Organic Disease Control
| Organic disease control starts by knowing your nemeses or enemies. Knowledge of how and why pathogenic organisms attack plants and spread to other plants prepares organic gardeners to use the first line of defense, prevention! It may seem a little time consuming at first, but it’s worth it when it prevents a persistent pathogen from completely ruining a harvest. Organic disease control consists of three parts. The first two, cultural controls and physical controls, are prevention methods. The third part, chemical controls, is the last resort. |
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Cultural Controls
Maintaining a clean and essentially weed free garden is extremely important. Cultivate between the rows and pull weeds by hand, but not when they are wet. Choose resistant cultivars and when you buy them, make sure they are certified disease free. The nutrients in the soil should be in balance, and you should practice crop rotation. Doing all of the above will give you a head start.
Weed Barrier Mat - Medium Weight 
Physical Controls
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The second essential part of organic disease control is to use methods to prevent causal organisms from reaching the plants. These include solarizing the soil – raising the soil temperature high enough to kill causal organisms, using row covers to prevent insect vectors from infecting the plants, burning or hot composting diseased plant material,and cutting away diseased parts.
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Chemical Controls
The last, but hopefully least used method of organic disease control is the use of safe, homemade sprays and nontoxic chemicals which can be used to combat disease once it gains a foothold.
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Organic disease control must fight on three fronts, which are the three causes of infection – fungi, bacteria and viruses. Collectively, they are known as pathogens. The secret to using the proper organic disease control is to properly identify which infection you have to deal with. Wasted time and money can be spent using the wrong organic disease control while you watch your plants or crop being ravaged. There are excellent books on the subject of organic disease control, and of course, on the internet.
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If after doing your research, you are still not sure that you have positively identified a particular problem infection and are not sure which organic disease control method will counteract it, take a sample of each part of the plant (stem, leaves, flowers) showing symptoms to a nursery or State Department of Agriculture Extension Service for a positive ID.
Choose resistant cultivars and when you buy them, make sure they are certified free of infection. The nutrients in the soil should be in balance and practice crop rotation. Doing all of the above will give you a head start.
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