In many of the people I talk to and classes I teach it is very clear that most of us are not clear what “organic” means as it relates to gardening and food production. I would like to venture some thoughts on the subject in hopes of letting people define it for themselves.

Our wonderful government defines it as:

“Organic production. A production system that is managed in accordance with the Act and regulations in this part to respond to site-specific conditions by integrating cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity.” USDA National Organic Program.

For more definitions from the USDA go their site.

Does that sound like you can’t use chemicals to be organic? Not exactly.

It is clear to me that there are degrees of organic adherence to the production of food. Some have tried to communicate the difference in these degrees by talking about “deep” organic production vs. “shallow” organic production. I thought this distinction was fair and useful.

In a simple summary, deep organic production promotes interdependence with the very nature you are using to grow produce. Using only the inputs available to you within nature to produce quality vegetables and such. Examples include using horse manure and compost to fertilize, made on the farm instead of getting commercial produced fertilizers. Using principles of soil management, crop rotation etc in order to eradicate pests and diseases instead of applying solutions to symptoms that appear. Even taking steps to reduce your carbon footprint via unheated greenhouses, battery powered implements and more.

Shallow organic production is more like “we do it naturally unless a limiting factor prevents us from it.” Limiting factors may be time, money, crop failure etc. This appears more in line with the USDA’s definition.

Hopefully it is clear to see how all of this organic means of production can be taken to a certain degree vs. just arriving at a place in your growing practices that clearly define your methods as “organic”. What this means is that just because a product was labeled organic doesn’t mean that the particular grower adheres to principles you believe to be organic. What this also means is that just because some grower’s product isn’t organic doesn’t mean they don’t adhere to principles of gardening you hold dear.

I think we all agree that utilizing natural principles of food production is ideal. What we don’t all agree on is the point at which deviating from those principles are appropriate.

So for all you home gardeners out there who struggle with the question whether or not they will use organic means of production in their gardens, I would invite you to answer a few questions for yourself before the time comes when all those pests are eating your vegetables and you are looking at the bottle of Sevin on the shelf debating if you could live with yourself if you were to “just this once” apply the pesticide.

• Is losing the plant more important than potentially adding chemicals to your soil that you probably don’t know much about one way or the other?
• Are you vigilant at adhering to correct principles of gardening to nurture healthy, successful plants?
• Do you stop and think about what is happening to your environment in all of your activities?

If you answered “yes” to these questions then I think you should look into deep organic techniques and adhere to those principles. I admire and support you and thank you for your efforts. You are making things better for all of us.

However, if you are the type of person that hypocritically drives gas guzzling vehicles, dumps oil based paints down the drain and burns plastic on the campfire and then has problem with applying malathion to keep your broccoli alive, then you may want to figure out what organic really means to you.

I am not trying to say that you have to be all in or all out, I am just asking for education and knowledge to temper guilt and judgement when it comes to growing or purchasing organically grown produce.

Personally, I am a “shallow” organic gardener with the desire to become more faithful in deep organic adherence. However, my philosophy is best summed up in the analogy of using dieting, exercise and preventative bodily care to take care of the body, but when something is not right I have no problem popping an Aleve or letting the doctor prescribe a remedy to an ailment. But that doesn’t not mean that I should allow man made remedies to limit my accountability and responsibility to adhere to principles of dieting and exercise. If it continues to hurt, I must make every effort to mitigate the cause not the symptom.

This is how I treat my plants. Nuture them with the greatest care and best possible environment for success, however, when more food is needed or something is wrong I will add nitrogen or spray with bacillus thuringiensis (BT) hoping these minimally evasive techniques solves the current issue, while I focus on fixing the cause. However, to eradicate disaster I have no problem applying the man made remedy so far as that, again, allows me to work on a sustainable solution. Does that mean I am not an organic grower or that I do not have respect for the environment? You choose for yourself, but for me and my house we choose to keep things alive in the long run.

Every year I have the same problem and every year it seems so do many others. You may have seen this, your cucumbers or your squash/zucchini plant is wilting so you water it, yet it doesn’t perk up and then it just dies. This is a tell tale sign of squash bugs. These bugs suck the juices and water out of the stems of your plant and if you look at the base of the stem you see these little bugs having the time of their life.

If you see this then you should immediately remove the bugs from the plant and kill them, then you need to look under each leave to see if they have laid any eggs, which they most likely have done. If you do see some, then wipe these eggs off too and kill them. You can also put a wood board near the plant to lure the bug away and then you can kill manually.  If you want an organic spray then I recommend BT  (Bacillus thuringiensis), or a brand name is Thuricide. This organic spray can be injected directly into the stem or applied regularly to control the bugs. Last, of course, is to apply an aggressive insecticide like Sevin. While I do not recommend spraying Sevin since you may kill beneficials, you may have success by applying the dust at the stems to help stop the problem.

If you have the problem one year, you can probably count on it every year. Click here for more information on squash bugs.

There is a wonderful free service that Utah State Extention provides for those growing anything in their yard. It is the Plant Pest Advisories. You can subscribe to these advisories so that you will receive an email every week to alert you what you should be looking for in terms of pests and how to fix the problem before it overtakes your plants.

They give advisories on lawn, fruit trees, vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants. I would advise signing up for this free service for anyone that spends any time or money trying to grow plants.

Plant pest advisory link

I find this highly informative, useful and critical. I hope you will too.

In a prior post I discussed very basic pest and disease practices to control your unwanted plant killers. In order to be effective while being environmentally friendly, most states use an integrated pest management (IPM) program. These are highly informative and very useful. You can even subscribe to the advisories so that you can be alerted to when certain pests are appearing and when to try and control them.

