Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
What about Pests and Disease?
Besides fruit and vegetables, plants also bring something else to your home—pests and dis-
ease. If you are new to gardening, the volume of bug and disease issues that you will be
faced with can seem overwhelming. But don't worry. It isn't anything that you won't be able
to handle with the right tools and the correct knowledge.
There are several ways to deal with these two unfortunate side effects of container garden-
ing: prevention and treatment.
Prevention
It is always better to eliminate the possibility of problems before they have a chance to
present themselves. While this is not always a 100-percent guarantee that you will be
disease-free and bug-free, it will certainly go a long way in diminishing the number of prob-
lems that you have to deal with.
Rules of prevention:
1. Keep an eye out. Since your containers are isolated from other growth, you should be
able to spot pests and disease as soon as they appear. Catching an issue early gives you a
much better opportunity of keeping it contained to a small area. When you water your plants,
give them a once-over. If you use a self-watering system, get in the habit of inspecting them
periodically.
2. Maintain a healthy garden. Plants are much more susceptible to disease when they are
sick themselves. Keeping your plants healthy is one of the best preventive measures that you
can practice. Keeping your plants well fed, with plenty of good, rich soil, and adequately
watered will go far in helping fight off predators.
3. Start with healthy plants. Certain plants are more tolerant of some insects and diseases
than others. Do some research to determine which varieties of plants are the hardiest. If you
aren't sure when you are shopping for seedlings, ask a store associate. Sometimes, the in-
formation is given right on the plant's label.
4. Keep your tools clean. It's common for people to use their yard tools for more than main-
taining their container garden. But moving them from fresh, potted soil to yard dirt can leave
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