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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Yellow striped cucumber beetles

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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Yellow striped cucumber beetles
  • Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 08:13:08 -0400


On May 30, 2006, at 10:33 PM, "" <herbthyme AT simcon.net> wrote:

From what I have read...and have been learning..when the soil is at it's peak or pretty darn good happy, there are less bugs to be had. Ruth Stout said it, Elliot Colmen has said it and I am willing to be that any other totally organic gardner would agree. It all has to do with micronutrietnts and soil levels that hinder or "bring on" the bad bugs. Just like with weeds in your soil, they tell you what is good and what is bad with your soil. Amending your soil, in my opionin, is the first and best organic way you can "creat" a happy environment for all. It takes time, patience and some money, but the end result is what we are all looking for.


I have been farming organically since the mid 1970's, and certified organic since 1988. If your soil is in excellent balance for the crop you are growing, and has healthy soil life; if your crop mix is diversified; if you are growing crops and specific varietes suited to your location; and if your farm ecosystem is in as good balance as is possible considering the state of the rest of the world; you will indeed have fewer pest problems. This doesn't mean that you won't have any. When the leafhoppers blow in on the wind, you will get them too. When your neighbors all get late blight, you will get it too. Cucumber beetles, unfortunately, are one of the problems you are likely to get, in a year with heavy pressure.

There are two (at least) reasons for this. One is that, whatever you've done on your own place, you're sharing the planet with everybody else. If the actions of other people have encouraged a high pressure of a particular pest, some of it's going to spill over onto the ground in your care (just as any foulness that's gotten into the rain will fall on you too). The other is that the pests are part of the ecosystem too; and they, also, adapt to try to stay alive, and to keep their species in existence. Because humans want only specific things to grow in a particular place doesn't mean that the planet agrees. What we call pests, are only pests by our definition.

Over time, given a chance, "pests" and other plant/animal species will come into balance. It does no organism any good to destroy its host population; the long-term benefit of the pest is in keeping the host in existence (though not necessarily in keeping it pretty, by human standards, without visible damage to the fruit). Most of the pests that are a problem for organic farmers in this area (and probably elsewhere) are recently introduced species that have not yet had time to find that balance; the predators that should eat them often didn't come with them. Introducing those predators often further upsets the balance, in the short run. (The "short run", ecologically speaking, is often longer than a human lifetime.)

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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