Patience with Garden Pests: Part 4 - Sprays and Dusts

Hello Happy Gardeners! Welcome to the fourth and final segment in our series on organic pest control. Today I would like to wrap up our conversation by talking a little bit about organic insecticides. So far we have learned that as organic gardeners, dealing with invasive pests involves more planning and preparation than our conventional brethren. But what we know that they don't is that healthy plants are less attractive to insects than sickly over nourished ones. Only after Cultural Control, Physical/Mechanical Control, and Biological Control methods have been exhausted should any type of Insecticide be used. The reason for this is that as we increase our presence in our garden ecosystem, we disturb the natural balance and stress our plants. Nothing can cause more harm to a garden ecosystem than broad use of an insecticide applied in an inappropriate manner. Yes, even organic insecticides have unintended consequences, albeit not as severe as their synthetic counterparts, but still very damaging. You should always remember that anything labeled an insecticide must be considered a poison, and poisons are no bueno.

First things First, know your options. Organic insecticides come in many forms: Botanical Insecticides such as neem oil and pyrethrin are derived from plants. Some insecticides such as Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) are actually living organisms. Others such as DE (Diatomaceous earth) are mined from the earth and consist of fossilized algae. As you can see, sometimes as organic gardeners we have to be creative in how we battle pests, there is no "one size fits all" solution. Knowing what kind of insecticide you have and how it works is also valuable information for knowing when and how to apply the insecticide.

Timing is absolutely crucial when applying any type of insecticide. You would not want to apply DE before a rainstorm because once it is wet, it loses it's effectiveness. Living and botanical insecticides should be applied at dusk or at night because both are susceptible to heat and solar radiation. Both should also be applied to the undersides of leaves and around the base of the plant to be most effective. This also prevents exposure to beneficial insects that often hunt on the tops of leaves.

Secondly, it is important to remember that all insecticides are poisons. Because of this, you want to always read the label completely before using any product. By law, insecticides must carry either a Caution, Warning, or Danger label. As a rule insecticides labeled caution are the least harmful to humans, and those labeled Danger are the most harmful. Reading the label will also tell you in what manner you should be using the insecticide. If used incorrectly, organic insecticides can be harmful to bees and other beneficial insects and wildlife.  Always use extreme care when applying any kind of insecticide and again try to only apply in the evening to prevent unwanted exposure to beneficial insects. As a rule, try and only use species specific insecticides whenever possible.  For example Bt is harmful only to leaf chewing caterpillars (BTK) and mosquito larvae (BTI). Bt is not harmful to pollinators or any other beneficial insect. Nosema locustae is a bait insecticide that is harmful to grasshoppers and crickets, but is useless against mosquitoes and caterpillars. Conversely you should also limit your use of broad spectrum "knock down" insecticides like PyGanic. PyGanic is a 5% pyrethrin solution that is extremely effective on a whole host of garden pests. Unfortunately it will kill most every beneficial insect out there as well, so please, only use as a last resort. As always, you should clearly read the labels and follow the manufactures instructions before applying any organic insecticide.  Always wear proper PPE and avoid long term exposure.

Lastly, you may have heard of insects becoming immune to certain pesticides. This happens because overtime insects can become resistant to pesticides that are continually used over and over. In order to prevent this from happening in your garden, you should always rotate different types and classes of insecticides. For example Neem is common insecticide used to treat a variety of pests, but different neem products work in different ways. Safer BioNeem is essentially azadirachtin, a growth regulator that prevents young insects from molting and therefore interrupting the life cycle. Concentrated Neem Oil on the other hand is a contact insecticide with little or no azadirachtin and works mainly by causing insects to stop feeding. Using the two different types of neem, and perhaps an Insecticidal Soap mixed in will provide a variety of pest control options that will leave the bugs in your garden looking for an alternate residence.

Well there you have it. By now I hope you have a better grasp on organic pest management than you did when you started. Of course, these are only outlines on how to deal with pests in a general sense.  Pages can be written on battling specific insects, but if you follow these guidelines, you should be off to a good start. If there are any pests bugging you, please send me an email, I would love to help you out in any way I can.  Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for next time.  And as always,

Happy Gardening!





