10 Organic Ways to Control Pests in the Garden

growing a backyard full of food is easy but keeping this produce from pest damage or from being eaten by the local wildlife can be a little bit challenging at times just as challenging as all this wind is at the moment but i'm trying to get this video out to you guys today i'm mark from self-sufficient me and in this video i'm going to give you guys my 10 top organic ways to control pests in your food garden let's get into it [Applause] [Music] growing your own food is exciting satisfying healthy environmentally friendly and also money saving the last thing we want to happen is a bunch of freeloaders munching through our patch eating or destroying our precious harvest but there are ways we can limit the damage done to our homegrown crops by pests and here's ten of my best number one healthy pests like to target sick or dying plants because that's the way they're programmed to by nature it's nature's way to clean up old plants and recycle yes of course pests will attack healthy plants too however i'll elaborate more about this in some of the other points later but it is true if you keep your plants healthy by feeding them appropriate amounts of fertilizer and trace elements and growing them in good soil with the right amount of water healthy plants will get hit less often than weaker plants number two timing growing your food crops at the right time is important when it comes to pest control many vegetables will germinate easily even at the wrong time of year but this doesn't mean they'll grow well they might look okay usually they grow poorly and won't be as productive plants that are grown out of season or their growing range won't generally do as well and will often be targeted by pests also certain pests are more active at different times for example we can grow tomatoes almost all year round except in the middle of summer which is now but the larger varieties get stung badly through spring when the queensland and mediterranean fruit flies are active so instead we grow the cherry tomatoes which are not targeted because most are too acidic for the larvae to survive then in our subtropical winter time we grow the larger tomatoes because the fruit fly isn't active at that time and they don't get stung number three harvest early sometimes you can get away with harvesting your crops early before the pests get to them because most animals favor ripe fruits you can pick your crop early and then let the fruit ripen in a safe area or eat the fruit green eating immature fruits is common in some countries like asia for this very reason think of green mango or purple salad or cooked green bananas let's use my fruit fly example again if we pick our say chili's or capsicum peppers early like when they're green they often don't get hit by the fruit fly but if we wait and leave them go red they'll get stung number four grow more if you use the law of averages and grow more well then you won't care if some get eaten by pests we often employ this logic in our garden trees like mulberry and citrus tend to produce more than enough for us and the animals that visit i just finished growing a ton of sweet potato and the mice nibbled on several tubers but we grew so much that it didn't matter if a few were chewed some gardeners even grow a sacrificial plant meaning they grow more than they need and allow one plant to become infested by pests which tends to attract more pests to the weakened plant and away from the other ones number five manually remove them as i walk around the garden or work in the garden i often remove pests by hand watering your plants can be a particularly fun time to take care of nasty bugs and a great way to relieve stress or train the eye removing pests like this can make a big difference in slowing down their population growth in the garden and it's not that hard remember for every one bug or caterpillar you remove from a plant several more have been eaten by good animals like predator bugs and birds so together you can work as a team with nature to win the war on pests speaking of good animals number six poultry chickens and ducks can be excellent at controlling pests around the property or the home garden this little one's quite feisty and i mentioned this as a main factor in my top five reasons to keep chickens video that i uploaded the other day chickens are a good clean up bird to prepare garden beds for the next season but they can be destructive so i wouldn't give them free range in the vegetable garden when it's growing but wandering through an orchard or around the property chickens can be an excellent bug catcher well i better let this one go because i don't think she likes me very much and she's going to get back to scratching the ground when hens scratch the ground they dig up and eat pupating pests like fruit fly that mature under the soil surface before flying out as adults to sting fruit and veg so having a few chickens around can help reduce pests overall and break the life cycle of bad bugs and i've recently found out that ducks like eating stink bugs such as citrus bugs and especially seek out the baby ones the nymphs so that could be very handy in the orchard they love slugs and snails too also ducks don't dig as much as chickens making them less damaging in the garden when i was in namm no not the war how old do you think i am when i was on holidays with nina we saw first hand how the local farmers use ducks in the rice fields to keep the pests down without ruining the crop so yeah consider keeping poultry because they can really make a difference number seven habitat in my opinion one of the reasons that farmers need to use pesticides is because they grow one big large crop and pests are naturally attracted to a glut of produce nature often tries to correct imbalances by counteracting them to bring numbers back to manageable levels organic farmers are discovering that diversity of habitat is a strength and by growing a variety of produce and plants rather than one big mass of the same crop they have less problems with pests invading their property in destructive numbers us backyard growers have an even bigger advantage because we don't have the same commercial pressures to produce a whole heap of the same product therefore we can grow lots of different plants at the same time and incorporate the natural landscape native flora and fauna to encourage good bugs and predator bugs into the garden and other beneficial animals too like birds creating a more natural habitat on your property is the best way to keep nature balanced and happy companion planting is