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Controlling weeds

A weed is a plant in the wrong place. Weeds not only compete with crops for water and nutrients, but make harvesting nearly impossible. Controlling weeds without herbicides is a very expensive exercise.

Weeding is done mainly by hand, and it is one of the most costly components of farming organically. Weeding like this can be 20 times more expensive than using herbicides ($2,000 per acre instead of $100!).

To help prevent weeds from getting established in the field , organic growers also plant cover crops and use mulching practices to "shade weeds out". Homeopathic preparations, and sometimes "flame weeding" are methods employed to kill newly germinated weed seeds.

Controlling pests

Aphids, beetles and weevils, caterpillars, flies, maggots, moths, mealybugs, millipedes, scale, slugs, snails, spidermites, thrips and leafhoppers are just some of the "pest" insects that want to eat our growers’ crops.

Ladybirds, lacewings, spiders, frogs, hedgehogs and ducks are some of the "beneficial"creatures that eat these pests up! This is called biological control, and it is the main strategy that organic growers use for pest control i.e. "good" insects that eat "bad" insects that eat plants.

To encourage this array of "beneficial" insects, birds and other creatures into the field organic growers need to create a habitat for them, so they plant flowers and bulbs that attract them. If you ever go to visit an organic patch, you will be pleasently surprised with the amount of wildlife and the feeling of beauty that surrounds the property!

Organic growers do use some "natural" sprays to control pests such as those made with garlic, chilli, peppers, potassium based soaps, and I even knew of a grower who reccomended " mashed up slug" spray to repel…slugs !

Crop rotation also helps keeps pests at bay: pests cannot return to the same feeding ground year after year simply because it’s no longer there!

We are now also able to mimic a range of tiny smells given off by insects to attract mates. They are called pheromones, and they allow us to trick pests to a sticky death, or panic them with a chaos of mixed messages, thus keeping them away from our plants.