5 Organic Methods to Control Pests in Your Garden, Finally a Way to Fight Back!

what's going on growers it's James  Prigioni coming to you live from   jersey finally a way to fight back against  pests that are stealing our harvests   today i want to share with you five organic  methods to control pests in your garden let's go let's just jump right into the organic methods  by dealing with an issue that i'm having right   now in the garden as i bring you down we'll take a  look at this brassica and it's pretty evident that   this purple cabbage is being attacked and after i  look at the leaves and stuff i can identify which   particular insect this is and that's the first  step to actually dealing with these problems   identify what pest is is the culprit so just by  looking at the leaf pattern as you uh i meant   the holes in the leaves and some of the issues  i know that this is the cabbage worm i've had   issues with it in the past so what i want to do  is learn the different life cycles and the stages   of the cabbage worm and i know that the cabbage  worm it really comes out early because i can see   the cabbage white butterflies that's the adult  stage of the cabbage worm the white butterflies   you can see it right here as they fly around they  land on the cabbages your brassicas your broccolis   all that stuff lay their eggs and the larvae are  the cabbage worm that actually eat this so to deal   with this issue i'm gonna use the first organic  method which is a spray organic sprays are the   first method that i'm going over for controlling  pests but it shouldn't be your first choice i want   to just make sure that i'm equipping you with  tools that you can use if you have an issue   like i do back there already like that brassica  where it's being attacked by those cabbage worms   so when you do run into an issue there's so many  different kinds of organic sprays that we can use   but the idea is when we identify a pest we like  to use a spray that is as specific to that pest   as possible this way we're only you know going  for that one thing and we're not harming anything   else so when it comes to brassicas you can see  how beautiful these ones look here so on these   brassicas i know they're a little older but i've  been using a specific spray which goes right for   the caterpillars this is thuricide bt this is  an organic spray and it goes for a lot of the   caterpillars especially these cabbage worms and  this spray is completely organic it's just made   from a natural bacteria found in the soil it's it  works extremely well especially for these cabbage   worms and i've been using the last couple years  it has made a considerable difference in my garden   i'm doing this video early because i  want a lot of you to try to use this   if you're if you're into organic gardening and you  want to try spray on your brassicas and stuff i   think it'll make a considerable difference for  you guys if you're in a circumstance that you   know there's pest damage but you're not sure what  the specific culprit is then you can use a more   broad spectrum spray and some of these  sprays you can even just make at home   so what i'm going to show you here is a garlic  oil spray that i'm going to you know put together   and this is a good overall broad spectrum spray  so to make this is pretty simple what we're going   to start with is some garlic we need about 10 to  15 cloves for what we're making here so first i'm   just gonna break this garlic apart and we're using  garlic for specific reasons this garlic has in it   a compound called allicin and that compound helps  to confuse insects and also helps to repel them a   little bit but we're not just going to use garlic  and water like some people do we're going to use   a few different things including this mineral oil  i'll talk a little bit about that as i add it so   let's get these garlic all uh broken up and what  we're gonna do is take them just remove the shell like that and we're gonna finely  chop this so i'm just gonna go in i'm gonna basically chop it as fine as i can  without going crazy and we're gonna do this   for all 15 of those cloves then i'll show  you what it looks like when we're finished there we go the garlic is all finely chopped up  looking good another reason the garlic is so great   is because it contains sulfur in it and sulfur is  like a natural anti-fungal so this will help for   some fungal issues too which is great after we  have this diced up though we're going to take a   jar like this i'm going to add in some mineral oil  and the oil is great because just an oil on its   own even like an olive oil or a vegetable oil or  something they will actually kill and injure some   some insects their larvae and their eggs so  this is effective against the eggs and stuff   and what the oil also does is it um it makes it  so that the insects like lose their supply of   oxygen it kind of like you know coats them and  stuff so that helps a lot with just that just   an oil spray will help in your garden but the oils  will also help to spread the garlic spray that i'm   going to use more evenly over the plants so we're  going to use about a pint of mineral oil in here and then about 