Hey folks-
I was perusing the forums and thought I'd share some of the things I've used to deal with bugs and such in my veggie and medicinal gardens. I've had indoor medicinal grows in rockwool, soil-less media, hydroton, and the like, with a small outside grow years ago too; outdoors I grow veggies from beets to tomatoes. Since my kids live near these places, I avoid heavy chemical treatments when I can, but I'll admit to resorting to fungicides to keep my tomatoes and squashes growing when it starts getting cooler. Veggies inform my med grows and vice-versa. As well they should. Indoors I've had problems when I bring plants in from the garden or when stuff gets too wet (fungus gnats).
Fungus gnats- I had real problems with these when using rockwool, and recently in a coco noir grow. My best low-impact solution has been INSECTICIDAL NEMATODES. These have worked really well for me, but cheap they ain't. A pack costs like $40-50 shipped (they require fast, cooled shipping, so shipping ends up being like 20 bux), but you can use one or another of these little killers for almost any member of the order Insecta, above ground or below and a pack is good for a large area. You can use these for most insecticide purposes, and they are gaining popularity as treatments for japanese beetle larvae (grubs) that eat lawn roots. A big deal here in Michigan- I've had patches of lawn just peel up, and the adults are voracious.
Safer soap works very well for most above-ground bugs but does not persist- kills only on contact with no residual activity (but it is there- wash it off before smoking!).
In my veggies, mites and white fly were problematic this year, particularly white fly. I didn't find anything very effective against those this year. Something I'll be trying next year is diatomaceous earth.
Mites are very sensitive to humidity, and I see their number vary with the weather. They've only been an issue on my fruit trees, though.
Scale, aphids, mealy bugs etc- outdoors these critters are (at least in my garden) spread and nurtured by ants- get rid of the ants, most of these go away. This year in my veggie garden and on my trees I've used Green Light Fruit Tree spray, which is pyrethium plus neem, and put ant traps under the trees (actually, poisoned bait, not "traps"). Worked pretty well.
Disease control is always an issue- I can't rotate tomatoes out of the garden. This year I used a rotation of copper (any of a zillion brands), sulfur, and phosphorus acid (not phosphoric acid; Agri-fos and Exel are brands), and this seemed to work pretty well. I can't imagine that smoking sulfur-coated stuff or copper-coated stuff would be that great for you- if this were used on leaves/flowers for consumption, a simple wash would take care of it. E.g., both readily wash off in the rain. Phosphorus acid is fascinating, relatively benign, and is systemically active but has a very narrow spectrum of activity, limited to action against oomycetes like Pythium, Phytophthora, and downy mildews. Toward the end of the season I used Daconil (chlorothalonil), in part because it is easily washed off of my tomatoes. I've never had need for any fungicide indoors.
Beneficial bugs are killed by most insecticidal treatments- even safer soap, so I use little, and infrequently. I generally find that moderate bug levels don't hurt my crops. And as often as not, I find predators doing a good job- tobacco hornworms more often than not are observed with a bunch of parasitoids stuck on them, and lacewings are fairly common. Lady bugs seem to prefer trees to my veggie garden, so they're not much help with my white fly issues, and my strawberries and tomatoes were pretty unhappy.
Next year I will try using lures to increase beneficials/predators - this year I found that most "beneficial" lures are just carefully packaged methyl salicylate, and for $7.50 I got 100 ml from the local old-time pharmacy. Plenty!
For me, the big revelation was nematodes for fungus gnats, etc.- I've lost indoor crops to these little buggers. They crawl into and eat the insides of MJ roots, and when I figured out the problem the first time (in rockwool) it was too late. I'm certain they saved my last crop (coco noir) too.
So- chime in- what has worked for you?
I was perusing the forums and thought I'd share some of the things I've used to deal with bugs and such in my veggie and medicinal gardens. I've had indoor medicinal grows in rockwool, soil-less media, hydroton, and the like, with a small outside grow years ago too; outdoors I grow veggies from beets to tomatoes. Since my kids live near these places, I avoid heavy chemical treatments when I can, but I'll admit to resorting to fungicides to keep my tomatoes and squashes growing when it starts getting cooler. Veggies inform my med grows and vice-versa. As well they should. Indoors I've had problems when I bring plants in from the garden or when stuff gets too wet (fungus gnats).
Fungus gnats- I had real problems with these when using rockwool, and recently in a coco noir grow. My best low-impact solution has been INSECTICIDAL NEMATODES. These have worked really well for me, but cheap they ain't. A pack costs like $40-50 shipped (they require fast, cooled shipping, so shipping ends up being like 20 bux), but you can use one or another of these little killers for almost any member of the order Insecta, above ground or below and a pack is good for a large area. You can use these for most insecticide purposes, and they are gaining popularity as treatments for japanese beetle larvae (grubs) that eat lawn roots. A big deal here in Michigan- I've had patches of lawn just peel up, and the adults are voracious.
Safer soap works very well for most above-ground bugs but does not persist- kills only on contact with no residual activity (but it is there- wash it off before smoking!).
In my veggies, mites and white fly were problematic this year, particularly white fly. I didn't find anything very effective against those this year. Something I'll be trying next year is diatomaceous earth.
Mites are very sensitive to humidity, and I see their number vary with the weather. They've only been an issue on my fruit trees, though.
Scale, aphids, mealy bugs etc- outdoors these critters are (at least in my garden) spread and nurtured by ants- get rid of the ants, most of these go away. This year in my veggie garden and on my trees I've used Green Light Fruit Tree spray, which is pyrethium plus neem, and put ant traps under the trees (actually, poisoned bait, not "traps"). Worked pretty well.
Disease control is always an issue- I can't rotate tomatoes out of the garden. This year I used a rotation of copper (any of a zillion brands), sulfur, and phosphorus acid (not phosphoric acid; Agri-fos and Exel are brands), and this seemed to work pretty well. I can't imagine that smoking sulfur-coated stuff or copper-coated stuff would be that great for you- if this were used on leaves/flowers for consumption, a simple wash would take care of it. E.g., both readily wash off in the rain. Phosphorus acid is fascinating, relatively benign, and is systemically active but has a very narrow spectrum of activity, limited to action against oomycetes like Pythium, Phytophthora, and downy mildews. Toward the end of the season I used Daconil (chlorothalonil), in part because it is easily washed off of my tomatoes. I've never had need for any fungicide indoors.
Beneficial bugs are killed by most insecticidal treatments- even safer soap, so I use little, and infrequently. I generally find that moderate bug levels don't hurt my crops. And as often as not, I find predators doing a good job- tobacco hornworms more often than not are observed with a bunch of parasitoids stuck on them, and lacewings are fairly common. Lady bugs seem to prefer trees to my veggie garden, so they're not much help with my white fly issues, and my strawberries and tomatoes were pretty unhappy.
Next year I will try using lures to increase beneficials/predators - this year I found that most "beneficial" lures are just carefully packaged methyl salicylate, and for $7.50 I got 100 ml from the local old-time pharmacy. Plenty!
For me, the big revelation was nematodes for fungus gnats, etc.- I've lost indoor crops to these little buggers. They crawl into and eat the insides of MJ roots, and when I figured out the problem the first time (in rockwool) it was too late. I'm certain they saved my last crop (coco noir) too.
So- chime in- what has worked for you?
