Home Gardens

Ash Barsody, Anoka County Extension Master Gardener

Home gardens can be a great source of food and fun for the gardener. But there are many pests that can make a gardener’s life difficult. What’s the best way to manage these before they drive you mad? The answer is a method called Integrated Pest Management. You can create a healthier landscape and a healthier wallet by reducing the use of pesticides in the long term through IPM. Simply, IPM is using the right control, for the right pest, at the right time.

So, say you identify a problem with a plant in your garden. Before you go out and purchase something, the very first step is to identify what exactly is causing that problem. Is it bacterial or fungal? Is it an insect or a rabbit? Identification is critical because if you have a fungal problem and you spray an insecticide, you’ve wasted time, money and maybe affected beneficial insects that weren’t causing a problem, for a product that won’t help the original issue. Do some research before you go to the store; check the University of Minnesota Extension website for “tomato diseases” and see what matches your plant’s symptoms. Anoka County Master Gardeners also offer plant and insect diagnostic clinics over the summer months where residents can bring in samples of plants and insects for our team to diagnose.

So you’ve identified your plant’s problem. Maybe it’s a tomato with spots and wilting leaves. The next thing to determine might be, is this the time to treat this? With this example, by the time the plant is showing signs of leaf spot, there isn’t a good cure. You can spray a fungicide to slow the inevitable, but it will cost you money and be minimally effective. Similarly, there are some insect pests that are only vulnerable during certain stages of their development, like Japanese beetle grubs. Spraying outside of that point of their life cycle will not have any effect.

For tomato leaf spot and many other common diseases, prevention is the name of the game. Proper plant location, watering technique, mulch application and garden sanitation can stop the spread of these diseases before they even start.

It’s also worth considering if it’s even worth treating the plant at all. If the damage you’re seeing is superficial and not spreading, it might be more worthwhile to leave it alone. Leaf miners strike plants like columbine, but mostly only cause minimal damage and don’t hurt the plant in the long run.

If you’ve gotten this far down the list and determined you know what your pest is and that it’s time to treat it, only then can you determine what to treat it with. We always advise choosing the least toxic option that will be effective. In many cases, picking insects off by hand or insecticidal soaps are sufficient control. If a stronger commercial product is what’s needed, then that’s what should be used. Often, if you implement these other controls beforehand, it doesn’t even need to get that far.

Save the date April 4, 2020 for Anoka County Master Gardener's Home Landscaping & Garden Fair.

Register online www.anokamastergardeners.org