another great way to naturally repel pests for example planting basil alongside tomatoes but i must admit i'm not one to consider which plant is best planted with another one for that type of effect instead we don't have a dedicated herb area we prefer to grow our herbs in the regular vegetable patch because we've found that scattering our herbs around the vegetable garden and orchard not only adds to the diversity of plants they also help to keep pests away from our property number eight organic sprays now i've just talked about using natural means to control pests in the garden so this is going to sound a little controversial and contradictory really and i get that but let me just say that using the habitat in my last point really does work wonders and we rarely ever have to use sprays even organic ones in our garden however there are times when pests will still hit your valuable crops in numbers that are difficult to control through manual or natural ways when this happens what can we do well there are organic sprays and remedies that can be used to control pests in your food garden without harming other animals or ourselves for example you can easily make a very effective pest oil spray at home by mixing two cups of cooking oil with one cup of dishwashing liquid and then use about a tablespoon of this mix per liter in a spray bottle spray over scale aphids leaf miner and even some mites and it will smother rather than poison the insect another quick remedy is a ring of vaso vaseline around the base of a plant that's getting attacked by aphids or scale and what this does is stop ants from climbing up to protect the aphids from its natural predators see the ants protect the aphids and scale and in return these pests feed the ants a sweet honey secretion stop the ants and the pests find it harder to survive of course you can also buy pesto oils and other organic certified sprays like garlic or chili concentrate and pie ethereum which is a pest spray made from the daisy plant however just keep in mind that pyethrom will kill good bugs too like bees so use it sparingly and target the pests at a time when the plants aren't flowering or when pollinating insects are not around i'll give you a quick example our olive trees got infested with olive lace buck and i tried everything over the past two years from pruning the trees back to giving them extra fertilizer but the bugs kept defoliating the trees to a point where they would die if i didn't act so i sprayed with pie ethereum and now the trees are recovering well having said that let me reiterate the importance of only using organically certified sprays as a last resort in the garden number nine bio bugs i wanted to mention bio bugs even though i haven't used them myself yet buying good bugs and setting them free in the home garden is becoming a viable option for everyday people and not just organic greenhouse farmers or scientists with just a click of a mouse you can buy good bugs online such as predatory mites that eat bad mites ladybirds that eat aphids and miniature wasps that eat caterpillars it can seem a little expensive to buy however a few releasings of good bugs into your garden might just give your habitat the boost it needs to get the baddies back under control and return nature's balance without using horrible chemicals that are indiscriminate number 10 exclusion using nets or bags are one of the best ways to keep pests away from our produce but it can also be expensive time consuming and eyesore and not always practical in the home garden nevertheless netting whole trees or garden beds is effective against birds and most small animals insect netting is also excellent at protecting crops from pests and it's the only sure organic way i have found to stop fruit fly from infesting our stone fruits and apples making a diy frame for exclusion netting is easy get some 25 mil irrigation hose and about half a dozen stakes that are thin enough for the hose to slide over place the stakes in the ground and cut the hose to size if the frame needs to be stronger tape a few of the crossovers together then cover with your net and hold in place with some clamps or pegs bagging fruit is also a good way to protect it and bananas are a good example for us because if we don't bag them the flying foxes will have a feast i've had mixed results with bags like these to be honest say to go over the avocado here but bagging can work and i have had good results with mangoes by using fiberglass netting so not even the possums could rip it off but i've had less success with paper or cloth bags sometimes containers or mesh covers over seedlings can act as a temporary barrier to stop possums mice and other small animals from grazing them down and then they can be removed once the plants are mature enough those were my 10 top organic ways to control pests in your garden but that's not it here are just a few of some other methods i've tried and how they turned out scarecrow didn't work very well crows must be smarter these days shining hanging discs or fake birds of prey or snakes don't work either because the birds just get used to them automatic water sprayer was effective on possums and cats but waste water and shot me too many times by mistake plus they leak and didn't last very long before the electronics failed positioning i did find by positioning our vegetable garden in the center of our property away from trees reduce the possum activity also having raised beds helped dog having a dog that chases possums away can work and even just the dog's scent can deter other animals from entering the property and that's it i hope you enjoyed this video if you did make sure you give it a big thumbs up and share it around and if you have any other ways because i'm sure there's plenty more that you use in your garden to organically control pests please whack them down in the comment section below so i can read them and everyone else can read them and we can all learn together thanks a lot for watching bye for now what a horrible day for filming fair income but i wanted to get this video out even though it was windy and shocking anyway we pushed through and we did it

Channel: Self Sufficient Me

Views: 2,470,217

Keywords: organic ways to keep pests out of garden, organic farming, organic ways to get rid of pests, how to control pest in plants, organic pesticides, organic pest control, organic pest control for gardens, organic pest control vegetable garden, organic, pest

Id: hXlSicZE9jI

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 23 2019

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