15 cloves next i'm just going to  put all this garlic into here into the mineral oil   after i have this all filled up we're  going to let this sit for 24 hours   so after that sits for 24 hours i did  this yesterday one that i have already   done it's gonna look like this so this is after  24 hours next we're gonna take this garlic oil   and we're going to strain the garlic out of it  now that we've got all the oils and everything   we need out of the actual garlic we're going to  strain it missed a little bit there that's okay and you can make this mixture more  potent if you want this is just the   style i like to do it next we're going to have  some water right here we're going to take this   garlic oil mixture and add it to water so we can  you know get a little more out of it now what i   just did was mix oil and water so they're not  going to go together because they don't mix so   what we're going to be doing is adding some dish  soap so this dish soap it's going to act as a way   to kind of blend the two mixtures together but  it's also beneficial too you could make a spray   with just water and dish soap and that will help  to kill off some insects it'll help paralyze them   and stuff so on its own it's a decent spray as  oil is on its own decent spray so we're going to   put enough of this in until they start to blend  together so i'm going to just squeeze some in and then mix it up i want to  make sure the two have blended i don't have a lot of like sitting oil and a  good way to find that out is i'll leave it like   this for about 30 seconds to a minute and see  how much of the oil uh floats up to the top and   separates so this is a great uh broad spectrum  spray that i consider relatively weak in a way   but if you want something similar to this that's  much stronger and in my opinion more effective   then what you can use is 100 cold pressed neem  oil so this neem oil is is great stuff the way we   set it up is the same way we're gonna set up the  garlic oil spray so i did this yet uh last year   in a video you guys may have seen it where it's  the oil the water and the soap all mixed together   so the garlic spray if we were to use it on itself  wouldn't be super effective but when we mix the   oil with it the soap with it and the garlic the  three together make a pretty a pretty decent spray   when we do that with the neem oil it's even more  powerful because the neem oil contains within it   something called a directed and this is why the  100 neem oil is so important you don't want to   get the neem oil sprays that are pre-mixed that  you buy from the stores because a lot of times   they don't have the acid direct in it it has  to have the acid directin that's what's gonna   you know negatively affect a lot of your  insects and this is another broad spectrum one   that is organic it's safe it's it's  not really that harmful and beneficial   it doesn't really affect the bees unless you  spray them directly so when you're ever using   sprays organic sprays or any sprays there's a few  things you want to take into account first you   want to make sure that using that spray on one  small control section um maybe just one or two   plants this way you could try it out you don't  you don't want to spray it on the whole garden   because if there's an issue you don't want to  lose everything another thing is you never want   to spray at the hottest part of the days you don't  want to spray midday you want to spray either in   the morning but my favorite is later at night  when all the beneficials have gone in so that's   really important and when it comes to neem oil  i use this for so many different things this is   my favorite overall broad spectrum spray i can see  that the oil is still separated a lot there so i'm   just gonna pour a little bit more soap in then  i'm gonna mix it and then we'll start spraying get that on mix it back up i'm not going  into exact details of the mixtures for   this because you know it's all going to  be dependent upon how you want to use it   but know that a lot of things we're using on  their own they're not going to really be dangerous   so we're okay let's take this now it's  mixed up we're going to add it to our   sprayer and then we're just going to go around  and spray some of our plants just going to use   some of this garlic spray these lettuces and  this can also work as a preventative this garlic   so ideally i want to be spraying it right now that  it's kind of midday i just wanted to give you guys   an example of of me spraying it there and these  brassicas i'm going to spray with the bt later   if i have issues because that's very specific  to that while the neem oil and the garlic spray   they're more broad spectrum so the first method  for controlling pests in your garden is to use   organic sprays and what spray you should use  is dependent upon what insects you're going to   be going after and you know what you're actually  growing the second method for controlling pests in   your garden is to use physical controls one of my  favorite and one of the most simple ones is just   an insect barrier so there's nothing more basic  than just some insect barrier like this which   is going to