  

Patience with Garden Pests: Part 3 - Biological Control

Hello happy gardeners. I hope all is well in your desert garden. Today I would like to continue my four part series on organic pest control by talking about one of my favorite topics; Biological Control. Controlling pests by introducing beneficial predators or pathogens is known as Biological Control. It's good bug vs. bad bug. Now you may be asking yourself, bugs are destroying my garden and you want me to attract MORE bugs! I know it sounds crazy, but one of our best organic allies against the pest nemesis are the pest's natural insect enemies.

Before we go any further, I would like to put the use of Biological Control into perspective.  As we learned in part one of this series, the best way to keep insects from becoming pests is to create an environment that allows your garden to thrive on its own. This is known as Cultural Control. Pests don't flock to healthy plants the way they do to stressed plants. Part of creating a more healthy balanced ecosystem in your garden means providing an area near or in your garden where Beneficial Insects can feed and reproduce all year long. It needn't take up a large area to be effective, a 3'x 3' space dedicated to specific plants that attract beneficials will provide all the food and shelter they need to be happy. By providing this area we can naturally increase the amount of  beneficial insects that will visit our vegetable garden to feed on unwanted pests. The more we can do to create a healthy ecosystem before insects become pests will help us down the road if an infestation does occur. Creating a beneficial insect habitat now will also help us later on if we need to purchase beneficials as added reinforcements.

When it comes to attracting beneficial insects, one family of plants reigns supreme. The Apiaceae or Umbelliferae family is home to some very common vegetables and herbs. Carrots, parsnip, cilantro, dill and parsley are just a few of the many plants in this family. The reason beneficials love plants in this family has to do with both the fragrance they put off and the shape of their flowers.  As the name suggests, plants in this family have flowers that form in the shape of umbrellas. This curvature and mass of small flowers, called an umbel, provides the perfect feeding area for predatory wasps, hoverflies, lacewings and many other beneficial insects. We can increase the effectiveness of these plants by strategically planting them in between rows of pest susceptible crops. Interplanting in this way is a great example of Companion Planting. Rather than try and purchase individual varieties of every plant in this family I suggest purchasing a seed mix such as PVFS Good Bug Blend. This seed mix is full of plants that will re-seed themselves year after year while attracting beneficials to your garden. Easy-peasy.

Now that we know what plants we should be using to attract beneficial insects to our garden, how can we identify them once they are there? For starters, here is a list of some common beneficial insects you may use to get a basic idea of what I am talking about. As you can see the list is quite extensive. Of course you are not expected to memorize what each one of these insects look like right now, but I can almost guarantee with enough time you will become pretty familiar with a lot of them. I'd be willing to bet that you recognize one or two of them already!

Notice also that there are pictures of the different life stages of the particular insects.  It is important to know what different insects look like at different stages of their life cycle.  A praying mantis nymph for example looks like a miniature version of the adult. Ladybug larvae however look like mini orange and black alligators, nothing like the adult version we are all familiar with. It is also important to know how to identify beneficial insects in their different forms so you know at what stage they will be feeding on the pest you are dealing with.

The Green Lacewing (my personal favorite beneficial insect) is a beautiful bug that you will often see on your windows at night. It's too bad that these adult lacewings feed only on nectar and pollen. Lacewing larvae on the other hand are a voracious predator that feed on a myriad of garden pests. Ladybugs feed on pests both as adults and larvae. Providing an area in your garden where beneficials can reproduce will insure there are always plentiful and hungry beneficial insects of all ages if and when pests arrive. Take note that some beneficials are not visible to the naked eye. Trichogramma wasps, for example, are so tiny that multiple wasps fit on the head of a pin! Unless you have an extra microscope lying around...you get my drift.  Keep faith that if you build it, they will come.

