Pest and Disease
There are pest and disease experts available at our centres at all times. Our philosophy is that prevention is better than cure, which will often avoid the use of chemical treatments. Early treatment is less work and more effective than playing catch up. If you have a perennial pest or disease problem tell us about it now for best advice on how to stop it happening again this season.
Our first tip on having healthy plants is to choose the right plant in the first place. Choose plants that are;
- easy to grow
- right for the position and purpose
- selected for disease resistance
Once you have chosen the plants then look after them well through the correct;
- watering
- feeding
- mulching
- pruning
- hygiene especially after pruning
- crop rotation
Cure
With the reduction of available chemical treatments there is an increase in the use of traditional methods including cultural techniques such as plant choice, crop rotation, physical barriers like horticultural fleece or cloches, or the more recent use of Biological Control.
The last resort in the process is the use of an off-the-shelf formulation. There are many that are organic and others that are chemical.
1. Biological
- leaving wild areas in or around your garden will encourage natural predators
- natural through leaving wild areas in or around your garden
- diverse planting schemes
- companion planting
- introduction of predators and parasites - At our centres we have access to a wide range of biological control methods. There are many treatments available for pests using natural predators and parasites. These include: vine weevil, slugs, ants, aphids, whitefly, caterpillars, chafer grubs and leatherjackets.
- pheromone traps
2. Physical
- sticky traps
- gravels & barks
- fibre fleece
- pruning
- oddities such as upturned melon rind to catch slugs
3. Organic treatments
4. Chemical
- fungicide
- insecticide
- fumigants
- winter wash
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