Integrated Pest Management in the Home Garden - Ep. 228

[00:00:00] What is your biggest problem in the garden? If you're like most gardeners, this can be any number of things. Weeds, deer and rabbits and squirrels, diseases. But the number one thing I hear from gardeners that they feel is so out of their control is insect pests. Once we think we have one pest figured out, another one moves in to wreak as much havoc as the first, sometimes more, and it feels like a losing battle.

[00:00:23] There are a lot of things that we can do in the garden to mitigate these pests right from the beginning, and it all starts with our garden plan before we even plant a single seed or buy our first transplant for the season.

[00:00:37] The way in which we plant our crops in terms of companion planting and intercropping is just the start though, and I've talked a lot about that on this podcast.

[00:00:45] But if we look at this from an even more detailed perspective, home gardeners should be using a multi-layered approach to battle pests. In sustainable agriculture, we refer to this as integrated pest management.

[00:01:00] And you may very well be practicing some of the principles already in your own garden, but you also might be missing some components too.

[00:01:09] Today on Just Grow Something, we will break down the core principles of integrated pest management or IPM and how we as home gardeners can easily apply those principles to manage pests effectively while still protecting beneficial insects, the environment and our plants.

[00:01:28] Let's dig in.

[00:01:30] Hey, I'm Karen. I started gardening in a small corner of my suburban backyard and now 18 years later, I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40 acre market farm.

[00:01:39] I believe there is power in food and that everyone should know how to grow at least a little bit of their own.

[00:01:44] On this podcast, I share evidence based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest and store all your family's favorites.

[00:01:51] Consider me your friend in the garden.

[00:01:53] So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.

[00:02:07] If you garden somewhere like me where the brutal cold suddenly kicked in, I hope you're surviving.

[00:02:14] It was unexpectedly 15 degrees Fahrenheit the other morning, which totally took me by surprise.

[00:02:19] I'm usually really good about keeping an eye on the forecast, but I guess since I'm not actively out in the garden all the time at the moment, we have very few livestock left on the farm that I'm worried about suffering from any kind of exposure.

[00:02:32] So I didn't really pay any attention.

[00:02:34] That was quite the wake up.

[00:02:36] I did screw up a little bit, though, because I was running a little experiment in the garden with my celery.

[00:02:43] So if you follow me on socials, you may have seen me post a video about this on Instagram or TikTok.

[00:02:49] I had celery in the garden that was planted very late in the spring.

[00:02:53] It was completely root bound by the time I got it in, but I had space for it.

[00:02:57] So I decided just to plant it anyway.

[00:03:00] I really wasn't expecting anything out of it and it actually didn't grow at all.

[00:03:04] It just sat there the entire summer.

[00:03:07] But as soon as it started to cool off a little bit in the fall, it took off and it started looking like actual thick stalks of celery.

[00:03:15] So we were leaving town for Thanksgiving and I wasn't going to have time to do anything with it.

[00:03:20] So I grabbed one of my mini greenhouses for my raised beds.

[00:03:25] If you've seen any of my videos, you can you can see what these look like.

[00:03:28] I've got an Amazon storefront.

[00:03:30] There's a link in the show notes.

[00:03:31] You'll see them in there.

[00:03:32] But if you've seen any of the videos that I've done with these, you know what they look like.

[00:03:36] There's just these green literal mini pop up greenhouses that I pop over top of my raised beds.

[00:03:42] And so I grabbed one of those and I mulched around the base of some of the celery with the leaves that were already in the garden bed.

[00:03:49] And then I put the cover top over top of it.

[00:03:52] And I mean, I knew it was going to get down to below freezing and that was going to be necessary to just sort of give them that little extra bit of protection.

[00:04:00] It worked great the first couple of days.

[00:04:03] But before we left town, I saw that it was going to drop into the teens while we were gone.

[00:04:08] So, OK, note to self, go stuff the little greenhouse with the frost cloth before we leave so I can, you know, salvage the celery.

[00:04:16] Y'all, we were two days into our trip when I had like a forehead slapping moment when I realized I totally forgot to do that.

[00:04:25] So needless to say, when we got home, I unzipped the little greenhouse to find my celery all wilted.

[00:04:31] It had very obviously gotten frozen and then thawed while I was gone and it was all flopped over.

[00:04:36] So the only thing I have left in the gardens right now is some kale and some Napa cabbage that I did have frost cloth on.

[00:04:43] So those are perfectly fine.

[00:04:45] You win some, you lose some, I guess.

[00:04:48] I mentioned those little greenhouses and my Amazon storefront because I hope you guys know that I only talk about things that I actually use.

[00:04:57] And I only work with brands that I actually believe in and that I have actually integrated into my everyday life.

