Some pathogens, such as the silver scurf pathogen, may survive from one season to the next in the storage facilities themselves. Storages and handling equipment should be cleaned and sanitized or “disinfected” after the storage is emptied and before handling and storing the new crop. Disinfection of storages and handling equipment is a three-step process.

• Remove dirt and debris. All the disinfectants approved for use in potato storages are rapidly tied up and rendered ineffective by dirt and organic matter. The next two steps of the process will be much more effective if the debris from last year’s crop is removed.

• Wash with soap and water. This step is often accomplished with a pressure washer and a detergent solution. Warm or hot water will be more effective than cold water. Steam washers are also a good choice but will not actually disinfect storage surfaces or equipment because the duration of the exposure to steam is too short. Water and detergent help to dissolve and remove dried tuber sap and bacterial slimes that are deposited on storage surfaces and equipment, and detergents have some disinfection capability. Cleaned surfaces allow the disinfectant, used in the next step, to work properly.

• Disinfect. Use an appropriate and registered disinfectant and make sure that the surfaces to be disinfected remain wet with the disinfection solution for at least 10 minutes. Use sufficient sprayer pressure and volume to effectively clean all surfaces.

Many fungal spores have tough, resilient cell walls, and bacteria in storages often occur in the form of dried slime. Ten minutes provides the necessary time for the disinfectant to penetrate the fungal cell wall or dissolve the bacterial slime and kill the pathogen.

Identifying Garden Pest predicaments

One of the best ways to stop pest predicaments before they get out of hand is to learn the symptoms of various pests. Looking for the ordinary symptoms of various garden predicaments is a simple way to get pests under control.

Some ordinary symptoms of pest infestation include

• Small holes in leaves
• Yellow or brown leaf edges
• Holes in the stems or petals of plants and flowers
• Premature leaf loss

Look for the presence of insects like grasshoppers, whiteflies and aphids on plants to determine what type of pest is attacking the garden. Knowing what categories of pests are around can affect the most effective method of pest control.

There are many ways to control pests in a garden, and these can be tailored to solve a particular predicament. Focutilized and specific pest control practices are more surroundingsally friendly, cost-effective and require less labor over time.

Pest Control Services

Hiring a pest control service is a simple way to reduce the presence of garden pests. Pest control services spray pesticides over plants that help to kill eggs and mature insects, rigorously reducing insect populations very quickly. However, there are issues with pest control services that gardeners should admit as true that.

General chemical pest control kills all insects in a garden, including the beneficial ones like honeybees and butterflies, as well as the ladybugs that can help to eat aphids, a ordinary garden pest. Losing these beneficial insects can make a garden less healthy over time, and require more applications of chemicals.

Most chemical pesticides are heavily reliant on fossil fuels for their creation, transportation and application, as well. Oil dependency is surroundingsally risky, and applying these chemicals to a garden can increase both global warming and surroundingsal pollution.

Even though pest control services provide a short-term solution to a serious pest predicament, there are better ways to combat pests in the long term.

Biological Pest Control

Biological pest control is a type of pest control that utilizes organic means to combat infestations of insects. One of the most ordinary categories of biological pest control is the utilize of ladybugs to rigorously reduce aphid populations. Ladybug populations are low due to invasive species, which means that aphid populations can rise quickly.

Many university extension and gardening centers provide biological pest control services. A group of ladybugs released into a garden infested with aphids can eat aphids quickly and effectively, while simultaneously advertising the local population of true ladybugs.

This type of biological pest control can be very effective in controlling garden pests, greenhoutilize pest predicaments and many other areas of gardening.

Planning a Garden for Pest Control

There are a number of ways to plan a garden to more effectively resist pest predicaments. Utilize local, native plants in a garden –these plants have evolved to survive in the area, and are more likely to be pest-resistant. additionally, they require less maintenance, watering and fertilizer.

Plan a garden that utilizes plants that repel pests, such as Artemisia and basil. Chives repel the Japanese beetles that can kill many garden plants, and catnip repels a number of other pest insects. Putting these plants throughout a garden can help keep away insects that would feed on and kill other plants.

utilize plants that attract beneficial predatory insects, as well. Plants like dill attract predatory wasps that reduce pest populations, and attract tomato hornworms that can kill tomato plants. Putting dill at a distance from tomato plants can help protect them. Hyssop is a good plant for attracting beneficial honeybees to a garden, which can then pollinate many flowers.

