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Avoiding pests and diseases
Chemical pesticides are not the only way of reducing the problems caused by pests and diseases
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 Cultural methods, which largely aim
to prevent pests and diseases from occuring through good gardening practice, will not usually eliminate them altogether. However, they help
to reduce the degree of damage and may sometimes make it unnecessary
to resort to pesticides. Therefore even where pesticides are acceptable, cultural methods should always be considered as well. However, if you rely only on cultural controls and do not use chemical pesticides at all, you will often have to accept some damage.
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Remove dead foliage to prevent disease infection.
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Hygiene
Remove dead and over-shaded leaves as these can easily become infected by diseases such as grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) which then spread to healthy leaves and flowers. They also harbour pests such as slugs and snails. Plants badly affected by pests and diseases are best removed if they are unlikely to make a quick recovery. If roots have been affected, carefully take away the whole root system and the immediately associated soil, to ensure that all traces of the pest or disease are removed.
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Weeds
Remove weeds, as they compete for plant foods and water and therefore stress cultivated plants. They can also act as alternative hosts for pests, including aphids, red spider mite and whitefly, and for diseases.
Resistance
Many plants have some cultivars that are more resistant to disease or pest attack than others, especially in the case of diseases such as mildews and rusts. The resistance may be within the plant tissues or it may come as the result of a different growth pattern: for instance, some cultivars of Hemerocallis (day lily) flower later in the summer, allowing them to escape attack by gall midge.
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Luring earwigs away from plants
To trap earwigs, fill flower pots with straw, and invert them on canes among susceptible plants. Inspect traps in the morning; remove any earwigs, and destroy them. |
Rotation
Do not put the same types of plants in the same place year after year, since this will help soil-borne pests and diseases to build up. For example, the spores of downy mildew and leaf spot disease of pansies remain in the soil from the previous planting.
Traps
Some pests can be trapped, then removed or destroyed. For example, 'slug pubs' capture slugs or snails, and straw-filled flower pots attract earwigs.
Good cultivation
Finally, it is important to grow plants correctly with careful attention to planting, feeding, watering, deadheading, pruning, and propagation. Well-grown plants often stay healthy. |
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