[00:05:04] So if you hear me mention Elm Dirt or Planterbox Direct, it's because I'm using those products and I'm using all that stuff and I believe in it.

[00:05:13] And not all of them are sponsors, not all of them are even affiliates.

[00:05:16] I may not even get anything out of it if you go and buy from them.

[00:05:19] But if I use it and I love it, then I will talk about it and I will recommend it.

[00:05:23] And the same goes for Magic Mind because after using it for going on a year now, I truly believe in the benefit of the nootropics and the adaptogens in their product for helping me not only keep going through my afternoons without any kind of a crash or slump,

[00:05:38] but also to have the focus that I need to be able to push through tasks that may otherwise just make me feel burned out.

[00:05:45] I spent seven hours yesterday editing videos, like seven hours at my desk editing videos.

[00:05:53] I didn't feel frustrated or burnt out on the task.

[00:05:57] And I mean, just like when I reorganized my office, I was focused and energized, but not caffeine pumped or jittery or anything like that.

[00:06:05] And I truly attribute that to my little green mental performance shot.

[00:06:11] I even recommended Magic Mind to people while I was on my Thanksgiving trip when they mentioned something about always needing a jolt in the afternoon and losing focus if they don't have an afternoon coffee.

[00:06:21] I showed them what I use.

[00:06:23] If this sounds like you and you want to give Magic Mind a try, you can save on a one time purchase or a subscription by going to magicmind.com slash grow something 20 and using code grow something 20 at checkout.

[00:06:38] I will leave that link in the show notes magicmind.com slash grow something 20 and use code grow something 20 to save 20% on your first one time purchase or up to 48% on a subscription of my favorite little mental performance shot.

[00:07:00] So integrated pest management or IPM is an environmentally friendly approach to controlling pests in the garden, on farms and in landscapes.

[00:07:11] It combines multiple strategies to manage pest populations in a way that is effective, but also economically viable and also ecologically sustainable.

[00:07:25] So the idea behind IPM is to minimize the use of chemical pesticides while also promoting the natural processes in the garden that make our plants inherently more resistant to pests and also to promote long-term solutions to those pest problems.

[00:07:44] This includes keeping certain diseases at bay like fungal diseases that also tend to attract pests to our plants.

[00:07:53] So there are basically four core or five, I guess, core principles of IPM.

[00:08:01] The first one is prevention, right?

[00:08:04] The best way to manage pests is to avoid those problems before they even start.

[00:08:08] So we can use a few different techniques for this.

[00:08:12] And number one, we can start by selecting pest resistant plant varieties.

[00:08:17] Number two, we can manage healthy soils to grow more vigorous plants that are less susceptible to those pests.

[00:08:24] The third is to practice crop rotation to disrupt those pest life cycles.

[00:08:29] There's a little bit of a caveat to that.

[00:08:30] We'll talk about that in a minute.

[00:08:31] And then number four is to remove weeds and debris that could possibly harbor those pests.

[00:08:37] The second principle is monitoring and identification.

[00:08:42] So we should regularly inspect our plants for signs of pest activity.

[00:08:48] Being able to identify those pests accurately is very important because not all insects or organisms in our garden are pests.

[00:08:58] So some of the monitoring methods would be just visual inspections, looking to see what kind of pests you've got,

[00:09:03] or using sticky traps or pheromone traps, looking for very specific pests.

[00:09:08] And then we want to keep records of the pests as they occur over time.

[00:09:14] The third principle is what we call thresholds for action.

[00:09:18] So not all pests in the garden require intervention.

[00:09:22] So before we go ahead and take any action against an insect in our garden,

[00:09:25] we need to identify the point at which that specific pest needs to be controlled.

[00:09:31] So just because we see a single pest does not mean that we have to do something about it.

[00:09:35] We have to decide at what level that pest is actually going to become a threat to the garden.

[00:09:41] This is what we call our action threshold.

[00:09:43] So we have to decide how much damage can be tolerated before we take steps to control it.

[00:09:50] So, for example, if you see a few aphids on your plants, well, that likely doesn't require you to do anything

[00:09:56] because most of the time, if you have beneficials in the garden, like lady beetles,

[00:10:01] they're going to come in and take care of those aphids.

[00:10:02] But if you have a full-blown infestation that is visibly causing damage to your plant,

[00:10:09] that you might decide is your action threshold and it's time to do something about it.

[00:10:15] When you reach that point, then we move into number four, which is control methods.

[00:10:21] So if your prevention hasn't worked and your pest population is exceeding that action threshold,

[00:10:27] then we use a combination of different controls.

[00:10:31] And generally, we kind of do this in order of preference.

[00:10:34] The first one is a cultural control.