Pest control is a serious challenge for gardeners. Keeping plants healthy and free of pest insects can take up a great deal of time, effort and money. However, there are simple, easy methods of solving pest predicaments without resorting to chemical pest control. additionally, many of these organic methods can help make a garden even more beautiful.

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In fact insects are the pests most people link with gardens, but voles and other animals can as well do considerable damage to plants, flowers and crops. Animal garden pests can be even harder to control than insects. Even though they may learn their lesson when stopped by electric fencing, these intelligent animals can try other ways to get into a garden or even discover a varyent plant to feast upon. Gardeners need to know what type of pest is disturbing their gardens before they can effectively solve the predicament.

Voles as Garden Pests

Voles are small rodents that resemble pocket gophers. These moutilize-like creatures have a heavy, compact body, a short furry tail, short legs, small eyes and ears that are partially hidden. Their coarse long fur is blackish-brown or gray. A full-grown vole preparations 5 to 8 inches long, which contains the tail, notes the University of California.

Even though voles can breed at any time of the year, they mostly breed in spring. Voles are butionally productive, as they can have as many as five to ten litters each year. A litter size can range from three to six baby voles. Moles rarely live past 12 months old.

Voles are active throughout the year, during both day and nighttime hours. They’re typically found where there is thick vegetation. These pests dig shallow, short burrows, making underground nests of stems, grass and leaves. In winter voles can burrow through snow. Limiting the amount of litter lying on the ground of a vegetable garden can help reduce or get rid of a vole predicament.

Mammal Garden Pests

Even though many categories of mammals can cautilize damage to garden plants, some are more prominent than others.

• Chipmunks are known for invading gardens. They’re rodents living on burrows or tunnels that eat nuts, fruits, seeds and bulbs.
• Tree squirrels are pests that can be trapped in cages, with lures of peanut butter, sunflower seeds or raisins, and then be released.
• Rabbits live in thick grassy areas that feed on flowers, vegetables and tree bark.
• Groundhogs or woodchucks are rodents that feed on tender flowers, vegetables and flowers during timely morning and late afternoon, notes the University of Vermont.
• Deer are mostly found in wooded areas, thickets and tall grass that mostly eat plants and bark of woody plants.

‘Even though garden pests can cautilize many predicaments to plants, they can be managed. For example, poison bait is frequently utilized to kill rodents such as voles and mice. However, pet owners should comprehend that poison baits can as well attract pets and other animals, so these baits shouldn’t be placed where they can be found by pets. as well, caution should be utilized when trapping large animals to avoid being bitten becautilize many garden pests are carriers of rabies and other communicable ailment. By exercising ordinary sense and managing pest control, gardeners can enjoy their gardens without worrying about losing their flowers and vegetables.

Resources

University of California: Pests in Gardens and Landscapes (date accessed 6/15/2010).

University of Vermont: Controlling Animal Pests in the Garden (date accessed 6/15/2010).

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Wherever there is a lot of grass and weeds, there are most likely grasshoppers hiding. There are hundreds of varieties of grasshoppers that can be found in North American and several of them will do damage to gardens. It’s illogical for a gardener to go around hand-picking them and it’s not wise to utilize chemicals around the garden, so what can a gardener do for grasshopper control that will not ruin his garden?

Using Birds and Predators for Grasshopper Control

Grasshoppers hatch in spring from eggs that have been hidden in the soil. The baby grasshoppers will hide out in areas that are thick with vegetation. Most of the bugs will be eaten by spiders, frogs, beetles and other larger predators that live in the same vegetation. Maintaining dense mixed herbs, grasses and flowers near the garden can serve as traps for baby grasshoppers so that they never develop into full-blown garden pests.

Gardeners can as well control grasshoppers in the garden by providing perching structures near the garden for insect-eating birds. Insect-eating birds are one the biggest predators that these bugs have. Most of these birds like to hunt their prey by watching for any movements from high on top of on perches. Encourage these birds to eat the grasshoppers in the garden by supplying them with upright structures such as trellises and posts near the garden.