Lastly, I wold like to discuss introducing purchased beneficial insects into your garden. Purchasing beneficials is a great way to control pests but it is not for the faint of heart. It isn't often that you can literally watch your money fly away, but that is exactly what will happen if precautions are not taken. For many reasons I would only suggest purchasing beneficials after cultural and physical control measures have been exhausted. As with other forms of organic pest control, there is a time and place for using Biological Control. It is important to note that although introducing beneficials to your garden can be helpful, the results are not often immediate and are most always temporary. 

One approach to introducing beneficials involves purchasing a large number of insects and releasing them with the hope that they will provide immediate pest management.  This method of pest control is called "inundative" biological control. This inundative approach often requires significant monetary investment to achieve noticeable control, but the reduced use of pesticides reduces environmental impact. Once the pest insect, or food source, is gone however so too are the beneficials you paid for to control them. The use of row covers can help to extend the amount of time beneficials stick around in your garden. Just don't be surprised if the ladybugs you released one day are no where to be found the next.

Alternately you may decide to release beneficial insects with the hope that they will establish themselves long-term. This approach, known as "innoculative" biological control, is much harder to achieve and will only work if a habitat for beneficials has already been established.  If you've purchased beneficials without the habitat, don't worry you can try and keep them around by placing some attractants around your garden.  These can be purchased, or you can make a homemade version by rubbing some honey or molasses on a 3x5 index card and hanging it from your plants.  Releasing your ladybugs at night can help to keep them from flying away immediately. Lacewing eggs can be kept in the refrigerator for weeks and released a few at a time. Just remember that no matter what you do, sometimes a bug just decides no matter how inviting your garden may be he just wants to live in your neighbors oleander.

Well thats all for today. Visit some of these great companies if you are interested in learning more or if you would like to purchase some biological control for your garden:

ORCON - California's own...
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply/Grow Organic -  A great place for all sorts of goodies!
Gardens Alive! - Hoosier state. It's Alive!
Nature's Control - Out of Oregon.
ARBICO Organics - Southern Arizona based company.

Also check out these links to learn more:

UC Davis IPM
Resource guide for Organic pest and disease management


Happy Gardening!

Patience with Garden Pests: Part 2 - Physical and Mechanical Control

Hello Everybody! I hope that your Winter planting season is going well. This is a great time of year to be a organic gardener in Southern Arizona.  While most of the country is bundled up with seed catalogs, we're lucky enough to be smack dab in the middle of one of the busiest planting times of the year. How fortunate we are indeed. Today I would like to continue our conversation on organic pest control by discussing the second phase of organic pest management, Physical Control.

As we learned last month, the first and best option for dealing with pests in the garden is to provide your plants with a healthy environment so that pests don't become a problem in the first place. We also learned the worst thing we can do in the beginning is reach for the bottle of organic pesticide. So what do we do when, even after careful preparation, pests decide to invade the garden? Firsts thing's first, fear not. I assure you that every gardener, throughout all time, has at one time or another had to battle with some bothersome bugs. You can take some comfort in knowing that of the billions of insects around the world, only a few dozen actually cause significant damage to garden crops. Fortunately for us, the myriad of ways to combat these pests have been well documented and tested.

The way pests feed will determine how we can both identify and control them. There are four primary ways pests feed on plants in the garden: Above ground chewing, above ground sucking, below ground feeding, and boring. The earlier you can spot pests or pest damage, it will increase the likelihood that you will successfully be able to combat the invader. This involves due diligence on the part of the gardener. Spending at least 30 minutes every night checking under leaves and looking for pest damage should be a part of your routine. You may need to purchase a jeweler's lens or strong magnifying glass to identify the small guys. Signs to looks for include wilted or stressed plants, holes chewed in leaves, curled leaves that look sickly or have dried out, and clusters of insects or insect frass (poop). Once you are sure you have an insect pest, the first step you must take is to identify the culprit.  Many plants are affected by multiple pests whose damage looks similar, so always be sure you know what you are dealing with before you proceed.

