Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
a crop, the less susceptible it will be to pest and disease
problems.
An important aspect of healthy soil, particularly with
intensive agriculture, is compost. Merely using compost in
your soil can significantly reduce pest and disease problems.
Proper watering is another important aspect of disease
control. Plant diseases spread most easily when plant tissues
are wet; both excessive watering and overhead watering can
increase the likelihood of disease problems. However,
adequate moisture is also important because drought-stressed
plants become more attractive to pests.
Crop rotation is impossible to over emphasize. Just like there
are viruses and bacteria that affect some mammals but not
others—such as feline leukemia—there are numerous plant
diseases that affect one family of vegetables but not others.
Since these microbes need a host hospitable to their
reproduction to complete their life cycles, depriving them of
the host they need through crop rotation is extremely effective
at controlling many diseases. The same applies to insect pests,
so the same crop should not be grown in the same bed two
years in a row. Ideally, crop rotation will prevent crops of the
same family from growing in the same bed any more often
than once every three years.
Specific plant variety selection is another important
preventative. Notwithstanding the economic benefits of using
open-pollinated seeds (described in the next chapter), some
hybrids carry disease- and pest-resistance genes that can make
them a better choice if certain diseases or pests become a
