Guide to Organic Pesticides

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Kiwi Fruit

Unless pruned quite heavily, kiwi will become a tangled mass. Prune after the leaves drop. Removing the weaker canes will encourage the stronger ones to be more productive.

Leaf Mold

Shred leaves and mix with grass clippings to make a good mulch. It will decompose rapidly and give mulched plants the benefits of their many nutrients.

Mice

Mice sometimes completely girdle young fruit trees. Painting with standard tree wound paints is helpful. Or you might try covering the wounds with white corn syrup and then wrapping with aluminum foil.

Newspaper Mulch

To make newspaper mulch for vegetables: place several layers between plant rows, and keep them wet so they won't blow around. Also weigh them down with a few clods of earth. Weeds won't sprout underneath, and when the papers decompose, they enrich the soil.

Owls

The tiny screech owl--more often heard than seen-patrols moonlit yards for insects and mice. Lizards, salamanders, and worms may also scooped up during the owl's nightly forays. The barn owl is probably the most important predator of rats and mice in populated areas, rivaling the house cat in importance.

Painting

Painting the trunks of fruit trees with Tabasco sauce helps deter rabbits and mice.

Quicker Decomposition

Compost will break down and decay faster if the compost heap is placed in a shady location.

Red Spider Mites

These little peskies seem to appear suddenly, especially on tomato leaves, when really hot weather hits. Organic Plant Protection (Rodale Press) states: "A spray of two percent oil of coriander will kill the spider mite; a spray of anise oil should do as well." Frequent spraying with plain water will also help.

Sea Shell Mulch

Save those sea shells you collected at the beach and turn them into mulch. Face the cups of the shells upwards for those plants that need high humidity. Each time you water, the cups will fill with water and then evaporate into the air around the plant. Covering the top of the pot soil with small shells can also be very attractive.

Thinning

The sooner excess fruit is removed after flowering, the more likely the remaining fruit will improve in size and quality. A good general rule of thumb for apricots, plums, apples, Asian pears, nectarines, and peaches is to thin them twice as far apart as the diameter you want them to be at maturity.

Umbel

Umbels are the kind of blossom that a certain group of plants produces ("umbel" means umbrellalike in shape). These plants include carrots, parsley, coriander, dill, caraway, anise, fennel, angelica, and chervil.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print