The easiest and most affordable Physical Control is to hand pick the pest. Caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles, aphids, snails, grubs and many other pests can simply be picked off and either squashed, dropped into a bucket of soapy water, or fed to the chickens. I sometimes have trouble with the squashing of an unassuming little caterpillar, but by feeding  them to my chickens I somehow feel left out of the karmic loop. A strong stream of water can also be used in lieu of handpicking if you are a bit squeamish about touching bugs, just be careful not to damage the plants in the process. This method of pest control is considered to be the safest and least damaging to the garden ecosystem.

If nightly strolls around the garden are impractical, or squishing aphids between your fingertips before dinner isn't your thing, then don't be afraid to reach for a row cover. A floating row cover is a protective barrier that you can place over your plants to keep insects from having access. These row covers are made of a light weight material that lets in water and over 95% of sunlight. Moths and butterflies must go elsewhere to lay their destructive eggs however. Although they can not keep out 100% of pests out 100% of the time, they can significantly reduce the chance of a pest infestation.

Traps can also be useful when combating garden pests.  Pheromone traps attract insects and interrupt their breeding cycle. They do this by sending out chemical signals that insects find irresistible. These traps work by only attracting either a male or a female of a particular species. When the insects become trapped they can not reproduce and therefore their life cycle is stopped. Sticky traps are another useful tool in the garden but use them only as a last resort because they can harm beneficial insects as well. Sticky traps are brightly colored yellow or blue cards that attract different insects. When insects land on the trap they stick and can not escape. A home made sticky trap can be constructed with some yellow paper board and a product called tangle foot.  Tangle foot works well as a barrier against ants as well. Simply place the tangle foot around the base of your plants to keep ants from crawling up and eating the leaves or fruit.

If squash borers are your problem, you may want to try a little "grubectomy." Locate the entrance point of the borer by searching for the orange colored frass that is the by-product of its feeding. Usually you can find this area located under a wilted leaf. Once you have located the entrance, using a razor blade or pocket knife cut a slit into the vine near the entrance and gently pry open the vine. You should see a little white borer with a dark black head.  Simply cut him up with your knife or dig him out using some wire or a stick. Once he is out gently close the vine and cover with soil, the plant should repair itself. As with other pests, it is best to stay on top of things before it gets too out of control.

Physical control of pests should always be your first option if you find yourself being invaded. Be creative when combating your garden pests and always try to be positive.  A garden covered with row covers doesn't look to appealing, but it sure beats the heck out of losing your crop.  I sure hope you found this helpful, leave a comment if you have any questions. Stay tuned for next time when we discuss one of my favorite topics Biological Control.

Happy Gardening!



 

Patience with Garden Pests: Part 1 - Cultural Control

Today I would like to talk about pests in the garden. Absolutely nothing is more frustrating to gardeners than waking up to find that your prized pumpkins have wilted or finding that your tomatoes have been marauded by hungry birds the exact morning you planned on picking them. Somehow they always know! I can't think of anything that tests the resolve of organic gardeners more than facing the fact that the best course of action may be digging up an infested plant and starting over next year.  Unfortunately this is not always avoidable. But fear not my friends! I am here to tell you that it is possible to get the upper hand on crawlers and critters without having to resort to harsh poisons or lethal traps.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

For most people, the sight of any insect in the home or garden is cause for alarm. The first instinct for most of us is to reach for the can of insect killer or call the exterminator. Organic gardeners are not free of blame, I've seen plenty of well-intentioned folks reach for the insecticidal soap or DE because of a few ants and aphids with out any regard for what impact those products will have on the garden ecosystem. As organic gardeners we sometimes lose sight of the fact that just because some products are safer than their synthetic counterparts it does not mean that they are 100% safe. Some are highly toxic to aquatic life, others to pollinators like bees. They can also be harmful to the beneficial insects we rely on to keep pests in check. For these reasons sprays and dusts must always be a last resort. 