Utah has a great website for this. www.utahpests.usu.edu

I have throughly read the Home Orchard Pest Management Guide since we have 8 fruit trees in our yard. Fruit trees are the highest maintenance producer in your yard so it is very important to read and follow this resource if you have fruit trees. It may seem overwhelming, but this guide actually makes it pretty easy to understand since there are great pictures to describe stages of growth, pest and disease types.

Now is the time to learn because the best time to manage pests is now before the problems can begin. Hopefully you read my post on dormant sprays since you should have already done that for some trees and should be doing it now for others.

There is something important that you should do for those plants that go dormant over the winter, particularly fruit trees, berries, roses etc. Every year, during the “pink stage” (right before the tree is about to open buds), you will want to dormant spray to eliminate numerous problems for the trees. By spraying during this time you will be killing pests, eggs, diseases etc that have been overwintering in the plant or around it. This really helps to solve many problems before they happen. 

The dormant spray is made up of three different chemicals: fixed copper, malathion, and dormant oil. Fixed copper can be found at most nurseries. I buy Liqui-cop but there are many others. Malathion is readily available at Home Depot or other stores of this nature. Same with the dormant oil. Add the fixed copper per its directions on the label, then the malathion and then the oil into a pump sprayer with the appropriate amount of water. Shake good and continuously shake while spraying since the oil and water will want to separate. The oil kills eggs by suffocating them.

Spray all over the tree liberally and on the ground around berries etc. Make sure to have appropriate safety gear to not get in your eyes, mouth or on your skin. You don’t want to do this while it is windy for obvious reasons. This solution can store so if you don’t use it all that is OK. 

There are many more sprays out there and different chemicals for different pests. This is a basic tool for all gardeners. For a more comprehensive reference on the subject with more detail check out Larry Sagers article on the subject or go to www.utahpests.usu.edu

Anyone who gardens is very aware of all that there is to learn on the subject of pest and disease management. Even those who study this subject for a living find this a lifetime pursuit. This can be very discouraging for the backyard vegetable gardener who wants to grow plants and doesn’t have the time to learn all the possibilities of what can go wrong. Therefore, I will offer some simple suggestions and tell you what products you must have to tackle most of the problems you will incur. 

Diseases

First and foremost you want to take care of your plants, growing healthy plants is a great way to fight diseases.

Next, you want to buy disease resistant varieties. This will go a long way. Look in your seed catalogs and there should be some letters next to a type of seed. For example, if you look at the Tomato Park’s Whopper Improved Hybrid, you will notice the letters VFFNT. This means that there are diseases that this variety is resistant to. Looking at the legend, this means that it is resistant to Verticillium Wilt, Fusarium Wilt 1 and 2, Nematodes, Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Right there, those are five diseases you won’t have to worry with. 

Another way is through crop rotation. If you plant in the same place you did last year, then your chances of getting a disease increase greatly. Most of us backyard gardeners don’t have the luxury of rotating crops since we don’t have very much space. Therefore, if you begin to have problems with this then you may need to go a year without growing that crop. You can also solarize your soil if you are having lots of problems. Here is how- Solarizing Soil.

Pests

Keep in mind I will be talking basics here. For specific information on a pest that you are having problems with, contact your local extension office and they will help. 

First, you will want to buy 4 basic pests controls. Sevin, Malathion, BT, and Slug and Snail bait. With these four, you will be able to take care of the majority of potential problems. Here are some basic rules of thumb with these chemicals, read the back for the full skinny, but basically if it flies then I use Malathion, if it crawls I use Sevin, if it is a worm I use BT and always put slug and snail bait around the perimeter of your garden. These are very rudimentary principles, but again, this post is for the those that don’t have the time to learn it all. 

Sevin or Carbaryl- You can buy this as a dust or spray. Like any chemical this is not good to inhale or get on your skin so be careful with it and don’t use when windy. You can buy this anywhere like Home Depot or Walmart. If you start to notice a problem, then use it. Don’t feel like you have to use it just because. Just keep an eye out for ants, beetles, etc.

Malathion- You will want to get a simple sprayer to dilute this chemical with water and the spray on your plants. Again, this is toxic and you should only use when you see a problem with aphids, or leafhoppers etc.

BT- Bacillus Thuringensis- This is the good stuff. This is an organic chemical that is not toxic. This means that you can put it right on your fruit and eat the fruit the same day. These other chemicals will cause you to wait a week after using before harvesting so that you don’t ingest the chemical. BT doesn’t work as fast as the others, but it is favorable due to its organic nature. You may have to use multiple applications if you see a problem since it is weaker. It is particularly good for worms like tomato worms, cutworms, earwigs etc. This chemical is called by different brand names like Thuricide. Here is a picture if you are having trouble finding something like it.

With this chemical, you don’t have to be so reserved about using it. I usually have problems with my broccoli and cauliflower, therefore, when they start to head I spray this on whether or not I have any pests. Since it is not a harmful chemical I don’t feel bad. Same with corn, I always have earwigs so I spray this. You will need to buy a new bottle every year since it is a bacteria and it will not be effective the longer it sits. It is inexpensive, about $10. 

Slug and Snail bait- You can buy this anywhere, and I would advise you use it before you see a problem since I guarantee a problem if you don’t.

So there you have it, buy these four chemicals and you should be good to go. Remember, ask a pest/ disease management expert for specific problems. Your local extension office has volunteer master gardeners that are there to help with these needs.