At one time, it was thought that if you did not subscribe to
traditional agriculture and went organic that you were at the mercy of Mother
Nature and your veggies would be pathetic under nourished bug ridden and
un-sellable.
Today we know how far from the truth this is. I remember one
time at the market there was a lady who at the time kinda tweaked me even
though in her mind she was complimenting me. She could not believe my veggies
were organic because they looked so perfect like store bought veggies. I was
much younger and I should have let it pass. But this exchange notes what public
thoughts are about organic gardening.
For me, I will destroy a crop before I will use traditional
pest techniques. We as gardeners are not at the mercy of mother nature. We have
a huge library of accessible knowledge to fall back upon. One of the resources
I use is
Check out this web site I have found it to be invaluable.
This is a USDA sustainable agriculture program.
This next list I would love to print out in its entirety but
this list is huge. It is a partial list noting what Pesticides and treatments
are available to Certified Organic Farmers. Here again check it out.
Since gardening in Alpine there has only been two years that
I felt I was completely over run with bugs. Both of these times were learning
experiences. The first was when I still worked for the Texas Forest Service and
was un able to clean up the garden immediately after a hail event. My cucurbit crops by the weekend were
inundated with cucumber beetles and my eggplants were covered with blister beetles.
All the damaged and decaying vegetation was a huge calling card. Cleanup after
a hail storm is mandatory ASAP! The second event involved my cucurbits again.
Only this time it was with squash bugs. Hand picking squash bugs from several
dozen butternut squash, melons, cucumbers along with summer squash was futile.
It was the ATTRA site that led me to the use of Cold Pressed Neem Oil. This
site and more research told me that cold pressed could be used on hundreds of
bugs. Because the neem oil was not the agent of death but hormones within the
oil caused the bugs to stop feeding an and molting with death soon following. The
mortality is caused by the hormones and bugs cannot build up an immunity to
cold pressed neem oil.
The ATTRA site has also taught me that cold pressed by itself
is minimally effective on cucumber beetles but mixing cold pressed 50/50 with
karanja oil and the beetles are more readily controlled.
There are many more organic plant protection sites on the
web but the ATTRA site is one of my favorites.
Good luck and happy gardening!
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