Over the years I have had my
share of pests and I can tell you it would be one of the biggest challenges in
organic gardening. You have to be on top of any changes with your
garden and know the signs of pests or potential disease. You could easily lose
a crop if you do not address issues quickly. I am always learning
innovative ways to battle with them. Two pests in particular will
challenge me each year, aphids and miners.
Aphids are a worldwide group of insects popularly called plant lice, attacking nearly every garden and greenhouse crop. Small, soft bodied, they are usually green but may be brown, yellow, pink or black, depending on where and what they are living on. Mine are usually white or light green in color. They feed by thrusting a sharp-nosed stylet from their beaks into the plant cells and sucking out the sap; lovely things they are. The plant's resulting loss in vitality is shown by discolored areas on the foliage, curing of leaves and blighting of buds and fruits.
I
have found them in my collards, cabbage, broccoli and kale. I will notice a leaf curled into itself and this is a sure sign of an aphid infestation. Sometimes they
switch to varieties of peppers, including jalapeno, red, yellow and serrano peppers. On peppers they will attack the blooms.
They love a dry climate so keeping everything moist and off the ground helps. I will rinse my infected crop daily and remove heavily infested leaves. I recommend spacing your seedlings out which also deters these pests from spreading. Lady Bugs will eat aphids and soapy water is somewhat successful. I will be testing some new approaches this year, including tobacco tea. I'll be sure to post any results.
They love a dry climate so keeping everything moist and off the ground helps. I will rinse my infected crop daily and remove heavily infested leaves. I recommend spacing your seedlings out which also deters these pests from spreading. Lady Bugs will eat aphids and soapy water is somewhat successful. I will be testing some new approaches this year, including tobacco tea. I'll be sure to post any results.
 |
| Aphids |
The second pest I have
encountered is the leaf miner. An insect that spends part or all of its life
between the upper and lower surfaces of a leaf, getting its food from the
tissues and usually eating a tunnel that shows as a pale or white area
against the normal green leaf, a narrow twisted path.
I
have found this pest on my spinach and beets especially. This year I
spotted the leaf miner eggs on the back of the spinach leaves and decided to
just harvest it all before they had a chance to take over. The eggs are white and line up symmetrically on the underneath of the leaves. I rinsed each leaf
and was able to harvest most all of the spinach thankfully.
Last year my entire beet crop was stunted because so many miners had infested the leaves, not allowing the roots to obtain vital resources. I removed the infested leaves last year but the plants never recovered, so my beets were the size of radishes. This year I will grow beets again but will recognize the little white eggs and rinse them off and work to remove infested leaves quicker. I will try the tobacco tea too, but it will need to be timed appropriately and be sprayed before the eggs are laid.
Last year my entire beet crop was stunted because so many miners had infested the leaves, not allowing the roots to obtain vital resources. I removed the infested leaves last year but the plants never recovered, so my beets were the size of radishes. This year I will grow beets again but will recognize the little white eggs and rinse them off and work to remove infested leaves quicker. I will try the tobacco tea too, but it will need to be timed appropriately and be sprayed before the eggs are laid.
 |
| Leaf Miner |
Happy Organic Gardening,
The Dirty Girl
No comments:
Post a Comment