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Plant organic Barriers of the Bugs

There are certain plants that grasshoppers just don’t like. One of those plants include the herb cilantro. Planting this herb in the garden can help keep these bugs completely away from the entire area of the garden. Depending on the size of the garden, one to three plants of cilantro should be sufficient for grasshopper control.

Other plants that are known to be organic barriers include the herbs horehound and calendula. These herbs may be a little harder to discover and grow depending on the region. as well, these insects don’t like pea plants becautilize of the nitrogen, so peas can as well be planted in a garden to help keep the pests away

Grow Tall Grass Away from the Garden

Grasshoppers would rather live in a patch of tall grass and weeds than in a clean garden. By allowing a patch of tall grass or weeds to grow in an area away from the garden, people can practice organic grasshopper control in the real garden. If the garden is kept weeded and clean, like it should be, the bugs will organicly drift toward the patches of tall grass that are set up away from the garden, thus leaving the vegetables and fruits alone.

Row Covers Work Great for Grasshopper Control

One of the best ways to protect plants from these insects it to cover them with an obstacle such as a row cover or a lightweight fabric cloth. The covers should be held on top of the plants with posts or wooden stakes since the bugs are more likely to eat the plants if they can get the leaves that are pushing against the covers.

In some areas where grasshoppers are a real predicament for gardeners, aluminum screening cones are made to keep the plants protected. This may be a drastic measure for some people but in states like Texas, where the bug infestations can ruin whole crops, it may be necessary.

Instead of using harmful pesticides and chemicals, these are effective options that people have for organic grasshopper control in the garden. Gardeners can employ, one, two or even all three of these techniques to make sure their plants stay protected from hungry

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Common names: Walnut Husk Fly

Scientific name: Rhagoletis completa

Region: This fly is found in western United States and has similar species in the East.

Life cycle: This insect produces one generation each year and overwinters in the soil under the walnut trees in small hard, brown cases.  The adults emerge in late summer, around August and spend a few weeks on the foliage before they mate and begin to lay eggs.

Physical Description: This light brown fly is only 1/3 inch long and has yellow markings and black bars on the wings.  Its eggs are white and are laid in cavities within the husk of the walnut.

Feeding characteristics: This pest will attack walnuts as well as peaches.  The maggots feed by tunneling into the walnut husks, where they will remain for several weeks, until they drop to the ground to pupate.

While the infestation will cautilize stains, the kernel usually remains unaffected.

Controls: Once the walnuts have been harvested, place the nuts in water to drown the maggots.  Remove the husks with the dead maggots.
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Common names: Western Tussock Moth

Scientific name: Orgyia vetusta

Region: This Caterpillar is found in western North America with a similar species in the East.

Life cycle: This insect produces one generation each year and overwinters in frothy white egg masses on trees.

Physical Description: This 1 1/4 inch long caterpillar is a strange looking, hairy insect.  It has a bright red head with two hornlike tufts of long black hair.  Its primary colors are brown with yellow and black longitudinal stripes.  The adult moth is gray with dark wavy bands and a wingspan of 1 1/4 inches, the female is wingless.  The eggs are laid in frothy white egg masses on the females cocoon and covered with hairs.

Feeding characteristics: This pest attacks apple, apricot chrysanthemum, geranium, German ivy, hickory, horse chestnut, peach, pear, plum, rose, and quince by skeletonizing leaves and form silken cocoons on the bark.

Controls: Pick off the infested leaves and groups of larvae, and destroy them.  Scrape off the masses of eggs or paint them with creosote.  The masses are easy to find.  They are about an inch long and lathery.

Natural predators of this caterpillar is various Trichogramma Wasps and birds.

For serious infestations, apply Bacillus thuringiensis to the larvae and eggs.
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Clubroot is the most debigating disease to affect all members of the brassica family including Brussels sprout, cabbage, cauliflower, calabrese and swede. This virulent fungal disease persists in the soil for many years (spores can lay dormant for over twenty years). Clubroot is frequently a major predicament on old allotment sites and kitchen gardens which have been cultivated for many years. There is no known cure, but by adopting the following strategies decent crops may still be generated.

