A Good Garden With a Lot Less Work
(Page 4 of 7)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
When plants are up to a height of 2 or 3 inches, thin according to seed man's directions. Even if this seems to leave too few in a row - do it, don't crowd plants. Beets, carrots, greens can be grown large enough so plants pulled in thinning can be eaten.
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3. Cultivate, Weed, Mulch
Cultivate between rows with a hoe or wheelhoe often - after every rain - at least once a week during early growing season. Handweed along the row as necessary. Be careful not to cultivate so deep you disturb roots. As soon as plants are large enough we find a mulch of bedding from the barn laid between the rows keeps down weeds and holds moisture. This is a real labor-saver.
4. Spray or Dust on Schedule
Garden insects need not cause undue damage if you are ready for them with an insecticide and your garden sprays. Walk through the garden daily to inspect for insects. Read up on insects before they hit you.
One of the most discouraging things to the novice reading about garden insects is their great variety. But classified according to method of control, the whole question of what to do about garden pests becomes simple.
By far the greatest majority of insects and fungus diseases fall into four classifications according to their method of control:
Type 1. Sucking insects, such as aphids (plant lice), thrip, leaf hopper, and scale. This class of insects feeds by inserting their sharp slender beaks into the leaf stem or blossom, drawing forth the sap which is the vitality of the plant. Contact insecticides applied to this class of insect enter the body by penetrating the skin or pores, causing death by corrosion of the tissues or suffocation. Thorough spraying giving complete coverage on both upper and lower surfaces of the leaves, important.
Type 2. Leaf-eating insects, such as bettles, slugs, worms, caterpillars that eat holes in leaves, are effectively controlled by a stomach poison. Insect eats spray or dust that is on the leaf, the poison becoming effective when mixed with the digestive juices in the stomach.
Type 3. Certain blight and fungus diseases, including leaf-spot, rust, mildew, and anthracnose are satisfactorily controlled by a preventive with copper or sulphur the active ingredient. The tiny disease seeds (spores) ever present in the air are prevented from gaining a foothold on vegetation where a copper or sulphur fungicide has previously been applied. Even after fungus has gained a start, spraying with fungicides will retard and, in some cases, eliminate the disease.
Type 4. Migratory insects (leaf chewers) such as grasshoppers, ants, cutworms, sow bugs, also slugs or snails, don't live on plants but crawl along the ground generally at night, destroying much vegetation. These crawling types of insects can be controlled by the use of poison baits, poison syrups, or under certain conditions, a sticky substance easily applied which wil act like fly paper. (See chart page 24).
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