Taking a plant-positive approach to pests
Posted: Mon 03-Jan-2022, 10:57
Eliot Coleman, author and market gardener speaks about the importance of maintaining a plant-positive--rather than a pest-negative--approach to dealing with pests.
He writes in "The Winter Harvest Handbook*":
"Insects and disease are not the problem. They are, rather, the symptoms. Their presence is a visible exterior indication that all is not well with the plants...removing pests from a plant does not cure the problem or eliminate the cause. All that it accomplishes is to throw a cloak over the problem [page 180]."
later, he says:
"A plant bothered by pest or disease need no longer be seen in the negative. The plant can now be looked upon as your coworker. It is communicating with you. It is saying that conditions are not conducive to its optimum growth and that if the plants are to be healthier next year, the soil must be improved [page 180]."
Broccoli planted in anaerobic (low oxygen) soils, for example, will quickly be covered with aphids. Getting a bug spray, even if it's organic, does little to deal with the underlying issue. We might also be quick to blame something completely unrelated: plant variety, hot weather, timing, shade, etc. But until the soil compaction issue isn't dealt with, the problem will persist.
Harvesting my sunchokes late last year revealed thousands of transparent clumps of slug eggs amongst the roots. A few tubers were slug eaten but I remained unalarmed. The sunchokes are along a fence line close to a pasture. Beets are grown along their other side. Why haven't slugs completely decimated my crops? Because the sunchokes also attract a host of predatorial insects that are scurrying about around the roots. The soil around the roots is soft with numerous passage ways. I find beetles and centipedes at a depth of six inches. It's a feeding frenzy down there. In general, a slug problem indicates an environment that is out of balance. Plants that are attacked by pests are calling out for help.
Gardeners must be observant. We're scientists and detectives at the same time. The best way to deal with pests is to improve soil. Putting gardening principles 1-3 to work in your gardens is the surest way to growing healthy plants with strong natural immunity.
Principle 1: cover the ground with decaying organic matter
Principle 2: cover the ground with living plants
Principle 3: make great compost
*The Winter Harvest Handbook, Eliot Coleman, 2009
He writes in "The Winter Harvest Handbook*":
"Insects and disease are not the problem. They are, rather, the symptoms. Their presence is a visible exterior indication that all is not well with the plants...removing pests from a plant does not cure the problem or eliminate the cause. All that it accomplishes is to throw a cloak over the problem [page 180]."
later, he says:
"A plant bothered by pest or disease need no longer be seen in the negative. The plant can now be looked upon as your coworker. It is communicating with you. It is saying that conditions are not conducive to its optimum growth and that if the plants are to be healthier next year, the soil must be improved [page 180]."
Broccoli planted in anaerobic (low oxygen) soils, for example, will quickly be covered with aphids. Getting a bug spray, even if it's organic, does little to deal with the underlying issue. We might also be quick to blame something completely unrelated: plant variety, hot weather, timing, shade, etc. But until the soil compaction issue isn't dealt with, the problem will persist.
Harvesting my sunchokes late last year revealed thousands of transparent clumps of slug eggs amongst the roots. A few tubers were slug eaten but I remained unalarmed. The sunchokes are along a fence line close to a pasture. Beets are grown along their other side. Why haven't slugs completely decimated my crops? Because the sunchokes also attract a host of predatorial insects that are scurrying about around the roots. The soil around the roots is soft with numerous passage ways. I find beetles and centipedes at a depth of six inches. It's a feeding frenzy down there. In general, a slug problem indicates an environment that is out of balance. Plants that are attacked by pests are calling out for help.
Gardeners must be observant. We're scientists and detectives at the same time. The best way to deal with pests is to improve soil. Putting gardening principles 1-3 to work in your gardens is the surest way to growing healthy plants with strong natural immunity.
Principle 1: cover the ground with decaying organic matter
Principle 2: cover the ground with living plants
Principle 3: make great compost
*The Winter Harvest Handbook, Eliot Coleman, 2009