Organic Disease Controls in the Garden
Why Organic Disease Controls?
When growing your own food in the garden the overall goal is to produce the healthiest vegetables. In order to achieve this goal using organic disease controls and pest controls help eliminate applying harmful products on our vegetable garden area. To produce the healthiest vegetables, we need a garden that is not overrun with weeds, diseases, and pests that develop major issues in the garden area. We use organic controls to help reduce these problems because we don't have to worry about harmful chemicals being applied to our vegetables and fruits in the garden. Having organic controls not only improves our environment and garden soils, but our food is being produced in the healthiest way possible for consumption.
Fighting Off Disease Problems
On this week's episode, Greg is discussing the organic disease controls to use in the vegetable garden. During late spring and early summer, we begin to start seeing many disease problems pop up in the garden area. For example, tomatoes can get early and late blight, squash is prone to powdery and downy mildew, and other vegetables are susceptible too. In order to reduce these disease problems, we start by using drip irrigation and rotating our crops around in the garden. When using Drip Tape Irrigation this allows us to feed the plant roots exactly where they need it the most. In return, this takes care of overhead watering on unnecessary areas and allows the water to be directly underneath the plant instead of leaving moisture on the leaf foliage for a prolonged time causing severe issues in the garden. It is also important to have a crop rotation schedule because you can never plant the same family of vegetables in the same plot for two consecutive years. This reduces soil-borne diseases from living in the same area year after year in the vegetable garden. As well as, a variety of organic disease controls can be used to eliminate these harmful diseases from causing serious damage in the garden. The first disease control Greg talks about is Liqui-Cop. The Liquid Copper Fungicide is a conventional method that controls many diseases that attack fruits, citrus, vegetables, nuts, and ornamentals. This fungicide is weather-resistant and sticks to plant and woody surfaces once it dries which in return leaves long-lasting control in the vegetable garden. It can be used as both a foliar spray and dormant spray in the garden. If used as a dormant spray it can be mixed with Horticultural Oil to provide a good combination treatment on the plants. The next solution that he recommends is Bi-Carb which is made from an active ingredient of potassium bicarbonate. The Bi-Carb fungicide works best for controlling powdery mildew on vegetables, roses, and fruit trees. The Complete Disease Control is a broader preventative that helps with bacterial and fungal plant diseases in the vegetable garden. When used as a foliar spray application it can control powdery mildews, gray mold, leaf spots, anthracnose, and other above-ground plant parts in the garden. The last organic control, Greg talks about is the Fruit Tree Spray Plus. This is an insecticide, fungicide, and miticide that contains neem oil which works perfectly as a contact for disease control. To get the best control this spray needs to be applied at the first sign of insect or mite issue in the garden. It works in controlling aphids, mites, fungus gnats, stink bugs, thrip, tomato hornworm, and many other insect pests. All of these organic disease controls are OMRI certified meaning they are organically produced. Every time you spray an insecticide be sure to mix in one of these disease solutions to help fight off all the pest and disease problems in the garden.