[00:10:36] So we want to adjust our gardening practices to make the environment less hospitable to those pests.

[00:10:42] Next up would be biological control.

[00:10:44] So we're encouraging those natural predators or parasites or pathogens or whatever to manage those pests.

[00:10:50] Number three would be mechanical and physical controls.

[00:10:54] So we're using barriers.

[00:10:56] We're handpicking pests.

[00:10:57] We're installing traps.

[00:10:58] And then the final method is chemical controls.

[00:11:03] This is our last resort.

[00:11:05] So at this point, we may use targeted and selective pesticides to control the pests,

[00:11:13] but also minimize harm to the beneficial organisms and, of course, the environment,

[00:11:17] because that's the whole idea behind this, right?

[00:11:19] And then finally, our fifth principle is evaluation.

[00:11:23] So after we have implemented all of these controls,

[00:11:26] we need to go back and evaluate how effective they have been.

[00:11:29] So this ensures that we are taking the appropriate steps the next season

[00:11:35] to sort of adapt our pest management plan and improve it where it can be improved.

[00:11:42] There are a lot of different benefits to IPM.

[00:11:46] Environmental protection being probably number one, okay?

[00:11:49] This is reducing any reliance on chemical pesticides.

[00:11:53] It's protecting beneficial insects.

[00:11:55] It's protecting our water quality.

[00:11:57] And it's also keeping up with our soil health.

[00:12:01] But number two, it's also cost effective, right?

[00:12:04] Pesticides are expensive.

[00:12:06] And losing crops and having to replant them is expensive.

[00:12:10] So we're still going to try to achieve effective control, but we're saving some money while we're doing it.

[00:12:17] And then, of course, there's a sustainability component.

[00:12:20] This IPM encourages long-term pest management rather than just short-term solutions.

[00:12:27] Because one of the things that we have seen in agriculture, and this includes in the home garden,

[00:12:33] is that short-term solutions using mainly chemical means can actually lead to pest resistance.

[00:12:40] And what does that do?

[00:12:41] It actually makes the problem worse.

[00:12:43] So IPM is not just a really good approach for market farmers and commercial growers,

[00:12:50] but it's really good for home gardeners too,

[00:12:53] because it offers us a practical way to manage our pests while also supporting ecological balance.

[00:13:02] So how can we, as home gardeners, use these principles of IPM in our own gardens?

[00:13:10] So let's go through each one of those principles and talk about how we can do that in the garden.

[00:13:17] The first one being prevention.

[00:13:19] So we want to set the stage for healthy plants, okay?

[00:13:24] Because the healthier the plant is, the more it can resist pests,

[00:13:28] and the less likely we're going to have to do any type of an intervention.

[00:13:31] So this starts with if you have specific pests that you are used to battling in your garden,

[00:13:38] you can choose resistant varieties.

[00:13:40] So either by the seeds or the plants that are labeled as pest resistant for that particular pest.

[00:13:47] The second is to optimize your plant health.

[00:13:50] So we always want to make sure that we are using good quality soil, plenty of organic matter.

[00:13:54] We want to make sure that we are mulching to maintain that proper moisture level in the soil,

[00:14:00] because we don't want the plants having to reach too far out to get water.

[00:14:05] So if it's excessively dry, obviously this also means maybe maintaining a watering schedule

[00:14:10] and making sure that the plants are getting the proper nutrients.

[00:14:14] But we also want to avoid over fertilizing, because if you have too many nutrients in there,

[00:14:20] you have like too much green growth, for example, this actually can attract pests like aphids,

[00:14:24] which is something that we often overlook.

[00:14:26] So we definitely want to be feeding our plants, but not overfeeding them.

[00:14:32] So crop rotation, I mentioned earlier there was a little bit of a caveat to this.

[00:14:36] And I have sort of changed my stance on this just a little bit over the years in terms of home gardening.

[00:14:43] You know, crop rotation is something that is preached a lot in terms of agriculture

[00:14:48] and large scale, either market farming or very large scale gardening.

[00:14:54] And I agree with that.

[00:14:56] You do want to rotate your crops seasonally, especially within plant families.

[00:15:02] So you don't want things that are in the nightshade family, for example,

[00:15:05] tomatoes and peppers and eggplant to be planted in the same spot over and over and over again,

[00:15:11] especially if you're trying to break a pest life cycle.

[00:15:14] But I understand also that most home gardeners don't have a huge amount of space to be able to

[00:15:21] rotate these plants or these families far enough away from each other that it's actually going to

[00:15:26] break that cycle.

[00:15:27] If you have a hundred square foot garden and you have your tomatoes in one corner one season,

[00:15:32] and then you move them to the other corner the next season, there's nothing to stop those

[00:15:36] insect pests from moving from that corner to the new corner and just following your plants.

