Q: Why do I grow plants pesticide-free?
Why do I grow my plants pesticide-free?
I’m not particularly eager to spray. I don’t like it. Suiting up. Mixing and spraying…all while praying you aren’t doing any damage with the crazy tank mix you created. It’s not fun.
Pesticides are insidious and working around them made me feel like I was poisoning myself. Of course, I took precautions later in my growing career but when I first started in the early 90’s, it was the wild wild west. No one gave much thought to spraying and the chemicals we used. It was part of the job. I should have been wearing at least gloves or an apron, let alone a Tyvek suit or respirator. Negligence? Perhaps but times were different. We didn’t have the knowledge we do now about how these synthetic chemicals can react in the environment. How long do they stick around? Where they would show up.
I learned more about soil and how fungicides affect the beautiful community of fungi and other microorganisms that live there. These are essential to good plant growth and watering in fungicides disrupts the delicate balance. Without fungicides, I have mushroom colonies growing in my soil with my plants, making them grow like steroids
I control insects with two methods –
1
2
Throw the entire plant into a sealed plastic bag and put it in an outside dumpster.
Proactively release beneficial insects. As a grower, you will never get away from pests. They are part of the job. Learning to manage them has been a 25-year adventure. Every day I learn something new.
For disease, I use cultural methods and focus on plant health. If a problem erupts, I take fast action bagging it and throwing it in the dumpster. I use many cultural controls such as good airflow, spacing plants when they need it, quality soil I mix myself, and sub-irrigation instead of overhead watering. All of these actions make a tremendous difference. And when they don’t?
INTO THE DUMPSTER FOR YOU!!!