prevent any of those small insects  like uh or even the larger ones actually like uh   cabbage white butterflies and stuff this is  gonna prevent them from landing on the brassicas   and even laying their eggs in the first place  so this is very simple and very effective   and it even has multiple functions i even put  this up when it was windy one day to help just   dissipate some of the wind so it wasn't so hard  on the plants but this is really simple really   effective to do that's why i actually have this  this uh hoop house frame built over top of this   so i can use an insect netting like this and  they're pretty cheap too i'll put a link down   in the description for the ones i'm using and you  can get the one that fits for your particular bed   another physical control that everyone should be  utilizing and this is the physical control that i   suggest people put in before they put one thing  in the ground so simple to have but you need to   make sure you have really good fencing and fencing  will make a huge difference as we come along here   not only will it protect from all those animal  pests but it also be a great place to grow up so   i use these fences not only for protection but  also for food and you can see right here where i'm   using the insect netting here to keep the birds  away in the past the birds have come and destroyed   all my peas so at this time of the year i'd have  just little short peas that were just decimated   now we've got this insect netting up it's letting  a good a lot of amount of light in and the birds   they can't get to it so we're gonna be eating  more peas the third organic method for controlling   pests in your garden is with beneficial insects  and the simplest and most fun way to do this is   by planting a bunch of flowering species so those  flowering species are going to bring in a lot of   predatory insects that are going to predate  and eat on a lot of those those pests that   we have in the garden that we don't want around  another thing you can do which is more hands-on   which i've done in the past and i've shown you is  you can go out and harvest some insects locally   so right here you'll notice we've got a  praying mantis nest and this nest was put   in just naturally by the praying mantis they laid  it in the late fall and it'll open up this spring   so a few years ago i went out locally and i found  a bunch of prank mantis nests i'd say about five   or six around in the woods i brought them back to  my food forest i stuck them in a section where i   knew there was going to be a lot of bugs and now  over the years they just constantly are laying   more nests and just live in this environment so  it's great to have those free employees that are   always working for me i don't really pay them they  just eat insects there's no health insurance and   and they just do incredible work for me here  another thing i've done in the past is i've   actually purchased some insects where i've put  in some ladybugs i can't guarantee that that   has worked as well as the pragmatist but i do  like to try to balance things out a little more   if i can sometimes so bringing those insects  in i think you know brings a little bit more   of that natural balance back because i am in a  suburban setting and you know i think it can't   hurt so using beneficial insects to our advantage  it's not hard it's fun and you know you can just   grab some stuff locally the fourth organic  method for controlling pests in your garden   is with good variety selection so when it  comes to annuals perennials you want to make   sure you're taking some time to choose varieties  that will do well in your particular environment   so the reason we want good variety selection is  because plants that do well in your environment   are going to ultimately be healthier and then lead  less pest issues you can also look for some plants   that actually have some pest resistance but plants  that have a disease resistance are also good too   because going back to kind of like what i just  said if you have a plant that you know is commonly   going to get a disease in your area if you order  a disease-resistant variety then that plant maybe   won't develop that disease and then maybe it won't  get some pests so basically plants often will get   attacked by pests when they're weak so if we  can have strong healthy plants then we won't   have to deal with that pest issue too so it's  kind of like dealing with the issue before it   starts and variety selection is a great way to do  that one thing i want to mention too is variety   selection is important for our annuals and stuff  but when it comes to fruit trees and perennials   variety selection is one of the most important  things about growing them and we have to take   advantage of variety selection as growers it's one  of our greatest advantages and one of our greatest   tools the fifth organic method for controlling  pests in your garden is what i call tricks and   creativity so the first trick that i have has to  do with these red rocks here so i'm looking at   the strawberries in this section here we've got  two beautiful rose growing and i can't wait till   the strawberries start to come out