[00:15:41] So I say crop rotation for home gardeners in small garden situations is more important when you see

[00:15:49] things that are soil borne.

[00:15:51] So if it's a soil borne pest or a soil borne disease, then you definitely want to be rotating

[00:15:57] your crops.

[00:15:58] But if you're not seeing like deficiencies in terms of nutrients or you're not seeing pests that are

[00:16:06] inherently soil borne, then the crop rotation is a little bit less important when

[00:16:11] you're dealing with a small space.

[00:16:12] Now, if you do have a very large space or you're utilizing containers a lot, then absolutely

[00:16:17] you want to be rotating these.

[00:16:18] But if you're planting in the ground and you're in a small space, you know, crop rotation is

[00:16:23] nice to have but may not necessarily be the end all be all when it comes to pest management.

[00:16:29] Sanitation, however, is something that can be very important.

[00:16:33] And I understand a lot of the time we get mixed messages on this.

[00:16:36] You'll hear, oh, leave the leaves, right?

[00:16:39] That's a big thing in the fall.

[00:16:40] Leave the leaves because it's really good for the soil and it's really good for the

[00:16:44] beneficial to be able to overwinter.

[00:16:46] Yeah.

[00:16:46] And it's also really beneficial for those pests to overwinter too.

[00:16:50] So plant debris and weeds specifically, you want to get those out of the garden.

[00:16:55] Any fallen fruit during the season, you also want to get that out of the garden unless

[00:17:00] you are using it in sort of a compost type of a situation where you're letting it fall,

[00:17:04] but then you're covering it up.

[00:17:06] Otherwise, that can also harbor pests.

[00:17:09] At the end of the season, if you clear out all of that extra debris and you are very

[00:17:14] thoughtful about what you leave behind, you can leave matter in the garden to decompose

[00:17:21] and help to, you know, give a safe haven for those beneficials to overwinter in.

[00:17:27] But if it's diseased or something like that, you definitely want to get it out of the garden

[00:17:31] because for some reason, these pests actually prefer being in and amongst those diseased kind

[00:17:37] of plant debris.

[00:17:38] So you use this strategy based on what you are seeing in your garden.

[00:17:43] In fact, you use all of these strategies, any strategy in the garden you're going to

[00:17:46] use based on what you are seeing.

[00:17:48] So if you have seen that you have just had a ton of pests and they are the type of pest

[00:17:53] that overwinters in plant debris, then don't leave the leaves.

[00:17:57] Okay.

[00:17:58] The beneficials can find someplace else to sleep for the wintertime.

[00:18:02] If you are having a problem with a particular pest in your garden, then by all means, get

[00:18:06] the plant debris out of there, get the weeds out of there and get the fallen leaves out

[00:18:10] of there and don't feel guilty for it.

[00:18:12] Okay.

[00:18:13] And then finally, when we're talking about, you know, prevention, companion planting is

[00:18:19] a big one for me.

[00:18:21] And this is also, you know, I'm going to use the term companion planting and interplanting

[00:18:25] or intercropping interchangeably here.

[00:18:28] But essentially, you're just wanting to grow plants near your other plants that are either

[00:18:33] going to deter pests naturally or draw them away.

[00:18:36] So, you know, things like nasturtiums near the vegetables are going to deter things or

[00:18:41] marigolds on the outer edges of the garden to draw the pests away, draw the pests towards

[00:18:46] the marigolds, essentially.

[00:18:47] Trap crops can be used here, too.

[00:18:49] So growing dinosaur kale uncovered near my curly kale that is covered with insect netting

[00:18:56] draws the cabbage moths over to the dinosaur kale and it preserves my curly kale all season

[00:19:02] long.

[00:19:03] So I will leave multiple links in the episode description where I've talked about companion

[00:19:08] planting.

[00:19:09] I have a companion planting guide with a chart of good and not so good companions that you

[00:19:13] can download.

[00:19:14] So if you go to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com slash chart and then I will also leave that

[00:19:19] as a link as well.

[00:19:20] So companion planting and interplanting also help set the stage for very healthy plants

[00:19:26] that can help to deter or can be resistant to the pests as they come in.

[00:19:33] So the second principle would be to monitor and identify those pests.

[00:19:38] How are we going to do that in the home garden?

[00:19:40] We want to check our plants weekly for signs of pests.

[00:19:44] So we're looking for chewed leaves or yellowing or distorted growth or anything that might be

[00:19:49] indicative of very specific pests that you are familiar with in your garden.

[00:19:53] And then you want to use tools for monitoring like sticky traps so you can catch those flying

[00:19:58] insects like white flies or magnifying glasses even if you're trying to identify tiny little

[00:20:03] pests like spider mites.

