2007 Gardening year without bugs, was it me or the bugs?

16 years ago

My 2007 Gardening year was virtually without bugs(bad ones that is) in my veg. garden. I'm interested if anyone else experienced this.

I'm a 99% organic gardener and did put down quite a bit of good organic fertilizers and organic matter into the beds this year but not an amount that was uncharateristic of my normal plan. I have two raised beds that are 5 x 40 feet each.

My results for the whole season were one(that's 1) tomatoe horn worm, a few flea beetles and no signs of the dreaded squash vine bore "at all". The bugs just never showed up.

The plants thrived like never before, usually I loose a lot of my squash plants to the bore despite floating bug covers early in the season.

Here's what I added to the raised beds:

1) Tilled in about 6 inches of shredded leaves(as always).

2) Added a 50 pound bag of cotton seed meal, split between the two beds.

*Note..if you buy cotton sead meal as an organic fertilizer at a hardware store it comes in little bags that are expensive. You can find it as a "feed" in farm supply stores much cheaper.

3) About 10 pounds of blood meal & 10 pounds of bone meal.

4) About 10 pounds of wood ashes.

The soil ph is around 6.5.

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Comments (7)

clumsygrdner
16 years ago
I really can't tell you for sure. I don't think anyone really could! But maybe you had a good year for beneficial insects and birds and they ate your bad bugs. Organic gardening invites all sorts of creatures to prey on pests.

Or maybe you just got lucky.
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
16 years ago
I didn't have trouble with hornworms either, but potato beetles showed up along with the corn root worm/cucumber beetles...... I was adjacent to field corn. I had almost nothing on the broccoli and cauliflower.
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zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
16 years ago
Every year is different; weather variations & crops grown nearby can have an enormous impact. In my area, I think that many insects this past year were fooled by a very warm early Spring, and came out of dormancy only to starve to death. Drought also may have helped, by keeping wild populations of insects down.

This was a double-edged sword. I had very few caterpillars, but I also had almost no ladybugs... which usually wipe out my aphids in July without any help from me. My home & shed were full of dead ladybugs this Spring, and without them, the aphids were more of a nuisance than usual. Fortunately, lacewings & wasps (!) reduced their numbers in late Summer. Yellow wasps continue to amaze me... I'm starting to think of them as friends.

Mgatlin, there is a good chance that your OG techniques influenced your results to at least some degree. I am a firm believer that healthy plants can fight for themselves, and that you should feed the soil, not the plant. Keep it up!
Belgianpup
16 years ago
Every year it seems like there is a bigger boom on one type of bug or weed, and it changes each year, whether it affects you or not.

Many organic growers have far fewer problems with bugs because it's the weaker plants, those without even, continuous nutrition, moisture and trace minerals who are most susceptible to disease and bugs.

Growers who fell for the Chemical Lie just never could keep ahead of the pests. How odd.

Sue
laceyvail 6A, WV
16 years ago
I'm an organic gardener too and have been at this property for 11 seasons. I noticed that some types of insect pests were really scarce--white butterflies that produce the caterpillers on cole crops were very few and very, very lateto appear; very few cucumber beetles; and almost no honey bees, of course. I think that, except for the honey bees, the cause might have something to do with the summer weather in March followed by the great freeze. I think it did in the Asian lady bugs too, because there were NONE this fall--oh, maybe 2 or 3. Literally.
denninmi
16 years ago
Absolutely NO Colorado Potato Beetles in my garden this year, a first. I have some theories -- the use of genetically modified Bt or systemic insecticides by commercial growers may possibly have done in the regional breeding stock, or perhaps weather or a natural outbreak of some type of pathogen. Whatever the cause, it was fabulous, because usually the little buggers try to chew the heck out of my potatos and young tomato plants. It was very unusual not to see a single one.
mgatlin
Original Author
16 years ago
To all, thanks for the responses. The answer to the mystery is probably some of "all of the above". I did have some cotton fields nearby that may have served as bug population killers and the dry spring was significant this year.

I'll take the great seasons anytime, whether I know how it happened or not.

Thanks.

2007 Gardening year without bugs, was it me or the bugs?

Comments (7)

clumsygrdner

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

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zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin

Belgianpup

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mgatlin
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2007 Gardening year without bugs, was it me or the bugs?

Comments (7)

clumsygrdner

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

Related Discussions

zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin

Belgianpup

laceyvail 6A, WV

denninmi

mgatlinOriginal Author

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BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

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mgatlin
Original Author