drifts from the bottom onto the plants. This cloth bag stores easily, too.
If you choose chemical sprays or dusts, use the correct one for the job
If insect pests get out of hand and you decide to use a commercial chemical insecticide, use the least toxic and most effective one. It helps to know how the problem insect is feeding. Flies and aphids suck their food—their jaws have been fused together into a sort of tube to withdraw liquid from the plants. Diseases can enter a plant through the puncture holes made by sucking insects. A contact poison, such as malathion or methoxychlor, is needed to kill them. Beetles chew leaves and stems, and can be killed with a stomach poison such as Sevin.
Some pests, such as the root maggot that attacks cabbage, do most of their damage underground by feeding on plant roots. These soil-dwelling pests can be killed with the chemical Diazinon.
Tomato and potato dusts must be used early
I’m always extra-watchful when it comes to potatoes and tomatoes, because for many years we depended on big crops of each to store and preserve for winter. Several crippling diseases can hit these crops. Our growing season is often wet and humid, which creates perfect conditions for these diseases to spread—especially early and late blight.
I use a commonly available “tomato-potato dust” which contains a fungicide, a chemical that will kill tiny disease spores before they spread. The important thing is to start early, when the plants are 6 to 8 inches tall, because you can only stop these diseases before they happen. I use a tomato-potato dust every 7 to 10 days up to the harvest period to keep my plants protected. One or two dustings won’t do it. Regular applications are the only way.
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