Organic Gardening - Remedies for Garden Pests and Disease

What I write below I've learned mostly by reading the OGL list (details below). This is a quick summation of what helps when you have bug and disease problems. If you need details, you might want to join the list or find the books listed on the right side of this page at your library.

Disease and pest resistant plants come from healthy microbes (beneficial fungi especially) + healthy beneficial organisms such as worms.

Beneficial microbes battle plant disease and capture nutrients for plant roots to use. Worms "till" the soil and add fertility at the same time.

Sprays are for unhealthy plants but you don't have those when you encourage healthy soil and beneficial organisms.

Listerine, vodka, etc... (Jerry Baker style) sprays impede the health of beneficial organisms.

Spray compost tea instead. Use lots of compost. Try milk for some fungal disease. You'll do much better in the long run and save yourself time and money.

I'm still working on my gardens to be honest but it says something when my healthiest specimen this year was a gorgeous, huge, sweet pumpkin growing out of the compost pile. It was disease free and pest free.

Stressed plants invite disease and pests.   Remember that plants must have adequate water. They must be planted at the correct time and temperature. Most need sun to grow. Plants that are poorly grown from the start are stressed plants. That's why I grow my own from seed.

So what if you aren't blessed with terrific soil yet?

Soil building:
I'm going to quote someone much better at explaining the process than I am. Michael Phillips in his book, The Apple Grower, explains, "Root colonization by either type of mycorrhizal fungi provides protection to the roots [plant roots would be the same]." He goes on to explain, "The beneficial hyphae exude glomulin and other antibiotic metabolites as a way of protecting their home turf."   This all means that fungi help plants resist disease (and they also help plant roots take up nutrition!)   We make use of brush piles that have degraded and we use rotten logs from the forest that we break up and compost or break up and use as mulch or break up and use in building new garden beds. Fungi abound in both the degraded brush pile and in the rotten logs.

Bug sprays:
I've had good luck with garlic/hot pepper spray for some pests such as junebugs. I harvest the chiles and dry them. They are the base of the garlic and hot pepper spray. I boil the chiles and garlic in a sauce pan with about 2 cups of water and then let cool. I then grind the chiles and peeled garlic in the blender with the hot water and then strain the liquid into a sprayer. I add a little biodegradable soap (Bronner's peppermint soap works well) and water and go to it. The spray doesn't kill the beetles but it stops them in their tracks. Habeneros work well too and are also easy to grow. I bought chestnut trees a few years ago and the beetles decimated them until I started spraying them with this solution. Last year this spray halted the junebugs in their tracks as they tried to eat all the leaves on my muscadines. Sometimes I add essential oils to the mix (a little goes a long way) such as Eucalyptus.

Another pest solution
I have had success with floating row covers but they tear easily and are expensive. I found that used sheer curtains at the thrift store work just as well. Once the plants need pollination, remove the covers. (Crops such as potatoes do not require pollination.) We bend rebar into U shapes and stick the ends down into the ground. The row covers are pinned to the rebar with clothes pins. Later that rebar can be covered in plastic for frost protection.

Good things about mulch
Mulch prevents weeds, helps the soil's temperature stay even and helps the soil retain moisture. Eventually, once it breaks down or is broken down by soil organisms, it also feeds plants. Mulch also protects beneficial soil organisms from too much heat or dry weather. Mulch is important for preventing stress to plants. Use LOTS of it!

A Warning about mulch
One year I bought straw from a local feed and seed store to mulch my vegetables. For some reason I didn't think about the fact that local farmers spray herbicides in their fields to produce thick stands of hay and grain. (Many herbicides kill broad leafed plants such as vegetable plants but leave narrow leafed plants such as grains and grasses alone.) Almost nothing grew and the beds I mulched with this poisonous stuff still bear poorly as herbicides persist in the ground longer that what chemical corporations will admit to. If you chose to mulch, please be sure to NOT mulch with hay from fields where herbicides have been applied. You'll have to ask; the information will not be volunteered.


GSE
GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) works well with bacterial as well as fungal problems and I've noticed it works in a small way as a deterrent too.

Compost Tea - A cure all!
Please do a google search for finding how to make it. Other sites can explain better than I can. I'd like to encourage you to try it though. Its made all the difference in seedlings, pest control, disease control and bringing plants back from the edge of disaster.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS
I've found the MOST helpful information has come from Mother Earth News. Check it out on newstands!

I'll try to add more information to this page with time. For now, you can read about:

SOIL
SEEDS
Or browse my list of BOOKS

or

Join the Organic Gardening List
The OGL list (Organic Gardening Discussion List) hosts informative discussions on a wide range of organic gardening, sustainable agriculture, and soil science topics. To join the list send a message saying (in the body)
SUBSCRIBE OGL [Yourfirstname] [Yourlastname]
to
LISTSERV@LSV.UKY.EDU
All the messages sent by subscribers will arrive in your email box, or you can set the listserv to DIGEST format to send you one daily compilation of all that day's messages.

Write to me if you want to learn more! The link below takes you to a page where you can click my name ( # 94) to write me. I use this format to discourage spammers using robots to collect email addresses. Send me a note

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