Organic PEST CONTROL that really WORKS

pests wouldn't it be wonderful if we didn't have to worry about them in the garden but in gardening and especially organic gardening pests are often a part of our garden and it's important to learn how to prevent treat and manage pests correctly in your garden having a plan for organic pest control and prevention is important especially in organic gardening and in today's video i'm going to share my best tips for preventing and treating pests in the garden but if we haven't met before my name is angela from growing in the garden and i love to share garden inspiration and helpful tips so you can be successful in your own garden the first thing to think about when you're thinking about treating pests believe it or not is soil healthy soil is essential if you want to manage pests effectively healthy soil is your best line of defense against pests make sure that you are adding lots of organic matter to your soil test your soil about once a year and then you'll know exactly what's going on in your soil and what you can do to make it better don't add chemical fertilizers don't add pesticides those things may seem like a quick fix but they hurt the microbes in your soil and those beneficial microbes are going to be a great line of defense against pests in your garden healthy plants grown in healthy soil are much less susceptible to pests in contrast sickly weakened plants in depleted soil are very inviting to pests and have a hard time fighting them off the next thing you can do to prevent pests is to keep your garden clean this may sound simple but it's very important remove dead leaves fallen fruit and other things that harbor bugs this will help prevent major infestations and keep bugs from overwintering in your garden always throw away infested plants don't compost them don't add that to your compost pile which will then add it back into your garden the next tip is to keep your plants healthy have good soil water your plants effectively plant at the right time all of those basics that we talk about plants are more likely to be healthy and healthy plants can resist pests better my next tip is to enlist mother nature's health just as there are bad bugs there are also beneficial bugs nature has a way of coming in balance if you're not spraying pesticides if there's an imbalance of pests often there's a beneficial pest or beneficial predator that will help take care of that pest provide habitat in your garden for lizards for birds bees for bats chickens have your garden be a sanctuary for those helpers that can help you manage pests in your garden flowering herbs attract beneficial insects let those herbs go to flower at the end of the season learn to identify the bugs in your garden there's a great app called seek it helps you identify whether or not a bug is helpful or harmful use this app before you kill bugs you may not know what that bug is or what it does learn to identify all the stages of common beneficial insects such as ladybugs praying mantis lace wing hoverflies bees and dragonflies stop using pesticides they hurt the good guys and the bad guys my next pest control tip is to spend time in your garden every day if the gardener is in the garden they will spot problems when they're small it's much easier to kill a couple of swashbucks or to remove a leaf with squash bug eggs than it is to remove generations of squash bugs that have taken up residence in your plants spend time in your garden each day get to know your garden see what's going on and catch problems when they're small if you see an adult pest look for its eggs on the undersides of leaves my next pest control tip is to utilize crop placement in your garden effectively one principle of that is rotating where you plant have a system for what you plant and where you plant it planting tomatoes in the same spot every year might be convenient for the trellis but it's very inviting to pests and diseases they know right where to go rotate where you plant your crops each season practice companion planting principles there are several known beneficial companions research which plants grow well next to each other and plant them together in your garden another important part is implementing polyculture practices in your garden monoculture means rows and rows of the same crop polyculture is just the opposite of that it means interspersing different crops all throughout your garden it makes pests preferred crops more difficult to find if they're all interspersed throughout your garden rather than in neat rows of the same plant the next principle for treating and preventing pests is to be patient don't grab a bottle of pesticides for every bug that you see use any method with a light hand begin with the least invasive method if you're using products even organic ones follow those dilution ratios exactly more isn't better remember treatments even organic ones can have undesired results of killing the good guys as well as the bad guys another tip is to consider pulling plants if they're heavily infested it may not be worth it to treat that heavily infested plant over and over so now we're going to talk about some of the common pests and some of the treatments that you can do so first we're going to cover some of the common treatments for different pests the first method is to simply do nothing observe plants each day healthy plants can often tolerate a little bit of pest damage the next method row covers row covers are very effective you can leave on plants for the season or remove once the plant is large enough to tolerate a little damage a water spray can also be effective spray off the affected plants parts of the plant with a stream of water do it early in the morning so plant leaves have time to dry rigid collars are placed around the stem of young seedlings to protect from cutworms and other pests removing affected leaves is often a very effective method pick off the effective leaves and throw in the trash do not compost beneficial nematodes are a form of biological control they're sprayed into the soil the nematodes feed on soft bodied soil borne pests yellow sticky traps attach the trap near infected plants and replace as often as needed if it keeps getting filled up keep replacing it beer traps can also use cut citrus to attract things as well check the traps each day and replace as needed hand picking pests is also a very effective option look for pests in the morning when bugs are more sluggish and less active garlic spray is an effective foliar spray it repels pests rather than killing them d e the rough texture injures the skin of soft-bodied insects apply two-inch barriers around plants or groups of plants horticultural oil this is used as a foliar spray it's often applied when trees and shrubs are dormant but it's important to apply when temperatures are below 80 degrees fahrenheit bt a biological control that's used as a foliar spray but it does not discriminate between pests and other caterpillars use only as needed insecticidal soap is a foliar spray it's a biodegradable soap that damages the cell membranes and is most effective on soft bodied pests apply early in the morning neem oil can be used as a foliar spray or soil drench it may harm bees do not spray on flowers use only where needed here are some common pests along with treatments listed in order from least invasive to most invasive remember you always want to start with the least invasive method and move on to the more invasive methods as needed if needed [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] there are so many different types of pests it's easy to get overwhelmed but the important thing to do is to pay attention to the organic gardening principles that we've talked about and take it one day at a time all these pests won't show up in your garden at the same time learn from your mistakes and enjoy your successes best of luck to you in your garden thank you so much for watching you

Channel: Growing In The Garden

Views: 474,690

Keywords: organic pest control, organic, organic gardening, organic pesticides, organic garden, organic farming, organic pesticide, organic insect control, organic pest control for gardens, organic pest control vegetable garden, organic spray, organic gardening pest control, organic garden sprays, organic pesticide at home, organic pyrethrin, insect repellents that actually work, easy organic pest control, organic controls, organic chemical, really works

Id: E2O_YOqOIZw

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021