MANAGING PESTS AND DISEASES THE ORGANIC WAY
1. General Approaches
A. Preventive
Healthy Plants:
Planning
Crop Rotation:
Crop Diversity:
Better resist and outgrow pests and diseases!
Healthy plant start with healthy soil
Feed your soil with compost
Proper watering (not too much or too little)
Avoid heat or cold stress (harden off your plants)
Move crops to different part of the garden each year to make it
harder for pests and diseases to find your crops.
By growing many different kinds of crops you reduce the chances
that a pest will destroy your entire garden.
Create Habitat for
Beneficial Organism: Plants that attract and provide food and shelter for beneficial
insects, creating house and habitat for birds, bats, toads, etc.
Use Multiple
Plantings:
Inter-Cropping/
Companion
Planting:
Maintenance
Monitor Plants:
Young actively growing plants grow faster and resist pests better
than older plants. Many plants including collard greens, broccoli,
cabbage, radish, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets, cucumbers,
summer squash, green beans do better when planted more than one
time during the season (often a spring planting and then a later
planting in mid-summer or fall)
Planting different vegetable crops and non-vegetable crops (such
as cover crops, i.e., clover or flower, i.e., marigolds) together to
repel or make it difficult for pests to find their preferred crop.
Inspect new plants for pests before planting in garden. Check for
pests and diseases on garden plants weekly and at first sight of a
pest, try and manage it BEFORE its numbers get large or it spreads
to another plant.
Tools and Techniques
Mulch:
Mulch keeps soil moist and soil organisms active, which helps
plants, grow. It also suppresses weeds, creates habitat for
beneficial insects and makes it harder for some pests to find and
get into your crops.
Garden
Sanitation:
Remove older, non-producing, diseased, or pest infested plants
right away. Pests often build up on these plants and cause future
problems. At the end of the season, clean up the garden by
removing all crop materials and composting them.
Row Cover:
Spun fabric row cover keeps insects off plants. Must be sealed
with the soil around the plant, be free of holes, and placed over
crops immediately after planting. Good for flea beetles,
cabbageworm, cabbage looper, cucumber beetles and more!
Remember for flowering plants that need pollination like
cucumbers, remove the row cover once plants begin to flower.
Trap Cropping:
Planting more attractive varieties of plants on edges of gardens
attract pests away from crops. Control of pest on trap crop is often
necessary to prevent spill over onto crops. Vacuuming can provide
some control in trap crop. Care must be taken not to let trap crop
turn into a source/breeding ground for pest. Caution is advised
with this approach!
B. Reactive
Hand Picking/
Crushing:
Trapping:
Removal or killing of insect pests by hand is very effective on
some pests (potato beetle, aphids, tomato hornworms,
cabbageworm, cabbage looper). Once pests are found on crops,
insects can be placed in container of soapy water or crushed on the
plant. Some pests like squash bugs will congregate under boards at
night and can be found there in the morning and killed.
Sticky card traps, slug traps, mouse, rat and live traps.
Soap Spray/
Hose Blast:
Especially effective against aphids or soft bodied insects with
limited mobility. Spraying with a dilute solution of (nondetergent) household soap like Doctor Bronners peppermint or
simply blasting them from underside leaves and plants regularly (at
least one time per week) will help keep populations down. Make
sure to get underside of leaves and other places they congregate
thoroughly. Repeated and regular action is necessary.
Removal of
Diseased or Heavily
Infested Plant
Leaves or Plants:
Especially for aphids.
Additional Resources
Books
 “Controlling Vegetable Pests” Environmentally Friendly Gardening – Ortho
Books (1991)
 “The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control” A
Complete Problem Solving Guide to keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy
Without Chemicals by Barbara W. Ellis, Fern Marshall Bradley
 “Organic Plant Protection” by Roger B. Yepsen, Jr.
Web
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ATTRA publications www.attra.org
Biointensive Integrated Pest Management www.attra.ncat.org/attrapub/PDF/ipm.pdf
Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control www.attra.ncat.org/attrapub/PDF/farmscaping.pdf
MSU IPM www.ipm.msu.edu
Identifying Natural Enemies www.ipm.msu.edu/natural-enemies.htm
Enhancing Beneficial Insects and Disease Management
www.nysees.cornell.edu/pp/resourceguide
Information provided by The Garden Resource Program.
Written/Created by Jeremy Moghtader MSU Student Organic Farm 2008