Recognizing the Presence of Clubroot

Infected plants wilt during hot days and develop stunted red to purple tops.When lifted the roots will be swollen and club-like. In bad infestations the stench from the roots can be horrendous.

How Clubroot disease stretchs

Clubroot stretchs through the soil water and on footwear and garden tools.

How to Reduce the Severity of Clubroot

Despite there being no cure preparations can be taken to reduce the severity of the damage cautilized:-

• Improving the drainage of heavy soil by making raised beds and incorporating organic matter in the form of garden compost or well-rotted farmyard manure helps massively.
• Raising the pH to 7.0 or 7.5 by applying garden lime and thereby making the soil more alkaline is another worthwhile tactic. Putting two good handfuls of lime into each hole and watering the hole before planting may lessen the impact of this disease.
• Growing seedlings in 9cm (in any case this big) pots of sterilized compost (growing medium) means a strong root system is in place at planting-out time, this make sures the plants are mature before the disease gets a grip.
• Some gardeners go to the trouble and expense of taking out a large hole for each plant and replacing this with sterilized loam every time they plant their brassicas.

Brassicas Which are Resistant to Clubroot

The development of some brassicas which show resistance to this virulent fungal disease is the most considerable breakthrough in the battle to combat the debilitating effects of clubroot. Resistant strains include the following:-

• Swede ‘Invitation’
• Calabrese ‘Trixie’
• Cabbage ‘Kilaxy F1′ and the larger Cabbage ‘Kilaton F1′ are both high yielding autumn/winter ballhead varieties of cabbage which show fantastic resistance to clubroot.
• Cauliflower ‘Clapton F1′ matures in summer and autumn producing large white heads. Plants show a very high resistance to clubroot.
• Brussels Sprout ‘Crispus F1′ is the latest addition to the clubroot resistant brassica stable. If it proves to be as good as the cabbage and cauliflower resistant varieties its future is assured.

Learn to Live With Clubroot

Where clubroot disease is gift in the soil it can not be get rid ofd, but the gardener by making raised beds to recover the drainage, applying organic matter as well as lime to raise the pH, and raising young plants in pots is able to reduce its impact and grow affordable crops. The development of more resistant varieties for all categories of brassicas holds out real hope for vegetable growers everywhere.

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Sow bugs and pill bugs are curious little creatures of the garden. children call them roly-polys and like to poke the pill bugs so that they roll up into tight little balls. Most people discover sow and pill bugs to be harmless. This is true when they are few in numbers, but sometimes they over breed and become true garden pests.

Sow and pill bugs are closely related and at first glance look pretty much the same. The way to tell them apart is that pill bugs can roll up fully into a ball. Sow bugs do not roll up as tightly. The bugs have tight segmented shells and multiple legs that can be seen scurrying along. Both kinds are true crustaceans, related to shrimps. Sow and pill bugs, though they need constant moisture, live solely on land.

Sow Bugs and Garden Mulch

The vegetable garden is probably not the origin of a sow bug infestation. It’s more likely that garden mulch is the bigger nursery. The bugs thrive in old dead leaves and tend to live under garden mulch. Within the mulch, sow bugs eat dead, dying, or decayed vegetation. They need the moisture that the mulch holds.

A vegetable garden may attract sow bugs, especially if it is mulched. The sow bugs like the moist garden surroundings. Let’s face it, insects eat their share of the bounty of gardens. There are some people who feel that sow bugs are not the culprits that really do the damage. They claim that other insects nibble the leaves and sow bugs move in later to clean up. This is not always the case in a vegetable garden.

Damage to the Vegetable Garden

Sow bugs typically eat only dead materials, it’s true. But sometimes they will as well eat tender young shoots. This becomes a predicament in the timely plantings, especially of beans, where the sow bugs crawl into the gap in soil as the sprout emerges and eat the first leaves before they push out. This damages the new sprout so that can never recover. Loss of the first few leaves effectively kills the plant. Here are some plants known to be damaged by sow bugs:

• lettuce
• radish and beets
• green beans
• starwberries

In the vegetable garden, timely spring crops such as lettuce and radishes are the first targets. Sow bugs are quite frequently found among tender lettuce leaves. They thrive in the shady moist surroundings. A radish patch as well makes a welcoming hang out for sow bugs. The bugs crawl up the leaves and make little round nibbles into the top of the radishes just below the soil line. They are as well known to take a bite or two out of ripening strawberries.

