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Control of insect, mite pests and diseases is essential for successful home gardening and part of general management practices for your vegetable garden. Plant symptoms may reflect disease injury from fungi, bacteria, nematodes, or viruses; insect or mite injury; chemical or herbicide injury; or physical or environmental damage caused by growing conditions, location, or soil fertility deficiencies or excesses.
Some of the good gardening practices include:
Create a “healthy” soil: conduct a soil test and follow the recommendations to supply appropriate nutrients as needed. Adding extra fertilizer won’t create healthy soil, because excess nitrogen or phosphorus can promote insect and disease problems and can lead to run-off issues. Add organic matter to the soil each year in the form of soil amendments or mulch.
Choose pest-resistant or tolerant varieties: nursery and garden catalogs often identify such varieties. Start with quality seeds and healthy plants: purchase stocky, dark-green transplants, and buy certified virus-free seed potatoes.
Eliminate competition: remove weeds and grass from the growing site because they compete for nutrients and water. Rapidly growing vegetables can better tolerate or outgrow insect, mite and disease damage, but they also quickly use up available nutrients. Applying fertilizer and water at critical times during maximum plant growth is essential for producing pest and disease resistant plants.
Keep it clean: remove infected plants during the season to prevent spread within the garden, and remove plant debris after harvest to avoid harboring insects, mites and diseases. Dispose of or burn diseased plants, fruits, and vegetables. Composting is seldom thorough enough to eliminate disease-causing fungi and bacteria.
Rotate crops: planting the same crop in the same place year after year creates losses due to soilborne diseases and overwintering insect pests. Follow a crop rotation of at least 3 years for the four major vegetable plant families—solanum (tomato, potato, pepper, and eggplant); cucurbit (melons, squash, and cucumbers); cruciferous (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts); and allium (onion, garlic, and leeks).
Choose a sunny location away from large trees: eight to 10 hours of direct sunlight a day are necessary for proper growth, flowering, and fruiting of most vegetable crops. Sunlight also helps to dry foliage and reduce infection by many fungal and bacterial diseases.
Water properly: plants receiving either too much or not enough water will be less vigorous and more susceptible to insect and mite pests and diseases. Consider using a form of drip irrigation, which will keep foliage dry and prevent foliar diseases while at the same time using water more efficiently. If using a hose, direct the water towards the ground and avoid wetting the foliage.
Use mulch: mulch helps control weeds and reduces moisture evaporation from the soil surface. Mulch also helps prevent rot caused when fruit is in contact with bare soil. When tilled under, organic mulches become valuable soil amendments.
Provide good air circulation: overcrowding plants can result in weak growth and an increase in foliar diseases. Stakes, cages, trellises, and pruning all help to increase air circulation.
Plant at the proper time: seeds planted too early are more susceptible to rot. Delay planting until the soil has warmed to allow rapid germination of seeds and growth of young plants.
Get to know the major insect and mite pests and plant diseases in your area: Learn their life cycle, their habits, and stages they are most easily controlled. Refrain from using any pesticide until you have correctly identified a given pest and determined the proper time for control.
Grow crops that have few pest problems: plants that have few insect, mite and disease problems include loose-leaf lettuce, rhubarb, swiss chard, garlic, cos lettuce, leeks, parsley, sweet potatoes, okra, beets, snap peas, parsnips, carrots, onions, and kale.
Put up bird feeders and bird houses: birds are predators of insects. For instance, more than a dozen species of birds are known to feed on various moth larvae.
Inspect the entire garden at least weekly: check the undersides of plant leaves. Detect symptoms when they first develop so that pest problems can be more easily controlled.
Be realistic in your expectations: accept the fact that there may be some damage from pests and even an occasional crop failure.
Source: https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/S51.pdf