The first step in pest management is to begin with proper Cultural Control. Cultural control is the practice of modifying the growing environment to reduce the prevalence of unwanted pests. Healthy soil that is alive with microbes, fungi, earthworms, and other organisms is the foundation of organic gardening. Growing plants in healthy soil not only enables them to withstand any insect assault that may come their way, but healthy, well nourished plants are actually unappealing to most insects. Sickly plants as well as plants that are over nourished with synthetic nitrogen  fertilizers will actually attract insects. You can achieve even more garden success by choosing  and planting insect and disease resistant varieties and timing their plantings so that they do not coincide with the feeding cycle of their particular pest insect. This concept is known as timed planting. If critters are your problem, the solutions may be as simple as planting a little extra to share, or as complex as installing an electric fence around the whole garden, either way, there are many ways to modify your growing environment to prevent losing your valuable homegrown produce. 

Another cornerstone of organic gardening is the concept of intercopping or companion planting Companion planting is a fascinating subject that deserves a more in depth discussion but I will touch briefly on some of the more salient points. As a cultural control companion planting serves many purposes but essentially the primary function is to eliminate the presence of monocultures. A monoculture simply means a crop of only one variety planted in a particular area.  This is the most common type of farm you will see, fields of corn or wheat or soy beans as far as the eye can see. Growing plants of the same family close together in your home garden is also a form of monoculture. Pests flock to monocultures because there is so much available food in one place. Diseases spread rampantly and nutrients are robbed from the soil. Companion planting eliminates these problems and more. Herbs and flowers planted amongst your vegetables will help to attract beneficial insects and naturally enhance your Biological Control by providing food and shelter to lady bugs, lacewings, predatory wasps and spiders. In addition, the strong smell of many herbs and flowers act as a repellent to many garden pests. Other companions act as trap crops attracting pests that you can easily dispose of all at once. Borders of rabbit and dear resistant flowers can create a natural barrier that is both beautiful and functional. 

Many garden pests spend at least part of their life dwelling in the soil. For this reason, crop rotation is an essential cultural control. Because plants of the same family attract similar pests, is important that they are not planted in the same place year after year. For example, tomatoes should not be planted in the same place where you previously had planted eggplant or chilies. Cabbage should not be planted where you had Brussels sprouts or broccoli. Crop rotation also provides an opportunity to rebuild and re-nourish the soil. Legumes like peas, beans, clovers, oats, and vetches can take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and turn in into a form that is usable by plants. In addition, when dug into the soil at the end of the season, the bio-mass of these cover crops or green manures provides organic matter that will become a food source for soil micro-organisms that in turn will become a balanced food source for your plants.

The last step in proper cultural control is to maintain a clean garden free of weeds and other debris that may provide a shelter area for pests. Diseased and infested plants must be properly disposed of in a very hot compost pile, burned, or fed to chickens or other livestock so that no eggs or larvae survive. Plants should be heavily mulched, not just to conserve water, but to prevent soil borne diseases from splashing back onto the leaves where they can spread. Water at ground level when ever possible and as always remember, never let the mulch touch the base of the plant and never dig diseased plants back into the soil if you plan on planting within the next year.  

Well there you have it. I hope this provides a nice foundation for understanding where to start when dealing with pests in your garden. While cultural controls are a very important first step, they sometimes may not be adequate for the issues you may be dealing with. Next time we will deal with the Physical Control that will aid you in you battle against the pest nemesis! In the meantime, please check out some of the links below that have to do with some of the issues we talked about today. 

Happy Gardening!

What is Integrated Pest Management?

Companion Planting: Basic Concepts and Principals

Cover Crops and Green Manures

Plants that Attract Beneficial Insects

Choosing the Right Plants

With September right around the corner, desert gardeners should take the brief lull in planting that August provides to peruse seed catalogs and begin to plan for the flurry of planting that will begin next month. The desert gardener is blessed with a year-round planting season, but selecting the plant varieties that do best in our climate will help to ensure that you are successful with your garden.