[00:20:04] Or you're trying to identify whether it's spider mites or the little red grass mites that aren't

[00:20:09] harmful.

[00:20:10] We want to learn to identify the difference between pests in our garden and the beneficials,

[00:20:18] right?

[00:20:18] Obviously not all insects are harmful in the garden.

[00:20:21] So aphids, absolutely pests.

[00:20:23] But ladybugs and lacewings, the larvae are very beneficial predators of those aphids.

[00:20:29] Ground beetles, not a problem because they feed on caterpillars and slugs.

[00:20:34] That could be a problem.

[00:20:36] So make sure that we are learning to identify the difference between the good buggies and

[00:20:40] the bad buggies in the garden.

[00:20:43] The third principle is to set those action thresholds that we talked about.

[00:20:48] So this is entirely on you.

[00:20:52] You need to determine how much pest activity you can tolerate.

[00:20:57] So a few holes in your kale leaves might be acceptable.

[00:21:01] But a complete infestation of cabbage worms, you might decide that that requires a little

[00:21:06] bit of intervention.

[00:21:07] So I would say prioritize the plants that you value the most.

[00:21:13] If your most important crop that year in your garden is your tomatoes, focus on the action

[00:21:20] thresholds that you can tolerate within your tomatoes.

[00:21:24] Or if you have a particularly susceptible crop.

[00:21:27] So for me, it's anything that's in the brassica family.

[00:21:30] So cabbage, kale, collards, brussel sprouts, all of those things that are in the cabbage

[00:21:34] family are very susceptible in my garden.

[00:21:36] So I focus on those.

[00:21:39] I'm not usually as worried about my tomatoes because other than hornworms, I generally don't

[00:21:44] have too many pests in my tomatoes.

[00:21:46] So this is entirely subjective based on you in your own garden.

[00:21:52] But set a threshold that you are willing to tolerate.

[00:21:56] And anytime we start to move beyond that, that's when you know it's time to use some control

[00:22:00] methods.

[00:22:01] And that is number four.

[00:22:03] That is our control methods.

[00:22:05] And we want to use a combination of those control methods.

[00:22:07] I honestly believe that we go back up to number one.

[00:22:11] Prevention is the best policy.

[00:22:14] So if your prevention methods fail and the pests start to surpass your action threshold,

[00:22:21] then we want to implement these control methods in a very thoughtful order, starting with those

[00:22:27] cultural controls.

[00:22:28] So maybe you need to thin out some overcrowded plants to help improve the airflow and make

[00:22:33] it easier to see the pests.

[00:22:35] Give them less places to hide.

[00:22:37] Maybe you need to back off on the watering a little bit because that can attract pests

[00:22:41] like fungus nets, right?

[00:22:43] Maybe we need to go ahead and interplant some more plant families within each bed to help

[00:22:47] confuse the chemical signals that attract each one of those pests.

[00:22:51] If we didn't do these things in our prevention phase, then now we need to do that in our control

[00:22:57] method phase.

[00:22:58] The next thing is biological control.

[00:23:01] So we want to encourage the natural predators.

[00:23:04] If we haven't interplanted things in our prevention phase, then maybe now is the time to start

[00:23:09] planting things like dill or fennel or yarrow that's going to attract parasitic wasps and

[00:23:15] attract the ladybugs.

[00:23:16] Leave some wild areas in and around the garden to help support some of those predator habitats.

[00:23:23] And then maybe we need to introduce some beneficial insects.

[00:23:27] Maybe you have to purchase some predatory nematodes for those soil-borne pests or release some ladybugs

[00:23:33] or some lacewings to help control the aphids if you really have a problem.

[00:23:36] If the biological controls aren't working, then we move into mechanical and physical controls.

[00:23:41] And honestly, you could be doing both of these at the same time.

[00:23:45] This would involve maybe hand-picking the pests.

[00:23:48] So if they're caterpillars, we want to go ahead and be picking them and dropping them off into

[00:23:51] soapy water.

[00:23:52] Or you can be spraying the hose down for those aphids to get them under control.

[00:23:58] You want to use barriers.

[00:23:59] Now, I always maintain that this is part of prevention because I talk about it all the time.

[00:24:05] Insect netting is your friend or floating row covers, whichever it is, whatever you've got.

[00:24:10] But if you didn't do that in the prevention stage, now is the time.

[00:24:13] Try to get these things under control and then cover your crops with an insect netting or a

[00:24:18] row cover over everything just to keep those insects from getting in.

[00:24:22] And then you can also use traps, either sticky traps for like the aphids or the whitefly.

[00:24:26] You can use beer traps for slugs if that's an extra problem.

