mxyzptlk

Haven't seen too much here on vegetable gardening so I'll give it a shot. A few tips for non-poisonous gardening:

Potatoes: sure fire deterrent for potatoe beetle is to plant horseradish among the potatoe plants.

broccoli and cauliflower: cabbage worm is deterred by cheap and simple crushed lime (that's powerdered lime, not the fruit).

zucchini and other squash: nasturtium deters squash beetles; stem borers can be removed with a crochet hook and the injured stem buried to save the plant, usually.

These are just a few that immediately come to mind. I never use poison and am always eager to learn more. Have at it folks.

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gonadman

OK, so I'm expanding my gardening crops beyond the usual tomatoes and peps,

So I seem to be providing a smorgasborg to every frickin beetle in the county. According to my gardening book, I've got flea beetles on my eggplant, striped cucumber beetles on my cucumbers, japanese beetles and mexican bean beetles on my bush beans, tomato hornworms and squash bugs in my tomatoes, and cabbage worms in my cabbage. I'm trying rotenone spray, as it is supposed to be natural, but honestly, I'm about to hit the heavy duty pesticides cause the garden looks mostly like yellow skeletinized ghost plants.

Does soil treatments like grub ex and milky spore disease help much? I'm wondering if anything can be done in advance rather than spraying once you see them?

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For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, ...breathlessly.
-Carlos Castaneda

mxyzptlk

I don’t know about soil treatments, never used them, but lime also works for the flea beetles on eggplant, which are one of the flea beetles favorites. Just sprinkle the lime on the leaves. The bugs don’t like the taste. Some say planting catnip with flea beetles deters them, but I haven't tried that...just use the lime.

For any caterpillar, including hornworms and cabbage fly "worms", there is a product called Dipel (Bacillus thuringiensis) that, in effect, gives them the "flu" rather quickly. It is readily available. You can also simply sprinkle salt on the caterpillars. It burns their skin and they die pretty rapidly. The old Dutch farmers around here use the powdered lime on everything...it doesn't kill the bugs but makes the vegetables less palatable for them.

For beetles, we usually just transplant and ladybugs, preying mantis or assassin bugs we find. They are voracious killers. There are natural japanese beetle traps on the market, but you need to place them away from your garden cause you want to attract them away...not to you garden.

Windex works on white fly, believe it or not.

Diatomaceous Earth is a powder that is made from crushed small sea creature shells and apparently dehydrates most bugs rather quickly. Harmless to us. I haven't used it but it is touted in most organic publications.

I have had a lot of success with, believe it or not, leaving some weeds in the garden and sometimes just leaving a row of weeds (cutting them down before they go to seed). The smell and color seems to confuse many bugs. Also, interplanting with aromatic herbs like rosemary, basil, tansy and garlic has the same effect. There are lots of articles on "companion planting" online and in gardening books. We always plant more than we need so as not to be so distressed when the rabbits grab a nibble (when the dogs aren't looking) or when a turtle takes one single nip out of a perfectly good tomato.

Most of all don't get discouraged. Watch and read what works. Veggies from your garden are so superior to what you get from the grocery store it is worth the hassle.

Enjoy.

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brianna

also: coffee grounds will deter a lot of bugs -- just go to your local starbucks and ask them for the used grounds and psread them around you're plants.

I also know that pepermint extract spread around the edge of your garden will deter a lot of bugs -- it hurts them to have to walk on it, this will also keep ants out of your house .

krwlz

Milky spore and grub-ex works on japanese beetles. Kind of. Your average grub is the larvae of a japanese beetle. The grub stuff kills the grubs in the ground before they become the pesky beetle problem.

You dont want it in your garden really, though milky spore wont hurnt anything but grubs.

They do however make japanese beetle traps that are fairly effective to help combat the problem after the grubs have matured.

Rotenone is good. Seven is real good. But seven isnt natural (I dont think)

FOr smaller insects use some kind of organic spray oil. It coats the bugs crawling around in it, which breathe through their "skin", basically it suffocates them.

Thats about all I got.

gonadman

Thanks for the info. I've been using the jap beetle traps- I have three of the large size ones- away from my plants, and I throw away a full bag of beetles every day on each trap. This year is the worst I've ever seen the in my entire life!

Anyway, some good suggestions-I won't give up!!

