organic garden?
what are organic gardening basics, i dont want to use manure, chemicals or pesticides. I was planning on using peat moss in the soil, what else should I know in regards to keeping the plants healthy and keeping pests away from the plants, please dont link, i just want simple real suggestions.
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Tobacco. Put some tobacco in water and let it sit for a few days or week or 2. Use the water in a spray bottle for pest repellent for the plant leaves. What’s wrong with manure? You can buy pH soil testers as well. Different plants need different soil pH. Acidic or alkaline.
To Keep slugs away get coffee granules put the coffee granules around the crop (but not on top) that will soke up the moisture from the snails.
Sorry but organic gardening is not simple to do it well and successfully.
Manure is wonderful, especially aged. Great stuff for the soil. Peat moss is good too but all on it’s own will not give you good soil and will lower your pH so your soil might get too acidic for most things.
Composted manure is the best thing to put on your soil. the soil life loves compost and will reward you with healthy plants. Green manures are also excellent. This is a crop grown specifically to be turned into the soil to add organic matter.
Healthy soil is the most important aspect of a good organic garden
Tobacco was mentioned as an natural pesiticide and it is a good one but it is also wide spectrum which means it kills everything it touches (insect wise) and should never be used on tomatoes, peppers, potatoes or eggplant as these are all close relatives and tobacco spray can and will transmit some nasty and long term (like 25 year) pathogens to these crops.
Soap sprays are effective for soft bodies insects. Beneficial insects are probably the most effective but in order for this to work you can spray nothing on your plants and that means for a couple of years as your garden gets into balance things will look rough. But know a plant can lose over 70% of its foliage and not be unhealthy (they just look bad to us humans). Also know that 95% of all the bugs in your garden are either neutral or beneficial and should not be harmed. When we spray pesticides that knock out everything than we must continue spraying poisons forever or allow the pests to come back in enmasse before one will see the beneficial insects come in to control the bad boys. beneficial insects include bees, praying mantises, green lacewings, ladybugs, wheel bugs, assassin bugs, pirate bug, soldier beetles, lightening bugs, etc..
Neem oil is an effective pesticide that is not very broad spectrum. Other pest controls include row covers which keeps the pest off of the plants via exclusion (and my favorite form of plant protection-I use around a mile of row cover on my market garden), garlic and hot pepper sprays (drop several cloves of garlic in water let sit for a month than use 1TBL spoon of that mixture to 1 quart of water spray on plants. Same deal with hot pepper spray. You can mix the two together. This does not kill bugs but does have a decent repelling effect)
Hand picking is one of the most effective controls of pest insects
I won’t include links, though there are many great sites loaded with the information you need.
Growing plants & vegetables without synthethic, artificial man-made chemicals is possible…
if you nuture habitats for beneficial organisms that help deter problem pests, and enrich your soil to create a living ecosystem of beneficial bacteria and helpful fungi.
If you use compost with composted manure,or fish emulsion for fertilizer …you don’t need artificial fertilizers.
Use 1part milk to 9 parts water to control fungus. Milk has a germicidal effect–it kills the fungal spores– and it also appears to stimulate plants in such a way that they become more resistant to the disease.
I suffocated cabbage loopers by sprinkling flour on my cabbage plants when they were wet. The loopers would crawl up unto the leaves & get pasted & fall off. If I saw black insect eggs on the head of the cabbage, I killed them by pouring sour milk on them.
Vinegar or boiling water or a layered newspaper mulch can be used to kill weeds.
Bugs aren’t a big problem when nature is in balance. Set out Praying mantis eggs & ladybugs to consume aphids, mites, whiteflies and scale. They can be attracted to your garden by planting members of the daisy family (Compositae), tansy or yarrow. Make your garden an inviting place for frogs & birds.
Cornmeal works on seedlings to prevent damping off or any other soil-borne fungal diseases on both food and ornamental crops. One application may be all that is needed, but multiple applications are okay if necessary because cornmeal serves as a mild organic fertilizer and soil builder.
You can grow these beneficial flowers next to your vegetables (as companion plants) to deter pests & improve their growth:
Nasturtium are good planted with Tomatoes, radish, cabbage, cucumbers; planted under fruit trees; deters aphids & pests of curcurbits
Geraniums repel cabbage worms and Japanese beetles, plant around grapes, roses, corn, and cabbage.
Marigolds helps most plants, especially tomatoes and peppers, cucumbers, gourds, squash,broccoli, kale, cabbage
Tansy is good for cucumbers, squash, raspberries & relatives, roses, corn. Repels flying insects, Japanese beetles, striped cucumber beetles, squash bugs and ants
Good luck!! Hope this helps.