When choosing a seed variety for the low desert, it is important to keep in mind that the seasons we experience in Tucson are vastly different than those experienced throughout most of the rest of the country. Because of this, you should never follow exactly the generic planting date recommendations on the seed packets you purchase online or at the grocery store. Following overly-general planting date directions can lead to some pretty disastrous results! Trust me, I learned the hard way. But we were all beginners once, I learned from my mistakes and now I am here to share my experiences with you.

Here in Tucson, we are fortunate enough to have one of the largest native seed banks in the country. Native Seeds/SEARCH is a non-profit organization that collects and distributes native and adaptable seeds of the desert Southwest. These seed varieties are adapted to our climate and have been grown in this region for hundreds of years by the native people of the Southwest. I encourage you all to check them out and try to plant some of these native plants in your garden so that you too can continue on the tradition of seed saving.

How do you know what seed varieties to pick though? Well, that all depends really. With so much selection it can be very confusing, but don't worry, I assure it is not. If you wish to save your own seed, and I strongly encourage that you do, then Open Pollinated (OP) or Heirloom varieties are the seeds for you! Simply put, an "OP" seed is one that has been bred over many years and has stabilized traits. Heirloom seeds have been around the longest amount of time, in some cases, hundreds of years. Just as with hybrids, selecting OP or heirloom varieties with the shortest days to harvest and that are also resistant to pests and diseases will perform the best in our growing seasons. It also helps when selecting any seed, hybrid or OP, to look for the words "Drought Tolerant." This means that the plant can hold up to hot weather and won't croak the first time you forget to water! Sometimes a variety may be a short season, but prefer cool weather. In this case the particular plant probably wouldn't do so well here. When in doubt, call up the seed company and ask what varieties customers in our area have had success with, most of the time companies are more than willing to share a little bit of knowledge based on customer feedback.

 As a generality, disease-resistant Hybrid varieties with the shortest days to harvest also do the well in our climate. A hybrid variety of seed is one that was produced by artificial cross pollination. Because of these controlled conditions, hybrid plants can be bigger, stronger, more nutritious and  more resistant to pests and diseases than their parent plants. Unfortunately, the seeds of hybrid plants can not be harvested, so you are forced to buy a new batch of seed every year if you wish to continue growing the same crop.  Hybrid seeds are often listed in catalogs with the distinction F-1 (or F1), but some catalog companies may use a different notation, you should always double check just to be sure.

I some cases starting a crop from seed is not the best option for the desert gardener. Tomatoes are the classic example. Here in Tucson, if you wish to grow tomatoes from seed, you would need to start the seeds indoors or in a green house in December or January, and put your transplants out in February in order to be able to harvest a crop before the heat of May sets in. For most people, including myself, this is just not practical. Unfortunately, this really limits the selection of plants available to us because often nurseries will only have 1 or 2 Transplant varieties of any given vegetable, and more often than not those varieties aren't adapted for our climate and seasons. Many seed companies are now beginning to offer transplant varieties for shipment of some plants.  Transplant selection is growing each year but if you want the most choices you will need to start from seed. In our climate, I recommend always starting tomatoes from transplants and never from seed, unless you have a green house. Other plants that do well from transplants are the long-growing crops like Brussels sprouts, cabbage, eggplant, peppers, squash and melons. Conversely, there are a few plants that you should always plant from seed, these include mostly the root crops like carrots, radishes and turnips. Beans, peas, and corn also do poorly when transplanted and should always be planted from seed. Onions can be planted from seed (bunching) or as bulbs that will clump and will require you to  divide later.

Need some ideas for inspiration?  Check out this list of 48 Free Seed Catalogs that you can order and start planning for your fall garden. D. Landreth Seed Company, is a personal favorite of mine but their beautiful catalog will set you back a few bucks, well worth it to support America's oldest seed purveyor.

Welcome!

Welcome to Southwest Victory Gardens! My name is Brandon and I am starting this blog for the desert vegetable gardener. I hope to share many of the experiences I have had over the past decade tending vegetables here in the desert Southwest. Though it is not always easy, I assure you that growing a wide variety of fruits and veggies is possible. I plan on discussing many interesting subjects that I hope you will find both entertaining and educational.

Welcome!