Robert's Gardening
Tips and Tricks
Page 3 Insects and Disease
Control
This section is not long as I am sure
most are familiar with the major chemical agents used to control these devastating
attacks on our prize produce. I will say I use very little in the
vegetable garden as I do not want to contaminate my crops. I suppose unless
I have an immediate threat of some kind I just use snail and slug bait
about the perimeter of my vegetable garden.
On rare occasions I may use a insecticide,
but only if it appears that more than just a few plants are being damaged,
then I will spray with a very diluted Malathion or use a vegetable
dust made for vegetable gardens. Malathion is
considered not very harmful to humans and is used widely to control fruit
flies and mosquitoes. It was the insecticide of choice of the state of
California when they aerial sprayed neighborhoods to get rid of some pest
that I have forgotten the name of. It also does a number on aphids and leaf eaters and
in the ground kills the little buggers that eat your root crops. I do use
it on all my fruit trees because of aphids. If you are into organic try
tobacco juice as I hear it is great for getting rid of unwanted insects .
Mix it with a bit of dish soap to help it stay on the leaves for a while.
The dish soap will also deter most insects. Personally I have never used tobacco for this purpose.
For disease I use Ortho's dormant
spray. I put it on my fruit trees 3 times a year. In the fall, again just before
spring budding and again after the fruit is set and of the size of your
thumb. I might give another dose if I notice much leaf curl or scab/scale.
I don't spray the cherry trees after the bud as the kids eat these off the
tree without washing. The plums and apples however get the full Monty. The
only fruits that really have any major problems are the apples, the scale
and aphids like these best. Occasionally I'll get leaf curl on the cherries
but I think I have that under control. I don't use any disease spray or
powders in the vegetable garden and so far have had to use nothing on my
grapes for either insects or disease. I give the ground a dose of Malathion
as well to kill any insect larvae nibbling on the roots of my fruit trees
but I do not use it in the vegetable garden unless I have to. If I plant
early enough I can usually get a crop of radish and turnip before the
worms become a problem. They don't seem to bother my carrot or beet and
most everything else I plant is above ground crops.
Birds (crows mostly) are a problem though. Crows love
our cherries and apples and the best we can do is throw rocks at them whenever they are around which is practically every day. We tried hanging
these reflectors to scare them off but in a couple days they knew there
was no threat. We tried placing a stuffed cat in the tree but they soon
figured out it wasn't real as well as a plastic owl. It is illegal to
shoot
the buggers here so we just have to deal. I could place netting over the
trees but I think that would be more hassle that it is worth, besides the
boy is getting pretty good with his slingshot and has dampened the spirits
of more than a few. He has not killed any so far but has made them pay for
their keep, as it were, with some pretty good bruises, I would
think. A friend puts some ornamental moving electric Christmas and Easter
people and stuff in his orchard when things begin to ripen. He swears it
works but I have seen birds ignore his fantasy village and chow down
despite his attempts to ward the birds off.
The largest threat we have here is
slugs, aphids, leaf eaters, and those little white worms that get the
radish and turnips. As far as the fruits the aphids, leaf curl and scabs /
scale. And of course the birds.
With Malathion, Ortho's dormant spray,
a slug bait ( organic gardeners can try rock salt about the perimeter of
the garden but not around the orchard unless you are a good ways away from
any roots and drainage is away from your trees.) and a few well aimed rocks ;>) we pretty much have it under
control.
No tips here just hard facts.
Whenever using chemicals there is
always the risk of contamination but you have to weigh the good against
the bad and do what you think is right. You should always wash your fruit
and vegies before consuming them even if they are store bought and are
pre-washed.
My wife is REALLY into canning just
about everything. So very little ever goes to waste. What we do not eat
fresh is either canned, dried, pickled, juiced, frozen or given to
relatives.
The following is the same on all pages and if you have
already read it, you need not bother reading it again.
My daughter has Cerebral Palsy. I do
not say this for sympathy. I have created a site devoted to helping
people with disabilities find resources they need to navigate DSHS,
DDD, SSI and others including the school system. What I need from you
is to let people with disabilities know of the site and get them to
send me information of their local and State agencies that fulfill the
needs of the disabled. I want to make this information available to
all for free on my site. I just need the help of either a person with
a child having cerebral palsy or any disability or a concerned person
who can donate their time to help seek out this information of
advocacy groups for the disabled.
I am spending what time and
resources I have but I need help.
Please check out the site and if you
can contribute with any information please do so. Check out the site I
made for families with children who have CP Click http://www.cpfsn.org
Through having to take our daughter to therapy and
doctors appointments we have come to know many parent's of children with
Cerebral Palsy. In the course of our attempts to advocate for our daughter
and upon hearing of the same troubles others have had doing the same we
decided to use some web space and try to do something about it. We want
very much to be able to provide relevant information for every locality across
the country so that people seeking information do not have to spend days
in search of the information they need. We would welcome any help you could
give us. Any links you can supply for either .gov's or private agencies
that provide for or advocate for the Disabled would be appreciated. We
would like to break them down by Federal, State, County, City and Schools. Please
visit www.cpfsn.org and see if
there is anything you can contribute to grow the site into a useful and relevant
site for people with disabilities specially those with Children who have
Cerebral Palsy.
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Tami Taormina
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Spanaway, WA. 98387
Also if you feel you would like to contribute a
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useful information to be posted on this site you would be
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Thank you
Tami
Thank
you for your support.
Tami
& Robert and Family
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