Tag Archives: pest control

Protect Your Crops with Row Cover

If you’ve ever visited an organic vegetable farm, you’ve probably seen large sections of field blanketed in white cloth. Sometimes, it’s laid directly over the crops, and sometimes it’s held above them over small hoops, giving it the appearance of a long caterpillar sleeping in the garden. This gauze-like white fabric is called row cover. It’s typically made from woven or spun-bonded polyester or polypropylene and is designed to be permeable to air, light, and water. Farmers and gardeners can use this fabric to help protect crops from pests, cold temperatures, too much sun, and windburn.

Protect Your Crops From Wind

Wide open fields may be many gardeners’ dream, but they can be windy places! High winds can be tough on plants, especially tender transplants. Constant winds pull moisture from the soil and plants’ leaves. They can also tear leaves and damage limbs, leaving plants more susceptible to pests and disease. Using row cover in windy areas, especially as plants are getting established, can mitigate these issues.

Protect Your Crops From Sun

Shade cloth is similar to row cover but is generally used to protect plants from intense sun and heat. It’s often used to extend the growing season of greens, delaying bolting by keeping temperatures a bit cooler. It can also be used in extreme heat over crops like peppers and tomatoes, which may abort flowers or develop sun-scald.

If you can’t purchase shade cloth, you can hang old torn pieces of row cover or other thin fabrics over crops to provide some shade.

Protect Your Crops From Frost 

As we plan our fall gardens, we think about the dwindling light and drop in temperatures that fall will eventually bring. Row cover increases the temperature and humidity beneath it and can be used to increase growth and protect crops in the spring and fall.

How much protection your row cover provides will depend on the weight. Some thinner row covers only provide about 2°F of frost protection, while others offer 6° to 10°F of protection.

Garden beds with row cover
Row cover protecting White Beauty Eggplant from flea beetles.

Protect Your Crops From Pests

Keeping crops pest free can be challenging without resorting to some form of pesticides. Even those OMRI (Organic Materials Institute) certified pesticides can have unwanted adverse effects, harming beneficial insects in the area along with pests. Row cover allows you to block out pests, no sprays needed.

Row cover works with many crop and pest scenarios, including keeping brassicas like cabbage and broccoli free from cabbage loopers, preventing flea beetles from destroying young eggplants, stopping bean beetles from defoliating your bush beans, and preventing pesky vine borers, squash bugs, and cucumber beetles from ruining your cucurbit harvest.

Isolating Crops with Row Cover

Finally, growers can use row cover to isolate specific varieties. Just as it keeps out pests, it keeps out pollinators. While this is unnecessary for most home-scale seed savers, seed companies and plant breeders sometimes use row cover to block out pollinators and hand pollinate crops. This method allows breeders only to cross desired plants, helping keep varieties pure or creating new cultivars and hybrids.

Selecting Row Cover

As we’ve discussed above, many different types of row cover are available depending on what you need it for.

Frost and Cold Temperatures

If you’re looking to protect crops late into the fall or winter, choose a heavier row cover that offers greater protection from cold temperatures. However, heavier-weight row covers must be removed earlier in the spring as they can quickly hold in too much heat as temperatures rise and you head into summer.

Pest Protection

Lightweight options are generally all you need to protect crops from pests and allow you to keep them on without overheating your plants and soil.

Shade Cloth

Shade cloth also comes in varying options with densities ranging from 10% to 60% or more. It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of keeping crops cool while blocking sunlight which can ultimately slow growth.

When purchasing row cover, it’s worth checking with local garden centers as shipping can be pricey. If none is available, many online retailers carry it. You may see row cover listed under several common name brands, including Reemay, Agribon, Agronet, Agryl, Harvest Guard, and Typar.

If you can’t purchase row cover, we’ve found that tulle works as an excellent substitute. You can find it at most fabric stores, and they generally allow you to buy any length you need.

Row cover in kitchen gardenUsing Row Cover

In the spring, you can drape row cover directly over small, flexible transplants and seedlings. The edges should be weighted down, but leave slack for the plant’s to grow. If you’re using row cover for pest protection, bury the edges in the soil.

You’ll want to support the row cover for larger crops or sensitive plants like spinach, lifting it off the crops. You can form mini hoop houses or low tunnels. Many suppliers sell wire hoops to drape the row cover over, but you can also make your own with PVC pipe or other smooth, flexible material. Again, be sure to weigh down the edges of bury it in the soil.