Controlling the Garden Pests

Sow bugs tend to eat only the soft tender parts of plants and generally leave established plants alone. Later in the growing season, sow bugs are not the ones that are eating the plants. Snails, slugs, beetles, and many other insects share in the feast of the garden. Vegetable gardeners can control the sow and pill bugs with organic diatomaceous earth. By keeping their numbers low, sow bugs will not create much damage. The secret is in comprehending these roly-polys and maintaining garden pest control.

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Common names: Walnut Caterpillar

Scientific name: Datana integerrima

Region: This Caterpillar is found in eastern and southern United States.

Life cycle: This insect produces one to two generations each year.  The pupae hibernate in the soil.  As with many insects, this caterpillar population goes in cycles.  They might be bad for one to two years and then virtually disappear for several seasons.

Physical Description: This 2-inch long caterpillar is reddish brown to black with a black head and white hairs.

The adult moth also has a hairy body, is brown in color with four dark bands bordered in white and a wingspan of 1 to 2 inches.

Feeding characteristics: This pest attacks apple, peach, pecan, and walnut plants by eating the leaves.  They will stop eating in the middle of summer to molt, then resume there feeding in the fall.

Controls: These caterpillars will congregate at the bases of branches every night making it easy to remove them on small trees.  A ladder may be necessary for larger trees.

utilize a rolled up burlap bag to rub them out during the late evening.

If hand destroying is not feasible, spraying with Bacillus thuringiensis or pyrethrum to help control the larvae.

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The resting bodies (sclerotia) of onion white rot can survive in the soil without a suitable host for fifteen years. This serious fungal disease can affect any member of the Allium family including onions, spring onions, chives, shallots, garlic and leeks. In order to live with onion white rot in the soil the gardener must first of all be able to recognize it before taking preparations to reduce the debigation it can cautilize. Overwintered onions and garlic are particularly susceptible to onion white rot.

How to Recognize Onion White Rot

• Evidence of this dastardly disease shows up when the leaves turn yellow and die back.
• Plants will sometimes keel over as the roots rot.
• A few plants may be affected at first, but this disease frequently stretchs to infect whole rows of plants.
• Upon lifting affected plants, white fluffy fungal growth, a bit like cotton wool, can be seen around the bulb with tiny black globules, like poppy seeds among the fungus.
• These black globules are the resting bodies or sclerotia of the white rot fungus.

How to  Reduce the Impact of Onion White Rot

The sclerotia fall into the soil where they wait for their next victim. When the temperatures reach 10-18 degrees centigrade during April the Allium roots stimulate the previously comatose fruiting bodies to germinate and infect new plants.

• The gardener who must grow onions in infected ground will get better results by growing onions from seed rather than sets, becautilize sets have well developed roots when temperatures trigger disease activity.
• Onions grown from seed have smaller roots and are therefore less likely to encourage attack.
• White rot stretchs sideways through the soil and intertwined roots encourage rapid travel along the rows of plants. Space plants widely to slow the speed of onion white rot stretch.
• removal the infected soil by taking out holes 10cm in diameter and replacing with uncontaminated soil before planting garlic may help.
• Clean tools and boots well after cultivating contaminated ground.
• In most cases a worthwhile crop of leeks can be grown on land which is badly infected with white rot.
• Begin harvesting onions as soon as the bulbs are fully formed rather than wait for them to ripen.
• utilize any onions which shows symptoms of the disease immediately, whilst they are still edible, and only store those bulbs which are completely free of the disease.

Elimination and Prevention of Onion White Rot

There is no control for this disease other than to avoid growing members of the Allium family on infected land for in any case eight years. UnHapppily like clubroot it can persist for much longer. It therefore makes sense to try to avoid letting the soil become infected in the first place by practising strict crop rotation and following a strict policy of garden hygiene including cleaning tools and boots after working on contaminated soil and never importing infected soil into uncontaminated ground.

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