[00:24:29] Um, I have used potatoes, half a potato to do the roly polies, the pill bugs.

[00:24:35] So if you have an infestation of those, just cut half a potato and face it down into the

[00:24:40] soil.

[00:24:40] And they're attracted to that moisture and the potato itself.

[00:24:43] And then you just go out every morning and you lift it up.

[00:24:45] You see them all under there.

[00:24:46] You tap them into soapy water and you put the potato back.

[00:24:49] And you just do that over and over again until you have reduced the volume of the bugs.

[00:24:53] So mechanical and physical controls are going to be our next one.

[00:24:57] If all else fails and you need a last resort, we're moving into chemical controls, right?

[00:25:03] So we're going to select preferably organic or very targeted pesticides.

[00:25:07] So insecticidal soaps or neem oil or natural sprays like Elmdirt's shield.

[00:25:13] Those would be our first step.

[00:25:15] And then if that doesn't work, if the infestation is too much, then we may need to move into some

[00:25:20] stronger formulas, preferably those that are certified for organic use.

[00:25:24] We do want to be careful to use them in such a way that it causes the least amount of harm.

[00:25:32] So we want to apply those treatments in the early morning or in the late evening to avoid

[00:25:36] harming the pollinators.

[00:25:38] And I know oftentimes you will see recommendations that say use sparingly when we're talking about

[00:25:45] these things.

[00:25:45] And that actually is not great advice.

[00:25:50] You want to follow label instructions carefully and apply according to those instructions.

[00:25:58] Too little of some of these like insecticides can be as bad as using too much because it can

[00:26:05] actually cause those pests to become resistant.

[00:26:09] So anytime you are using a chemical control, remember the label is the law and we need to use it

[00:26:17] accordingly so that we're not promoting any type of resistance.

[00:26:21] And then finally, we move into our evaluate and adapt phase.

[00:26:26] So we want to track these pest levels a little bit before we start taking any action and then

[00:26:32] track them again after we have taken action.

[00:26:35] Are these controls working?

[00:26:37] And then we may need to adjust our approach, right?

[00:26:40] So try a different control method if it's not working.

[00:26:43] Or we need to improve our prevention practices for the next season so we don't have to get to that

[00:26:47] control phase.

[00:26:49] Keeping a garden journal to note these pest issues, what worked, what didn't, is absolutely

[00:26:57] important if it's a continuous thing that happens year after year.

[00:27:00] If you don't have a garden journal, Laura at the Girly Homesteader has hers on sale for

[00:27:05] the holidays right now.

[00:27:06] Or if you're hearing this after her sale ends, you can still use my code JUSTGROW and save

[00:27:12] 10% on her grow and flourish planner.

[00:27:15] Just go to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com slash planner and it will take you right there.

[00:27:20] The link will be in the show notes.

[00:27:21] And even if you don't use a formal planner, just a small notebook to track your progress

[00:27:28] before and after using your pest control methods is going to be very, very important.

[00:27:32] It's really hard to know what's working and what's not if you don't keep track.

[00:27:39] Okay, so let's do two examples of an IPM in action.

[00:27:44] The first one will be a very basic one for tomato plants.

[00:27:46] So we're going to go through each one of those phases really quickly.

[00:27:49] Let's, for the prevention phase, maybe we're rotating our tomato crops.

[00:27:53] We're mulching to suppress the weeds and we're pruning the lower branches to reduce

[00:27:58] splash-related fungal spread that could invite in pests.

[00:28:02] Then we move into monitoring.

[00:28:03] So we're going to watch for signs of hornworms like stripped leaves or a caterpillar frask.

[00:28:08] Or we're going to look for spider mite webbing if that's what our usual issue is.

[00:28:12] And then we're going to set our threshold.

[00:28:14] So maybe if you spot more than one or two hornworms per plant, this may be very well destructive

[00:28:21] to your plants.

[00:28:22] So that would be your threshold.

[00:28:23] If you see excessive spider mite webbing on multiple plants, this may be your threshold,

[00:28:29] whatever it is for your garden.

[00:28:31] And then control.

[00:28:33] So we're going to handpick those hornworms.

[00:28:35] We're going to attract predators like birds or parasitic wasps.

[00:28:38] We may spray the plants with a heavy hose spray and then apply neem oil if the spider mites persist.

[00:28:44] And then finally, evaluate.

[00:28:46] So we're going to track our plant health and the effectiveness of everything that we're

[00:28:49] doing so we can make improvements for the following year.

[00:28:52] Okay?

[00:28:53] That is an IPM plan in action.

[00:28:56] Very, very basic.

[00:28:59] Now, maybe we need something that's a little bit more detailed because we have plants that

[00:29:03] are more susceptible to multiple different pests, right?