Weeding and Watering

Especially if row cover is on hoops, it’s relatively easy to lift for weeding and watering. However, to keep your setup as low maintenance as possible, consider adding a water system like drip irrigation or soaker hoses before setting up your cover. You should also mulch well around your crops to keep the soil moist and help block weeds before placing your row cover.

Pollination

Just like row cover blocks out pests, it also blocks our bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. If you have row cover over insect-pollinated crops like the nightshades, including eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers, or cucurbits like cucumbers and squashes, you must remove your row cover when they flower. Removing the row cover will allow pollinators to do their jobs so that your crops will fruit! If you feel you still need row cover or shade cloth in place, you can remove it in the morning when pollinating bees are most active and replace it for the afternoon and evening.

Maintaining Row Cover

Row cover isn’t super expensive, but costs add up, especially in large gardens. By making your row cover last, you can help re-coup the costs and be more environmentally conscious. If you care for it well, you’ll be able to use your row cover for several seasons before needing to be replaced. Roll up or fold your row cover and place it in sealed bags or containers when not in use. Make sure that mice and insects can’t get it and make homes out of it while it’s in storage.


Row cover isn’t the answer to all of a garden’s problems, but it is a helpful tool in the organic grower’s repertoire. Whether you’re tired of dealing with ragged heads of cabbage (hello, cabbage worms), are hoping to grow food year-round, or want to keep your lettuce from bolting a little longer, row cover may be a great way to achieve your goals.

Pests & Pollination: Attract Beneficial Insects

Last week we discussed strategies for conquering weeds in an organic garden. This week we’re moving on to another chore loathed by natural farmers, gardeners, and growers everywhere, controlling pests. One excellent way to ensure pest populations don’t get out of control is to ensure you have plenty of beneficial insects. When we think of beneficial insects, we often think of pollinators like bees and butterflies, but insects have so much more to offer us, gardeners! Many beneficial insects prey on pests and their eggs and larvae. Learn how to attract beneficial insects to your garden.

A lacewing on a leaf (attract beneficial insects)
Lacewing (Chrysopidae spp.)

What are Beneficial Insects?

Beneficial insects help us in the garden by pollinating plants, feeding on pests, and parasitizing pests. In our area, some of these include:

  • Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus)
  • Wolf Spider (Lycosidae spp.)
  • Rusty Patched BumbleBee (Bombus affinis)
  • Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)
  • Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis Carolina)
  • Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)
  • Orange Sulfur (Colias eurytheme)
  • Braconid Wasp (Cotesia congregates)
  • Damsel Bugs (Nabidae spp.)
  • Mabel Orchard Orbweaver Spider (Leucauge argyrobapta)
  • Southeastern Blueberry Bee (Habropoda laboriosa)
  • Lacewing (Chrysopidae spp.)
  • Big-Eyed Bug (Geocoris spp.)
  • Blue Orchard Mason Bee (Osmia lignaria)
  • Striped Lynx Spider (Oxyopes salticus)
  • American Copper Butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas Americana)

These are just a fraction of the insect species hard at work in our yards and gardens! Of course, there are beneficial animals too. Birds and bats can also help keep pest populations down and pollinate plants.

Further Reading:

dead leaves (attract beneficial insects)
Dead leaves are excellent habitat for many beneficial insects.

Habitat Features to Attract Beneficial Insects

All these helpful insects need a habitat that provides the essentials of food, water, and shelter, just like we do. 

Don’t Clean Up Too Much

Many beneficial insects need places for themselves or their eggs to overwinter. Blue Orchard Mason Bees, for example, overwinter their eggs in cavities in plants like the hollow stems of flowers or reeds. Depending on the species, Lacewings over winter in their adult or pupa stage in piles of dead leaves or other organic debris. Resisting the urge to keep your garden spotless can provide these insects with better habitat.

Plant a Windbreak

Sometimes, gardeners will plant windbreaks to help with wind-related issues like lodging corn, but few people probably consider that it makes life much easier for beneficial insects. A windbreak or hedgerow can help slow wind through your garden, creating calmer flying conditions for bees, dragonflies, lady beetles, and other flyers.