but once the  strawberries start to come out and before they're   red while they're small little strawberries what  i like to do is take these red river rocks that   i painted and i like to put them out in a section  like this the idea is when the strawberries before   they're red and ripe that the birds come down  and that they peck at these rocks i'm not going   to put them out yet because it's still early but  they peck at these rocks and then they notice they   can't get any any water or anything out of it  so then when the strawberries do actually come   out they don't go after the strawberries  because they think they're just rocks too   so i can't guarantee that this works but with  organic gardening and basically all these forms of   organic pest management it's not that anything is  going to work 100 every time it's that it it helps   incrementally so basically if i put these rocks  out and i can increase my yield and strawberries   by 10 or maybe 15 i consider that a definite win  especially for how little work these actually are   to make very simple and just fun to put out too i  consider companion planting another trick or form   of creativity too so in this section right  here this is where i plant my tomatoes and   i trellis them up grow them up the strings here  and between where i plant tomatoes you'll notice   i've got garlic planted in every section that i'm  going to be planting tomatoes right between it   so we talked about earlier how garlic has these  compounds and properties that help repel some   insects so the idea is that we're going to get  the advantage of the garlic while the garlic   is actually growing so we're getting that that  attribute or function of repellents from pests   while actually getting the harvest too so it's a  you know thinking ahead a little more and i think   a smarter way to do some pest management that's  why i consider it like to be maybe a little   tricky so there's other ways we can do companion  planting i'm doing a number of other ways too   so i can tip that to be more tricks and there's  so many more forms of creativity to work out past   let me know in the comments what kind of tricks  and stuff that you guys like to use in your garden   that make a big difference that's today's video  growers thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed   it i hope you got something out of it i've said it  before but the greatest thing about the garden is   that it's a paradise for all and the worst thing  about the garden is that it's a paradise for all   for the pests for the bugs for all different kind  of birds and all the things like that so we have   to make sure we're vigilant that we're not naive  and we stay on top of things that we're constantly   coming out through the gardening monitoring how  things are doing observing learning and then   changing up what we need to do you know dependent  upon what the garden tells us we got to go out   there and let it speak to us a little bit and kind  of understand that we might have to change some   things do a few little organic practices here and  there some sprays and stuff but those things all   combine together where you can get a good organic  pest management schedule it'll make a considerable   difference you'll be getting way bigger harvest  it'll make everything just a lot more fun   before i let you guys go i wanted to thank a few  new channel members part of team grow and that's   jose ortiz who was one of the first to sign up  thank you my friend and also victoria a young   catsman i believe her name is and i just want to  thank you guys for the support it means a lot to   me and tuck we love doing this kind of stuff and  to be able to you know bring these videos to you   guys as much as we do and uh you know nothing  brings us more joy so this guy is out here   every single day for every video and i talked  about beneficial insects a little bit in one   section of the video but what i didn't mention  was beneficial uh animals so tuck is the greatest   beneficial animal that we have in the garden so  this guy never really rests he's always at work   chasing out some of the birds chasing out  all the you know the groundhogs and stuff   you guys remember last year where we had a  groundhog that was attacking a lot of our   brassicas this guy cornered the groundhog and  then we were able to able to get a net trap him   and remove the groundhog so this guy really  saved the garden this year and it's not his   first time i'm sure he'll he'll have some more  heroics this year too so this guy's really the   heart of the channel we love him a lot he's also  a leader so if you guys enjoyed the video hit the   like button hit the subscribe button share with  your friends don't forget to check out the merch   down below and remember whenever you guys are  on amazon start your shopping with our amazon   affiliate link doesn't cost you anything Tuck  and james will be back again real soon we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 406,870

Keywords: 5 organic pest sprays, birdies bed, hinged hoop house steel, terrace bed build

Id: JXEtmKRnMZk

Length: 17min 58sec (1078 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 24 2021