Farming Without Pesticides
In a world where everyone wants organic, perhaps only a few truly understand or have experienced the kind of pest pressure farmers face when trying to grow food naturally at a large scale. Growing food without pesticides, insecticides, or any other “icides”, has its challenges. Since certain pests gravitate to certain plant species, the more of it you grow, the more pests you end up dealing with. Even with the use of certified organic products, there is no perfect solution, and there is the expectation that a percentage of crops will be lost to damaging pests.
The past few weeks have brought with it new harvests emerging from the garden, but beneath the surface of pretty market displays, we have been faced with the ever-constant pest pressure that seems to get worse as the weeks continue.
Earlier this Spring, our asian mustard greens became the scrumptious feeding ground to flea beetles, a common pest in our area that affects brassicas. We attempted to sell these greens as “shotgun greens” (named based on the shotgun-like pattern the beetles leave) in efforts to educate our customers about the struggles and realities of growing without pesticides. While we were able to sell a portion of these greens to a handful of adventurous and understanding customers, in the end, about 70% of this crop was unsellable and became chicken scraps. While the greens were not wasted, it was incredibly frustrating and upsetting to work so hard only to have these products damaged by pests.
Currently, the most damaging pests we are dealing with are squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and colorado potato beetles. The squash bugs and cucumber beetles are the main nuisance for the squash and cucumber plants. Unfortunately, the cucumber beetles spread disease from one plant to another, and will infect plants rapidly and quickly through their feeding and defecation. The disease is called “bacterial wilt” where a plant wilts and collapses in a matter of 24 hours, without remedy. The pest pressure has been so high that we recently pulled out all our squash plants; about 70% had bacterial wilt and the other 30% were not healthy to keep. Instead of harvesting from these plants for weeks, we only harvested two weeks from them. This is a huge difference from last year, when we were able to harvest over a month-long from the same plants.
Since we grow everything naturally and follow organic practices, the options are pretty limited for us. When possible, we grow under row covers to protect crops from pest damage. Row covers are not a perfect solution, as they are quite expensive and need to be replaced every season due to wear and tear. With crops that need pollination to bear fruit (like squash), row covers need to be removed just as the flowers are opening, leaving them vulnerable for pests to find them, which is rather fast. Ensuring optimal growing temperatures must also be considered when using row covers since they can trap in heat.
Another organic practice is to hand pick through the most susceptible plants to remove and destroy any signs of eggs, larvae, or mature forms of pests that we come across. Currently, since our production is fairly small, we have been able to utilize this method, especially on our eggplants. This is a pretty good solution for pests that don’t fly or have the ability to escape quickly, but is best done on a daily basis, since pests continually lay eggs during the season and move from plant to plant.
Certified organic sprays can also be an effective method of dealing with pests. Reputable certified organic sprays can cost up to $500 a quart. Given the cost of these sprays and our smaller farm size, we have chosen not to use this method.
With all the challenges already faced when farming, dealing with pest issues feels like an insurmountable challenge. Some farmers we know have chosen to stop growing certain vegetables so they don’t have to deal with the major pests that accompany those vegetables. This may very well be something we consider in the future, since it seems the pests get worse with every year of farming. For the time being, we accept that a certain percentage of crops will be lost to pests and other reasons outside our control. We are thankful that our chickens are not picky when it comes to how the vegetables look, and that they can turn those damaged and unwanted goods into delicious and nutritious eggs.