[00:29:07] So for me, that would be something like broccoli.

[00:29:09] So what would a very detailed plan entail?

[00:29:13] And mind you, these aren't things that you necessarily have to write down.

[00:29:16] You just have to have the idea in your head of what you're going to do.

[00:29:18] But again, if you have a garden journal that you are using to track your plants and to track

[00:29:23] what you're growing and how well they're growing, then this is something that you can also be

[00:29:28] tracking.

[00:29:28] You can make these notations of this is what I'm doing to prevent these pests.

[00:29:32] This is what I'm going to do to control them on all of these different things so that

[00:29:36] you have an idea of what to do if something fails along the way, right?

[00:29:40] So for broccoli plants, this would be a detailed IPM.

[00:29:44] For prevention, again, first line of defense against pests, right?

[00:29:48] So crop selection and rotation.

[00:29:50] You would want to use pest-resistant broccoli varieties and rotate broccoli with non-brassica

[00:29:56] crops to disrupt the pest life cycle if you have the room to do that.

[00:30:01] The site preparation, we want to make sure that we've got well-draining soil.

[00:30:05] We want to amend with compost, make sure we're promoting those healthy, vigorous plants.

[00:30:09] They're going to be able to stand up to the pests even more.

[00:30:12] We also want to avoid planting anywhere where we have cruciferous weeds, anything that's in

[00:30:19] the same family.

[00:30:20] So wild mustard will actually harbor the same pests that we're trying to prevent.

[00:30:25] So we want to avoid that.

[00:30:26] We want to make sure that we've got proper spacing to ensure good air circulation.

[00:30:31] So we're reducing the conditions that are favorable to these pests.

[00:30:34] And immediately after planting, we are going to use that insect netting or that floating

[00:30:38] row cover because that's going to exclude all of the pests that we're trying to protect

[00:30:43] against, right?

[00:30:43] The cabbage loopers, the aphids, the flea beetles.

[00:30:45] We also want to make sure that after our harvest, preferably the year before, but also over the

[00:30:51] winter, and then as we're planting and working in them, we want to remove and destroy any

[00:30:55] plant debris because we don't want that pest population overwintering.

[00:31:00] And we're also going to plant trap crops.

[00:31:02] So the same thing with the kale and the dinosaur kale and the curly kale, we can do the same

[00:31:08] thing with our broccoli.

[00:31:10] So I might plant mustard or radish to attract the pests over to where those crops are, which

[00:31:16] is going to take them away from my covered broccoli crop over here.

[00:31:21] And then we can control the pest population in those sacrificial plants, okay?

[00:31:26] That is all in number one.

[00:31:28] That is all in our prevention phase.

[00:31:31] See, the more we do early on, the less likely we are to have the pests later on, okay?

[00:31:37] Now we have to move into monitoring and identification.

[00:31:40] So we're going to regularly take a look in our plants and make sure that we are looking

[00:31:46] for signs of pest activity.

[00:31:48] So chewed leaves, yellowing or curling leaves, tiny holes in the leaves, any kind of sticky

[00:31:53] honeydew.

[00:31:54] So all of these things are indicators of caterpillars and aphids and flea beetles, right?

[00:31:59] We can also use sticky traps.

[00:32:01] Those yellow sticky traps are going to monitor flying insects like white flies that may actually

[00:32:06] capture the caterpillar or the moths of the caterpillars.

[00:32:10] And we want to make sure that we are identifying them.

[00:32:12] We want to confirm what pest species we are working with, especially when we're talking

[00:32:16] about caterpillars, because we've got cabbage loopers, but we also have the diamondbacks.

[00:32:20] We've got imported cabbage worms.

[00:32:22] There's all kinds of different caterpillars that want to feed on our brassicas.

[00:32:26] We also have flea beetles and aphids and cutworms.

[00:32:30] So we just want to know what we're dealing with so that we know how to deal with it if we

[00:32:35] need to take more action.

[00:32:37] And then number three, of course, speaking of action, we have our action threshold.

[00:32:40] So we have to define what it is that we are willing to put up with and what pest populations

[00:32:47] are high enough to warrant us intervening.

[00:32:50] So I might say, all right, if I see that 20 or 30 percent of my plants show significant

[00:32:57] feeding damage from caterpillars, it's time for me to step in.

[00:33:00] Or if the flea beetle feeding is significantly impacting my young seedlings or my older plants

[00:33:07] have Swiss cheese for leaves, then that may be my threshold because it's going to affect

[00:33:12] the ability of my plants to be able to photosynthesize.

[00:33:15] Or if I have a few aphids, it's not a big deal.

[00:33:19] But if I have aphid colonies that are numerous enough to cause like leaf curling or yellowing,

[00:33:24] then it's time for me to step in.

