Preventive Insect Spray

9 years ago

Hi Everyone,
I recently planted my first vegetable "garden" (two 5'x3' raised beds) and I'm worried about insects coming and eating my vegetables. I haven't yet had a problem with bugs in the garden but I don't want to take any chances, so I was wondering if there are any veggie safe insect sprays that are available that will not only kill harmful insects, but also prevent them from coming to my garden in the first place? Or, would it be better/safer if I tried a non-chemical organic method? Thank you all!

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Comments (7)

sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)
9 years ago
The best prevention is paying attention. Dozens of critters, insects, fungus, etc...all waiting for the perfect time/timing to have a taste...
The best prevention is taking the time early every morning, with a cup of coffee, to check on progress or to notice a change. Look under leaves, note a nibble or hole in a leaf...
Look up a specific problem before action. Just treat one issue at a time...often it is just a stream of water, picking off a few uninvited guests, a mild insecticidal soap just on the underside of one plant...
Once identified, you may find the life cycle of and insect is just a few days and harmless to the crop...
-i've dealt with three minor issues so far...no harm to crops, no need to spray...no other beneficial insects were harmed by heavy spraying...
A healthy garden is not a perfect garden...always something happens that can't be controlled due to weather conditions, etc...so expect some problems and deal with them as they come...
Kimmsr
9 years ago
With very few exceptions most all insecticides are broad spectrum and will kill off the beneficial insect as well as the pests. Spraying, unless there is a problem, is never a good idea.
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You are in Northern California. There is some disease pressure there, mostly in the rainy season of late fall, winter, and early spring. You are not in Alabama, Illinois, Florida, Maryland...places with horrific Black Spot potential, potential so severe it can kill a rose by forcing it to refoliate and refoliate and refoliate (plus roses must endure a severe winter that weaken them also). If you are reading about spraying, remember you are not in an area with disease pressure so significant it will kill your roses. Books that talk about "preventative spraying" are mostly for east of the Rockies. The big killer disease, Black Spot, loves warm humidity. In California, when it is humid it is cool. When it is warm, it is dry. Hence Black Spot is somewhat rare. We still get it, just not to the point where it is fatal. My experience with preventative spraying: it can be really effective if done once or twice in spring right after leaf out, and once or twice right after Labor Day when the nights start cooling off. Just once or twice a year and you can get 90% of the benefits. After a while you learn your garden and your roses and can work around disease, by doing things like pruning later when the winter is particularly rainy, eliminating the worst Rusters, etc. We in CA have that luxury. No wonder it is so expensive to live here. ;^)
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Its a dangerous, but fashionable, idea to imagine that "natural" and "organic" and "non-toxic" are all the same thing. Many natural substances are deathly poisonous, many man-made chemicals are not. Using neem oil as an example, it has been shown to be essentially non-toxic insofar as causing short-term damage or disease, there is essntially no data on its longterm effects such as cancer and birth defects, it is simply assumed to be safe because it is "natural". Also you need to doubly careful of what your bottle of "neem" actually contains. Raw neem oil is a thick, solid in cool temperatures, goo which includes an actual insecticide Azadirachtine. Most "neem oil" products on the market are extracts which do not include significant quantities of this insecticide, they are mainly insect repellants, although as with most oils will smother any insect that is directly sprayed. You may find the repellant action desirable in your situation, the repellant chemicals are taken up systemically by some plants and so have a long-lasting effect. It is doubly dangerous to imagine that "natural" substances are safe on plants. Any substance that you spray onto the leaves of a plant should be considered potentially harmful to the plant. NEVER just spray the whole plant with something you haven't used before. Spray some of the lower leaves first and see if they get damaged. Consider that any chemical applied to a plant will have some phytotoxic effect and keep the plant out of strong sun for a day or two. Be especially careful of plants with blue or grey surface blooms, these can be damaged even by water sprays and will never come back. Imidacloprid as a soil drench is not harmful to any cactus, but it can produce phytotoxic effects, especially when used as a spray. Also check carefully what else might be in any insecticide that you use, there are often surfactants, oils, or soaps which can be damaging even when the insecticide itself is not. For example, the Imidacloprid formulation that I use (not available in the US) include sunflower oil, nice for smothering spider mites but definitely will damage sensitive succulents and definitely can have phytotoxic effects on succulents.
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Dave, I can see spraying for tomato foliage diseases on a preventative basis, but not so much for bugs and insects unless you know they're waiting to zoom in abnd do every year. Most folks I know spray with the Ortho product b'c it's excellent at preventing tomato fungal foliage diseases, which are usually worse than the bacterial ones, for which there aren't very good products anyway. You say you think you had blight, but blight is just a general term and doesn't relate to any one specific disease. When talking about "blight" are you talking about the foliage infections that are so common for everyone or something more serious as in a systemic disease ? Try Pyrethrin to try and control the cuke beetles but the best prevention is to use floating row covers and then take them off when blossoms appear so that pollination can occur. Even if the cuke beetles transmit disease at that time you'll still have time to get fruits before plant death starts b/c it takes a good month from time of transmission until symptoms appear. Carolyn
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
9 years ago
Preventative insect control for a veggie garden would involve companion planting or the planting of other plants in proximity that either attract the insects away from the veggies or repel them altogether.

I've attached one link but there are many others you could research.

Here is a link that might be useful: companion plantings
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
9 years ago
I'll add that this is the time for you to educate yourself about the MANY non harmful critters that you are likely to come across in your garden. Check out the zillions of websites with good images of beneficial insects and/or visit your local library or bookstore.

The more knowledgable you are about what you see, the better able you will be to protect your garden.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
I haven't yet had a problem with bugs

==>>> then you do NOT poison mother earth just for the hell of it ...

do some research on IPM .. integrated pest management..

the basic tenant of such ... is that you do not.. willy nilly prevent anything..

you pay attention.. and REACT to a know threat ... and not every bit of acne or blemish.. is a threat .. be sure to understand.. that you need only react.. when a population is significant enough to actually harm a plant ...

i find it hard to contemplate.. how others are encouraging you to coat the earth with product...

crikey.. relax... enjoy your garden.. and when you find an actual pest.. we can help you ID it.. and find the LEAST invasive remedy ... but until them.. DO NOT USE ANYTHING...

right kimmer?

ken
ronalawn82
9 years ago
MrChris123, here is a sort of key which I devised some time ago for some employees.
1. Know what the healthy plant/organ/tissue should look like.
2. Inspect or scout weekly.
3. Determine that an abnormality exists.
4. Ascertain the causative organism and / or environmental condition.
5. Decide if there is a need for human intervention.
6. Choose the most benign treatment.
7. Go to 2.
  Pretty straightforward, isn't it?
  Well yes ... until you get into the details.
  For some of us, then is when the fun starts!
  The others?
  "Chacun a son gout!"
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
9 years ago
Ken, who's encouraging him to coat the earth with pesticides? Or are you ranting for the heck of it, lol.

Preventive Insect Spray

Comments (7)

sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)

Kimmsr

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