__________________
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, ...breathlessly.
-Carlos Castaneda

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

NEEM is the extract of an Indian tree that works wonders when regularly applied. In combination w/ BT (Known as dipel, thuricide, etc.) You can organically eliminate 95% of pests (at least the ones in Kansas) Wormwood around your garden keeps out rabbits/deer/rats, as does human urine and hair. Eggs shells work well and provide calcium.
Umm....Squash Bugs hate tansy, which is key around this time of year. Rashes love Chervil, Tomatoes love basil and garlic. Beans love summer savory and carrots love chives. I'll post more as I think of it...

mxyzptlk

Here's one of my non-bug-related favorites. Carrots are slow to germinate and often have trouble competing with the weeds. We mix carrot seed, radish seed and lettuce seed all together and then broadcast them in wide rows. The radishes sprout almost instantaneously and mark the rows for you. When you pick them they also help thin out the carrots and lettuce (as you pull them some come along). Lettuce can then mature and also help keep weeds to a minimum as the carrots mature.

Enjoy

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dtheriault

1. For aphids and other stuff I just put a teaspoon or two of liquid soap in one of those plant fertilizer sprayers that you put on the end of the hose and spray the critters. kills most of them and leaves the plants tasting not so good.

2. you can also make a tabacco/nicotine spray by putting a small sack of chewing or pipe tobacco in warm water for a day or two and then putting that in the hose sprayer (add soap too-it helps it stick) and spraying it everywhere.

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mxyzptlk

dtheriault
Tobacco spray is also supposed to be good for some of the viruses that attack roses.

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gonadman

Shouldn't spray tobacco spray around tomatoes though- could spread tobacco mosaic virus which many tomatoes-especially heirloom- are susceptible to.

I've gotta try the lime for the flea beetles- I've managed to gain the upper hand over most of the pests except the flea beetles. Bastards are making the eggplant look like swiss cheese.

__________________
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, ...breathlessly.
-Carlos Castaneda

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Is that whats eating my eggplant? I figured it was colorado potato beetles, which I have knocked the fuck out of and never seen on my eggplants.....

gonadman

Look closely at the leaves. They are tiny shiny black beetles about twice the size of the period at the end of this sentence. When you disturb them they are actually pretty quick and can jump pretty far.

They have superhuman strength and hold meetings at midnight devising ways to destroy our crops to starve us and thereby eventually take over the world.

__________________
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, ...breathlessly.
-Carlos Castaneda

mxyzptlk

Flea beetles LOVE eggplant. We got to them rather late this year. The lime does deter them, but the plants took a bit of time to recover with all the leaf "perforation", but I see new growth and we'll just have to have late eggplant

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mxyzptlk

Colorado potatoe (I'm republican) beetle is rather large and striped. Believe me, horseradish planted between the rows will STOP 'em. I used to handpick the buggers to near madness but haven't seen one in 6 years since I started with the horseradish. Plus you have the added treat of your own, much-better-than-store-bought horseradish. MMMM

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gonadman

So the best treatment of cabbage worms is the Dipel? I just spent about a half hour picking them off the cabbage- they really destroyed alot of it- and left clumps of green droppings all over the leaves(I think thats from the worms). Does lime work well for the worms?

__________________
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, ...breathlessly.
-Carlos Castaneda

mxyzptlk

Let me put it this way. The first batch of broccoli was covered in flea beetles and cabbage worms. (You know you should soak broccoli and cauliflower in salt water to draw out any bugs). Limed the whole patch. Next batch had one worm in 4 cabbages, three cauliflower and 10 quarts of broccoli. I know dipel works well from past experience, I am just too cheap to spend money on a project that is supposed to save me money . Lime is, well, dirt cheap.

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mxyzptlk

Learned a new one this year by accident. We got the peas in late and with the heat, thought we'd have nothing. I let all the tough, strong weeds grow on the south side of the row...an experiment brought on by lack of time. Anyhow, the weeds (amaranth is plentiful and perfect) shaded the peas from the summer sun and provided a strong, natural trellis for the pea tendrils to climb. No more staking peas for us! Had the biggest crop of peas we've had in years despite the lateness, heat and lack of rain.

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tecoyah

As a general deterrent....we placed 8 bars of soap around the garden (irory in this case...as recommended by mom)......literally less than half the bugs from last year.

I didnt think it would work....but it seems pretty effective.

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Minx

I had always heard that this was a deterrant (sp?) for deer and other wildlife that tend to nibble on tender plants.

The old wives tale is to plant marigolds amongst your veggie plants to not only attact bees and keep some insects away, but to also keep some of the nasty bugs out. I totally gave up on planting veggies because without serious spraying, I couldn't keep the bugs from eating them completely. Argh!

Oh..and as a side note....anyone with a problem with slugs - just put out a small dish of beer at night. No more troubles there, trust me!

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