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Oklahoma Gardening

Organic pest control and fertilzers

12 years ago

I was on a site I order some products from and saw they have a find and decide section where they list different controls and treatment for fertilizing, pest controls and lawn care. I've seen several posts with questions about each. Thought this info might of interest and of use to some members. Whether you use their products or not I felt the info gave a good guideline for products available. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic control

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Comments (8)

chickencoupe
12 years ago
Whoa. That's a terrific find, Jay. Thanks!
bon
elkwc
Original Author
12 years ago
I know many times I wonder what organic methods are available to treat a problem. And have seen others ask similar questions. I looked it over briefly and thought it contained a lot of beneficial info. Jay
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"Now, someone is bound to complain that the birds can become garden pests." The only "pest" things birds do around my part (NC) is eating small peppers (serrano or smaller) and occasionally tasting other things. The squirrels and rabbits are much worse about taking a taste of things, though. In other parts people have issues with birds with tomatoes and/or birds ripping seedlings out when they're very young. But yeah, for the most part birds are a non-issue and eat more bad things than take my good things...though they ruined a fall red-ripe serrano crop for me 2 years ago. Luckily I had already harvested and frozen a lot of pods from the summer crop. It's generally only a problem on ripe pods showing color...which I assume attracts the birds. They generally left the green pods alone and didn't show up to feast until the plant had a good amount of red pods on it. There's cheap bird netting for any problems, though...they're not as hard to control as voles, deer, etc.
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I went no-spray many years ago. Encouraging birds, lizards, toads & frogs helped a lot. The rose area has a couple of bird feeders, three waters, including one big plant platter on the ground that the frogs love to soak in. Has some large rocks in it so tiny birds feel safe using it for baths & drinking. Please, NO OFFENSE intended, but I didn't have outdoor cats or dogs, which helps if you're trying to establish a wildlife-friendly yard. Yes, I LOVE pets!!! If you have outdoor pets, maybe you can place feeders & water in more raised or sheltered locations. Hang a few bird houses in sheltered places & I'm careful not to disturb bird nests in nearby shrubs & trees. My dad's fruit trees (also native species) attract birds, too. They sample a bit, but do little harm. A few overturned broken pots under shrubs make good toad hideouts. I have sprayed the veggies & some herbs that were getting gobbled. Used a solution of blender-shredded artemisia leaves--bitterest stuff I could think of--& it seemed to work. So now I clip stems & leaves to mulch them around the affected plants. Good luck.
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Yep, Don, I've noticed that cats get along with wild urban critters such as coons, possums, foxes. Before we paneled our back porch with Lexan over the screening, we had Carolina wrens nesting on the broom rack, and the coons were caught dragging off a 25 lb bag of dog food. Party time! Your uninvited guest sure looks comfortable. Since we now have two girl dachshunds (well, one is in training) who hunt things like squirrels and rabbits, the coons avoid our garden. So do the cats.
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Hi Jan. About the only natural spray that will deter grasshoppers is grasshoppers, thrown in the blender, then water added to make a spray. Needless to say, you'll need to wash the blender afterwards. I haven't tried it, but it apparently is very effective. I've found that by far the most effective way to control other chewing insect pests is to accept that there will be some damage done in the process and largely letting nature take care of itself. Keep an eye on particularly fragile plants and manually remove caterpillars etc. I always remove sawfly larvae, as they can do a lot of damage in a short time, likewise the caterpillars laid inside the leaves of bulbs and the like, as they will migrage into the bulb itself and totally demolish it. I've also had the invasion of caterpillars as mentioned by Alison, but they've been closely followed by literally thousands of tiny orange wasps, which lay their eggs inside the caterpillar. They're also hunting the lawn grubs that have invaded this section of the coast after the good rains we've had. While the chemical companies have made a small fortune in the past couple of months, it's a shame those in the media didn't do more promote natural means of control. One newspaper article even suggested sprinkling SALT on the lawn to control them. I guess if there is no lawn (having killed it with salt) then there are no lawn grubs feeding on it. TOTALLY STUPID!!! If the caterpillars really get to the stage of being out of control before your predators turn up Jan, you can always use Dipel. It's a spray made from a naturally occuring bacteria. Once the caterpillars have ingested it, they apparently stop eating, but will take a few days to die.
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garnergarden
11 years ago
Good share!! Thank you. I am going to get some Neem oil and give it a shot. I hear is won't hurt bees or ladybugs if applied in the evening or early morning. I like the ladybugs and always carry them to my little garden when I see them...Although they don't always stay for super long lol. Maybe that is a sign I don't have tons of pests? Hmmmm.
chickencoupe
11 years ago
OMG I bought some fresh fish to make fish emuslion - three fish. I failed to put two in the freezer so all three had to go into the bucket. Let me tell you soemthing I'LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. Sure, my plants are happy but I was vomiting in the process of watering my plants and I used an aerator! I was able to get the fish BURIED but I'll stick to my WORMS and utilize something else for additions. Maybe a can of tuna will be more tolerable? I dunno, but I think I'm traumatized from that stench. ick.
soonergrandmom
11 years ago
LOL

The first time I bought fish emulsion I made the mistake of opening the bottle inside the house so I could mix up a batch. Was that ever a mistake.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
Bon, Why not just buy a bottle of liquid fish emulsion? It is a concentrate, so a bottle lasts longer than you think it will. I use it all the time. It does attract raccoons, so I don't use it near the corn. I have a hard enough time keeping them out of the corn as it is.

Carol, Well, it isn't a mistake a person will make twice!

In recent days, the garden and I have been circled by vultures flying overhead. It kinda makes me nervous when they do that. I always wonder if they know something I don't know. Generally though it means I've used bone meal or blood meal and their sharp sense of smell has picked up on the scent and they're looking for the dead animal that they're smelling. Because I use bone meal and blood meal, my dogs are never allowed into the veggie garden during the growing season for obvious reasons.

Dawn
lat0403
11 years ago
I watered the plants I started indoors with liquid fish emulsion one day. I closed the door so the entire house didn't stink, but every time I opened the door I about died.

Leslie
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
Leslie, I hear what you're saying. A couple of years ago, Tim converted the screened porch, which is on the southwest corner of the house, into a sunroom. I'd always had plants on it, and often fed them with liquid fish emulsion. Of course, I am used to the smell. There is a big difference, though, in feeding plants on a screened-in porch versus a glassed-in sunroom. I'm here to tell you that the "stink" resulting from the hot sun heating up a room with fish-emulsion-fertilized plants in it is a smell you'll never forget. Even after I opened all the windows, the smell would not go away. I don't feed the plants in the sunroom with liquid fish any more. They get liquid seaweed instead.

Dawn

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