Pest And Disease Control Without Chemicals

This month Dr Anton Rosenfeld, knowledge officer of Garden Organic, explains how you can manage pests and diseases in your gardens naturally

- Dr Anton Rosenfeld

Perhaps one of the key barriers to venturing down the organic route is the fear that without chemicals, there will be nothing to protect your plants from attack from pests and diseases. This really requires a change in mindset. Organic pest and disease management isn’t about simply replacing synthetic chemicals with organic equivalents but instead adopting a holistic and proactive approach. Generally, there are fewer ‘silver bullets’ in organic growing. Instead it’s about creating an environment that greatly reduces the opportunities for pests and diseases to take hold. With our pollinators in decline and a biodiversity crisis on our doorstep, now more than ever we should ditch the toxic chemicals. Here are a few tried and tested alternative approaches:

A BIODIVERSE ENVIRONMENT

Biodiversity really is your ally in the garden. Last year, I started seeing aphids on my peppers in July. Rapidly, a ladybird larva started devouring the aphids, soon joined by a hoverfly larva, then finally a parasitic wasp knocked the rest of them out. This was the result of having many flowering plants around the garden such as buckwheat, phacelia, fennel and calendula to provide pollen and nectar to support these beneficial insects.

RESISTANT VARIETIES