Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Pest and Disease Control
Pest and disease problems are an unavoidable fact of life for
the mini-farmer. Sometimes, they are barely noticeable and
cause no significant problems. But at other times they can
cause major crop losses.
There are, unfortunately, hundreds of pests and diseases that
affect vegetable crops. Going into the detail of identifying
these is beyond the scope of this topic, so instead I'll refer
you to The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect
and Disease Control, published by Rodale and edited by
Barbara Ellis and Fern Bradley. This 500-page topic is loaded
with color pictures and extensive explanation for every
disease or pest you are likely to encounter, including specific
details of organic methods for dealing with problems. What
follows in this chapter is an overview that concentrates more
on principles than details, along with my own unique
passive-active-reactive pest management strategy developed
specifically for the needs of mini-farms.
Since the old adage that “an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure” is true, mini-farming focuses automatically on
passive prevention by giving plants what they need. Active
prevention is used when experience or reliable data indicate
that a particular pest or disease is likely to be a problem.
Active reaction is employed when the value of likely crop
damage will exceed the costs of active reaction methods.
