4 Key Steps to Plant Protection
There are five steps to protecting your garden from destructive pests.
They really are common sense and they
really work. So, here is what the entomologists or bug experts
say:
Step One: What triggers you into action? You'll need to decide
when you absolutely must swing into action. Every one
of your plants has an aesthetic and economic value. The lower the value
the less damage to you if it is lost. If
slugs wiped out a petunia, you can replace it for little money or effort.
On the other hand, your choice Spirea x
bumalda 'Goldflame' that has be growing nicely for several years is
in danger, you most likely will want to act. So
you need to identify the plants you really want to protect. You are
not abandoning the others. You just recognize that
saving them is a lower priority.
Step Two: Here's where a little scholarship comes into play. You need
to learn what insects attack your plants. What does
the damage look like? When is the best time to act (pests have different
levels of vulnerability during their complex
life cycles)? You can get this information at your county extension
office (funding cuts have made this harder) or
from any school offering horticulture classes in your area. You might
even buy an illustrated book with enough
information about any given insect to help you plan an attack.
Step Three: Plan a specific time, once or twice a week, to do a battlefield
inspection. On this tour you need to look
past your beautiful plants and brilliant garden design. You are looking
specifically for the beginnings of a problem.
While you may want to look more carefully at the plants you made higher
priority (see Step One). By the way, don't
forget to look at the bark of the trees for any abnormality. You're
looking for scale and other problems.
Unpleasant surprises can happen when you aren't looking. Mites, for
example, have short lifespans, but can cause
tremendous damage if you don't catch them early. Here is where your
skills as an investigator come into play.
Identify the culprits, if you can, or take the evidence to damage to
someone who can.
You may even want to equip yourself for the fight. Buy a 10x or 20x
power magnifying glass. If find as I age, it is
harder to see the little things without some help. It is a lot easier
to identify a bug when you can see it "up close
and personal." Use a white piece of paper and tap suspect leaves over
it. Look for mites, thrips or other tiny pests
as they scramble to get off the paper. If you are having serious problems
or your garden is particularly dense,
consider buying a sweep or net to skim around your plants. You might
be surprised by the harvest. Of course, not all
the bugs you'll find are bad guys. You need to be able to tell them
apart.
Step Four: Now you've identified the problem, what is the action plan
or solution? While you were researching about
bugs, you've probably come across several recommended solutions.
Different pests mean different solution. There
is no one universal answer, organic or otherwise.
One solution might be a change in the overall culture. Lots of problems
happen because of high humidity from watering.
Maybe you can change to drip irrigation, a method that will change
the humidity at plant level. Or, change your watering
schedule to early in the day so foliage will be dry before dark.
Mites like it hot and thrive on water-stressed plants
so water these infected or prone plants more often. We create lots
of problems ourselves by under- or over-
fertilizing. Plants react to that situation with stress and stress
attracts many pests.
Next week, we'll cover some specific solutions and look at introducing friendly insects into your garden.
Good luck and great gardening.
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David Soper, The Garden Guy, writes and lectures on gardening topics. Read more on his website, Adventures in Gardening, www.gardenguy.com
