I stumbled across this video recently and interested in trying this method for my own garden. Before I invest, I thought I would ask the gardening community what they think. In this video, the gardener says he can plant organically and not use any pesticides. He shows how he used something called a Miniature Greenhouse plant protector to plant his cold hearty crops early in the spring and grow his plants before the bugs come out.
Let me know what you think!
Planting out of season always helps. I think the miniature greenhouse he is talking about is really a cloche to protect the plants from the cold and not really to keep bugs out. The bugs are probably still hibernating.
You can limit your pesticide use a lot by:
1. growing plants to attract beneficial insects
2. Plant out of season before the bug populations soar
3. Be tolerant of some damage. If predators are around, they will control the pests but not eliminate them. If you spray you are likely to eliminate the good bugs too.
4. Be careful what you plant. Some plants are bulllet proof, nothing bothers them, others are pest magnets.
5. If you do have a problem with specific bugs like squash vine borer, you may have no choice but to resort to drastic measures. Either you hold a moratorium on growing susceptible plants for a couple of years until the pest population declines and goes elsewhere to look for a meal or you plan ahead and do the sanitation and whatever you can to interrupt their breeding cycle.
6 If you do resort to chemical controls, identify your bug, and select the least toxic remedy and use it as directed on the label.
You can limit your pesticide use a lot by:
1. growing plants to attract beneficial insects
2. Plant out of season before the bug populations soar
3. Be tolerant of some damage. If predators are around, they will control the pests but not eliminate them. If you spray you are likely to eliminate the good bugs too.
4. Be careful what you plant. Some plants are bulllet proof, nothing bothers them, others are pest magnets.
5. If you do have a problem with specific bugs like squash vine borer, you may have no choice but to resort to drastic measures. Either you hold a moratorium on growing susceptible plants for a couple of years until the pest population declines and goes elsewhere to look for a meal or you plan ahead and do the sanitation and whatever you can to interrupt their breeding cycle.
6 If you do resort to chemical controls, identify your bug, and select the least toxic remedy and use it as directed on the label.