[00:33:26] So I have to set my own action threshold for what I am willing to put up with in my own

[00:33:30] garden.

[00:33:32] If we meet that action threshold, now it's time to move into control.

[00:33:36] So if I have written all of this down ahead of time, I've made notes when I plant my broccoli

[00:33:41] as to what my next steps are going to be.

[00:33:44] There is no question about what I'm going to do if I start to see that my action threshold

[00:33:48] has been passed, right?

[00:33:50] So the first thing I'm going to do is work with those cultural and mechanical controls.

[00:33:55] So I might be removing the caterpillars or their egg clusters manually.

[00:33:59] Or if I didn't get those row covers down, shame on me, but now it's time to go ahead and implement

[00:34:04] the insect netting, right?

[00:34:05] To physically block the pests.

[00:34:07] I might move into some biological controls by encouraging the natural predators, which I

[00:34:12] should have been doing, you know, from the beginning.

[00:34:14] Or I might need to introduce some ladybugs.

[00:34:17] Or I might need to introduce some beneficial nematodes to control the cutworm populations

[00:34:21] in the soil.

[00:34:22] Well, if none of this is working and I'm desperate to save that crop, then I may have to move

[00:34:27] into some chemical controls.

[00:34:29] So last resort, we want targeted low toxicity pesticides.

[00:34:33] So BT, Bacillus thuringiensis, is a great one for caterpillars.

[00:34:38] Neem oil or insecticidal soap for aphids.

[00:34:40] Of course, you know, natural products like Elmdirt's shield.

[00:34:44] There are plenty of things out there that we can use.

[00:34:45] First Saturday, Lyme, all of these things are considered chemical controls, but they are low

[00:34:50] toxicity.

[00:34:51] If we need to move into pyrethrin-based things that are approved for organic use, these might

[00:34:57] be things that we would have to use for like flea beetles.

[00:34:59] We do want to use them appropriately to A, avoid harbing the beneficial insects, but then

[00:35:06] B, we also don't want to develop resistance.

[00:35:09] So always, always, always follow those label instructions.

[00:35:12] The label is the law.

[00:35:13] We want to protect the pollinators and the other non-target organisms without creating

[00:35:18] any type of resistance.

[00:35:21] And then finally, after we have done all of those things, it's time for evaluation.

[00:35:26] So we want to track the pest population.

[00:35:28] We want to make sure that we know what we were working with before and how it compares to

[00:35:32] after.

[00:35:32] We also want to assess our plant health.

[00:35:35] How did the broccoli grow?

[00:35:37] How well did it yield?

[00:35:38] Did it yield at all?

[00:35:39] Did it ever recover from that pest damage?

[00:35:42] If it didn't, then maybe we have to go back and adjust our threshold.

[00:35:46] Maybe we waited too long before we implemented our additional controls.

[00:35:51] So not only maybe do we need to adjust our practices, maybe we have to go back and revisit

[00:35:55] our prevention measures to see what we need to add to be better at preventing these pests.

[00:36:01] But then also we might want to look at our threshold and have to adjust that just a little

[00:36:05] bit if maybe our broccoli actually didn't make it because it just couldn't recover.

[00:36:09] And then we can adjust our control measures as well so we can see what we might be able

[00:36:12] to add to make them more effective.

[00:36:16] That is very detailed.

[00:36:17] So I just gave you two examples.

[00:36:19] One, it's a very, very basic IPM and another one that is very detailed.

[00:36:23] What you do and what you choose is going to be based on your garden, your pests, what

[00:36:29] you're growing, and again, which of those crops you are prioritizing.

[00:36:37] No matter how you do this, and it doesn't have to be difficult.

[00:36:41] I know I kind of, you know, went step by step through this because there are sort of five

[00:36:45] different principles, but you can make it very, very simple.

[00:36:48] The easier it is for you to implement, the better you're going to be at implementing it,

[00:36:53] right?

[00:36:53] An IPM is best described as a continuum.

[00:36:57] It is a system that we should be using throughout every gardening season, every single year, tweaking

[00:37:04] it and improving it, but never stopping.

[00:37:07] It should just be a part of our overall whole garden practice.

[00:37:11] So by following integrated pest management principles, I think we can grow healthier, more

[00:37:20] productive gardens while reducing both our reliance on pesticides and also our levels of frustration.

[00:37:28] Until next time, my gardening friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, pest-free,

[00:37:32] and we'll talk again soon.

[00:37:34] Thanks for listening to another episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.

[00:37:38] For more information about today's topic and to find all the ways you can get in touch with

[00:37:42] me or support the show, go to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com.

[00:37:46] Until next time, my gardening friends, keep learning and keep growing.