IG Live: IPM (integrated Pest Management)
Welcome back! Thank you for the interest and requests for information about our IPM protocols. If you have an idea or topic that you’d like us to explore for our September IG Live session, please let us know! You can comment below or drop Linda a line at linda@littlefarmhouseflowers.com .
In this video we explore the meaning of IPM (integrated pest management) and how we work on and with the challenges that fall within it’s definition.
What is IPM?
When we talk about IPM at our farm we’re talking about management for weeds, disease and pests. These 3 “problem areas” go hand in hand, unfortunately. When we are unbalanced in our approach in one area, the other areas start to get out of control as well. For example- if I allow the wild grapevine to grow up our deer fence or the front porch of our house, we see the Japanese beetles move in. If we can’t find time to get rid of that weed, we’ll see more Japanese beetles in the future, because they love that plant as a food source and the protected ground below it. They quickly cover the vines and begin mating. Eeew.
And we use 4 different kinds of measures to to manage these areas. Those measures are:
Chemical: A chemical product that is used (often as a spray) to kill or dissuade particular pests in crops (in this video we mention Clean Green Mighty Mint Concentrate, Neem Oil, Horticultural Oil, Copper Fungicide, Pyganic).
Biological: insects, animals, bacteria/diseases (living things) that are used to combat pests/disease. Our favorites are green lacewing, ladybugs, assassin bugs, mite predators. We purchase our beneficial insect predators from Arbico Organics.
Cultural: Practices that are implemented to maintain healthy growing spaces and soil. Cleaning tools, pots, cell trays, and workspaces are a form of cultural IPM. Dialing in proper watering levels (because excess water can cause disease) is also a form of cultural IPM.
Mechanical: Weeding is one of our primary mechanical IPM methods. We do a tremendous amount of weeding. Our weeds are composted at a high temperature and turned back into a compost mulch that is used to amend our soil and keep it covered and less vulnerable to diseases in the future.
(For more info on the weeds, pests, and diseases we see here and our IPM practices for them, jump down to the text below the video.) We have not been using Brix level testing, but we will be running a comparison between analog and digital meters soon. Kyle used to test the grapes on a vineyard for their Brix levels for winemaking purposes and he will start collecting some readings for us here, too. We’ll share what we learn with you and how the meters perform.
WEEDS AND IPM:
Lots of hand weeding using tools like these. We do not use much landscape fabric and instead work many no-till permaculture beds with dense plantings of perennials and some annuals mixed in. This allows us to work our soil and plant much earlier, but the trade off is more weeding.
Edging: we edge beds that are vulnerable to encroachment by grass several times a season.
Fabric aisles and boarders: we use landscape fabric to cover aisles and to border fields to save us time weeding those areas.
Mulch: we apply a thick layer of mulch (4-5 inches) when we weed an area. Uncovered soil will sprout weed seeds that are embedded from previous seasons or catch new seeds. Open soil and sunlight = more weeds.
Obstacle removal: we remove stones and debris from our farm that would catch weed seeds and shelter them. Even an empty bulb crate left on a bed fully covered with landscape fabric will soon grow full of weeds as the seeds collect along the edges and in the bottom of the crate.
Pests and IPM:
Aphids: manual removal (squishing). Mint concentrate or neem oil fogging if needed.
Japanese beetles: manual removal.
Thrips: manual removal of affected foliage & mint concentrate fogging.
Tarnished plant bugs: organza bags for exclusion on dahlias. (Some farms spray rounds of pyganic and neem oil religiously. I refuse to do this and instead choose not to focus on dahlias. If you’re seeing a big farm produce many dahlias (acres) in an area where there are tarnished plant bugs, chances are good that these sprays or others are being used.)
Earwigs: Manual removal and Linda’s homemade earwig trap. (I’ll share this in a new post soon.)
Scarlet Lily Beetle: Manual removal. Daily or every other day checking for pest, eggs and larvae.
Diseases and IPM:
Powdery mildew: remove affected foliage and fog with Neem Oil (leaf shine) or allow the disease to run it’s course. (Seasonal powdery mildew is common in late summer and we take no action when it appears on our lilac hedges and in the Display Garden.)
Downy mildew: remove affected foliage. Apply a dormant copper fungicide spray to lesson, prevent future outbreaks.
Botryis: remove affected foliage. Cut back plants to avoid spread.