Organic Gardening Tips » Organic Pesticides

Organic Garden Pest Control – The Most Effective Way

OrganicGimp — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:50:04 +0000

The organic gardens are not free from pests and the problem is of the same magnitude as the traditional gardens. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of gardening and anyone who is not habituated in tackling this problem would find it really difficult to combat. There is not one pest that can attack your organic garden and destroy the plants. The pest control measures used in a conventional garden is quite different from the organic garden pest control. In the conventional gardens people tend to use strong chemicals to get rid of the pests but the same cannot be done in the organic garden.

Strong chemicals are effective in killing the pests but would also kill the other plants. Chemicals are not good if you have a small garden in your balcony ir backyard. But does that mean that you do not have any way o getting rid of the pests in a natural and safe manner? Well, yes we do have a more natural and better way of getting rid of organic garden pest control.

Manual removal: This is one of the safest as well as the easiest process to get rid of the pests. You would need to go to your garden at least twice daily and pick out the bugs with your hands. I know it sounds a little crazy but it can prevent your other plants from getting infected by the pests. In order to kill the bugs you can pick them out from the leaves or body of your plants and put in soap water. Well, this is an organic garden pest control method where you would not be required to spend any money not do you have to worry about the negative effect of using strong chemicals.

Use the good bugs: It is better to use the good bugs that would eat away the bad ones! Yes, there are many good bugs that can act as your natural organic garden pest control. For instance the use of ladybugs can be very effective in reducing the aphids as they love to feed on them. You can use the Lacewings as well as the praying mantis to kill the bugs that are a threat to your organic garden. You can either get these pests from your neighbor’s garden or you can even purchase it from the market.

Organic sprays: There are also a lot of organic chemicals that are very effective in getting rid of the bugs. You can even use soap water to kill the bugs. Yes, soap water is also very effective and kills the bugs instantly. What you can do is use natural soap and water solution and then spray the same on the plants.

Scary plants: This is another natural but effective process of warding off those evil bugs. Planting a few scary plants like Marigold, Lavender and onions would act as a deterrent in the growth of bugs and would even help in killing them.
Well, use all the above methods to get rid of the bugs permanently and see your organic garden flourish.

The Worst Garden Idea?

OrganicGimp — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 03:41:29 +0000

This is a debate like many others: Whether organic gardening is better than using chemicals. There is much debate about taste, and quality when it comes to synthetic or organic gardening, the debate will probably continue forever, but there is a few things to look at. Synthetic gardening, you could say makes things “easier”, but in the long run you have to weigh two things “risk and benefit”, does the benefits of using synthetics outweigh the risks? When I say risks, I include possible pesticide poisoning, the taste of your foods which is very important of course, natural ability to fight off pests and other harmful things like bacteria, among other things. There are studies done by people like yourselves to test these theories. To test the benefits of organic gardening, an organic gardening lover did an experiment, a side by side comparison. Two beds, completely identical to start, one for organic garden fertilizers, and one for synthetic fertilizers. Now for this experiment no pesticides were used in either the organic garden of the synthetic garden, to keep some simplicity. Instead pest were controlled by hand, or with a hose. Spraying down plants with a hose helps by washing the pests of the plants in your organic garden, or any garden, be sure to try and spray under the leaves also, but not with such a blast you will damage your organic garden, or other gardens. So, in the organic garden, only organic fertilizers were used, of course, and in the synthetic garden, a popular known blue synthetic fertilizer was used. Both were planted from the seed of the same stock and quality. It was reported the the non organic garden had an initial burst of growth, but seemed to attract aphids, and ants. The organic garden however, soon caught up and and surpassed the synthetic garden, and seemed to have fewer pest problems! Going back to what I said earlier about having a stronger resistance to pests. Another issue that arose is, the pH in the synthetic bed increased, and had to be adjusted. In the end, the organic garden harvested more quantity, and quality vegetables than the synthetic.

Organic Gardens – Weed Control

OrganicGimp — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:58:20 +0000

Weeds, another “pest”, that can compete with your plants and can harbor other pests in your organic gardening endeavor. This of course differs from plant to plant, however some types of produce from your organic vegetable garden will be bothered less or more, the onion for instance, is slow to germinate, and have slender stems. In this case those faster, broad leaf weeds can ruin your organic vegetable garden, unless you remove or control these weeds, anyway that is just one example. There are a few methods to weed control for your organic gardening and organic vegetable garden. These methods can be done before or after planting, easier done before planting in your organic vegetable garden. This is a common method used in organic gardening, covering the ground with wet newspaper will deprive the weeds of sunlight, if you have plants there already you will have to work around their base stems. Keeping the newspaper wet is a good idea, as it speeds the decomposition of the weeds and also allows for other weed seeds to germinate, and then die. Newspaper is one of the better organic gardening techniques for this, because it allows water to pass through into the ground, something like the plastic alternatives some try, will not, which is mostly used before planting.

Organic Garden Pesticides

OrganicGimp — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:43:25 +0000

Regardless of what some may think, there are organic pesticides on the market, such as Neem oil. Neem oil is pressed out of seeds obtained from Neem trees. Neem oil disrupts insects’ hormone balance, so they die before they reach the next stage of life. Garlic oil spray can kill aphids, and other softer bodied pests. Insecticidal soap, a common formula for this is 1-2 tablespoons of dish detergent like dawn per gallon of water, you want to heavily spray affected plants with water before spraying with this solution, and never on a sizzling hot day. It can burn some plants with dull leaf surfaces, so always test on a non-visible area first. The fatty acids in the soap penetrate the insects causing the cells to collapse. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), basically bacteria, there are many types available as powders that you sprinkle on a plant, and must be eaten by the insect. This acts as a stomach poison which cause them to stop eating, and starve to death. However, Bt strains are very host specific, and are most always harmless to humans, birds, or other animals, and usually takes time to effect insects, as sometimes it takes days to stop them from eating to your plants. All these can help with natural insect control, but there are very many other methods, too many to list here, but be sure we will come back to this subject with more methods and explanations of them.