#21. Growing Vegetables Without Pests
The current popularity of organic growing has made information on dealing with plant pests quite popular. If you are looking for some information to help you make sure your vegetable garden stays safe, welcome. In this article, you will find information on how to deal with some of the pests that trouble your vegetable garden.
Aphids: roughly one tenth of an inch in length these pests are commonly colored green or black. They suck sap from tender leaves and plant shoots, injecting leaves with their saliva. Removing sap from the plants weakens them, the saliva spreads diseases, they stunt plant growth, prevent proper photosynthesis and cause fruit or flowers to decay.
Get rid of them: with a strong blast of water from your hose pipe. You can spray insecticidal soap on the plants to kill them.
Cabbage worms: if you are growing cabbage, kale and broccoli among other things in your vegetable garden, your garden may come under attack from cabbage worms. They come from the cabbage white butterfly you may have seen flying over your vegetables and thought was cute! These pests have very large appetites; check your plants for holes chewed from the leaf centers. Check the vegetables as well and don't forget the undersides of your leaves. The worms are dark green and quite noticeable. Serious infestations mean the death of your plants.
Get rid of them: you can purchase an organic killer from your garden store and spray all over the garden. To prevent them from attacking, protect the rows with floating row covers in spring and early summer, the peak egg-laying season.
Tomato hornworm: these are voracious eaters and will happily munch their way through leaves, stems and parts of immature fruit. They are commonly associated with tomatoes, but they do attack potatoes, peppers and eggplants as well. They colored to blend in with the plants so look for black dropping on the leaves and around the base of the plants. Because of their healthy appetites, the worms can defoliate a plant within days. If you get to them soon enough, you can still save the plant.
Get rid of them: the worms are large enough to be easily spotted. One of the easiest ways is to pick them up and kill them. Putting them in a bowl of soapy water will do the trick.
There are many different garden pests that destroy your plants and infect them with diseases. Talk to your garden center staff to find out what you can safely spray around your vegetable garden.