Organic pest and disease control

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Shizuman
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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by Shizuman »

Read some interesting stuff here, cold be some good developments in the works
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2018/ ... DG9AVwzaUl

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emptychurches
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Re: Organic pest and disease control

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Re: aphids, does anyone have a source for some mail order ladybug larvae? Seems to be an easy thing to get back home, but maybe I am just not searching the right terms here (天道虫の幼虫). They always seem to infiltrate my balcony plants from another unit, and as much as I love rolling around gently soaping them away or spray blasting them off the porch and down four stories to their demise, I am always happy when the ladybugs come and make a home on the plants. I just wish there were more ladybugs around. I'd be happy to mesh them in for a buffet until they mature!

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gonbechan
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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by gonbechan »

Welcome to JSL

A company called Agrisect sells large quantities of non flying ladybug larvae on Amazon
And on Rakuten
You can visit their website at https://www.agrisect.com/80356.html

If that is too much for you on Rakuten you can get a set of 10 (plus 2) ladybugs
https://item.rakuten.co.jp/chanet/178550/

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Baby preying mantis will also eat aphids so if you can find any of their egg cases outside and bring them into somewhere warm like a greenhouse or propagator they will hatch early and start devouring your aphids there. Currently our poly tunnels are full of baby mantis zipping around like little super heroes eating aphid along with adult and baby ladybirds.


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emptychurches
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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by emptychurches »

What a smart lookin' baby! I'll definitely keep an eye out for any.
I saw those tentop when I was hunting for them last year, but I couldn't believe the price. That 10+2 would be perfect for our needs. I hope it comes back in stock soon! Until then, googling "how to start a bug farm" might be in order. :)

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by Zasso Nouka »

We establish a breeding colony of ladybirds in a couple of our poly tunnels over winter by letting the aphids go wild on a small patch of lettuce and keeping that warm with agricultural fleece. As the population of aphids takes off the ladybird population also expands but to stop them running out of food we move most of the young and eggs to other places where they are needed and just leave enough behind to keep breeding and they keep churning out new ones all winter long.

If you can't find any wild ladybirds near you to establish a breeding colony I can probably gather up some pupating ones from one of our tunnels and post them to you.

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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by Shizuman »

Anyone have any tips on how to manage garlic rust fungus organically?
got a minor infestation through my crop just wondering if anyone has had any luck treating it?

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gonbechan
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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by gonbechan »

There are two things you can try
easiest first is aspirin (use in spring on early stage rust)
Use 2 uncoated (bayer) aspirin to 1 liter of water
Crush and mix the aspirin properly into the water
Use a hand spray thingie to coat foliage on all sides.
Make sure it isn't going to rain for a few days when you do it.

If that does not work you can try 1 tablespoon each of baking soda, cooking oil (canola or sunflower) and dishwashing liquid to 1Liter of water.
Put it in a spray bottle and be sure to keep shaking it between sprays to stop it from separating. This is also good for preventing rust.

If those both do not work you are stuck with more severe treatments.

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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by Shizuman »

Gombechan, thats great ill defiantly give that a go! if and when the rain here ever lets up!

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Re: Organic pest and disease control

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Doubt this will help you now as it is more of a preventative than cure once a fungal disease has taken hold and don't know if it will work on garlic but maybe give it a shot next year

Impressions Clear

It is a bacterial based preventative treatment, the idea being that the bacteria colonise your leaf surfaces and keep fungal infections from getting a foothold. I've used it several times and on some crops it works really well other less so. It also depends on what kind of fungal spore load your air is carrying, if you have a neighbour nearby with a heavily infected crop then chances are it's not going to work.

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