Provide Water

Especially in the hot dry days of summer, insects need water just like people do. If you have water on your property like a pond or creek you can help keep it full and cool by allowing the banks to grow in trees and shrubs that will shade it. If you don’t have a natural water source, don’t worry you can make an insect waterer! All you need is some sort of clean small trough and stones to place in it. The stones are critical, as insects need an easy way to get down to the water and to climb out. Change the water regularly. 

Avoid Pesticides of Any Kind

Sometimes when we see the organic label we assume something is safe. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple. Organic pesticides may be much safer for people and often waterways than conventional pesticides. However, both conventional and organic pesticides kill insects and neither of them differentiate between types of insects. If you have something that kills caterpillars to get rid of the cabbage loopers any swallowtail caterpillar that comes into contact with it will be effected too.

Flowers & Plants that Attract Beneficial Insects

Flowers aren’t just for bees and butterflies! Lacewings, parasitic wasps, lady beetles, and other insects use them too. For example, the larval stage of Convergent Lady Beetles feeds on insects, but the adult stage feeds on nectar, pollen, and honeydew. The females need a certain amount of these foods before laying eggs.

Conversely, many species, including bees and butterflies, need plants that aren’t in their flowering stage. For example, the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly will feed on the leaves of carrots, dill, fennel, and parsley.

Selecting Plants & Flowers

While poppies, roses, tulips, and hydrangeas are all stunning flowers that are great for human enjoyment, they may not be a favorite among beneficial insects. Flowers that are native or user-friendly typically will attract and support more beneficial insects.

Native Plants
Native Shrubs
  • Eastern Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus)
  • Southern Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium formosum)
  • Allegheny Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis)
  • False Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa)
  • American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
Native Trees
  • Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
  • Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum)
  • Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
  • Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
  • Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

Your local extension agency may also be able to provide more information on native species specifically suited to your area.

User-Friendly Flowers

Generally, beneficial insects find get the most food from a few different types of flowers: those with flat umbels of tiny flowers (looks a bit like a lace umbrella) like Queen Anne’s Lace, those with daisy-like flowers made up of tiny flowers like sunflowers, and those with loose spikes of tube-like flowers like mint.

These are just a few plants beneficial insects love. While it’s still perfectly fine to have and enjoy other flowers and plants, it’s important to plant some that consider our local insects.

Incorporating these strategies into your garden plan can help you attract beneficial insects and have a successful season. Happy growing!

 

 

Organic Pest Control: Squash Vine Borers

Early White Bush Scallop Summer Squash

Squash vine borers are a type of clearwing moth. They’re a bit unusual because unlike other moths they’re active during the daytime. The adults resemble wasps, are about 1/2 inch long, and have an orange abdomen with black dots. The adults lay eggs near the base of squash plants. These eggs take only about a week to hatch and then they bore into the base of the squash plant and up inside the stem, preventing the plant from getting water or nutrients from the soil. Are you starting your own garden but you are having some issues with pests? Call Power Pest Control Toronto for professional solutions.

Signs of their presence include the plants wilting, holes at the base of the plant, and of course spotting adults flying around plants. If your plant has vine borers present you can slice into the stem and kill the insects. If you carefully bury the wounded part of the stem with moist soil and keep it well watered your plant may survive. While this is an option, the best methods for combating vine borers are preventative.

Plant late.

Depending on how long your growing season is you may be able to avoid vine borers by planting your summer squash at the end of July. Adult vine borers typically lay eggs in late June or early July so your late planting of squash won’t be mature until after vine borers are finished laying eggs.

Use crop rotation.

Once squash borers feed for 4-6 weeks they burrow into the soil where they spend the winter pupating. Rotating crops can help minimize the pressure on your plants.

Choose resistant plants.

Some cucurbits are much less likely choices for vine borers. Try planting squashes in the moschata and argyosperma family as well as watermelons and cucumbers.  Check out the post below for how to use young winter squash like summer squash.

Winter Squash as Summer Squash

Invest in row cover.

Covering your squash with row cover before late June can prevent vine borers from reaching your plants to lay eggs. This method needs to be used in combination with crop rotation as vine borers hatch from the soil.

Plant a trap crop.

You may be able to eliminate some of your garden’s vine borer population using a trap crop. Wait until your plants have vine borer larvae present and then pull and burn the plants. You may never get all of them this way but it can help reduce the problem next year provided you don’t have close neighbors also growing squash.

If you struggle with squash vine borers in your garden consider trying one of these preventative methods this summer. They can help you combat squash vine borers in without resorting to pesticides.