Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

> Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with flea beetles. They are
> destroying my arugula, cress, mizuna and radishes and now I have noticed
> them on my chard.

The silver plastic mulch helps keep them off of some things (another 
non-sustainable material) if you are growing for commercial purposes. 
It's more of a deterrent than a preventive, though, and works best 
combined with row covers.

Someone (I don't remember where or when) told me they make sticky cards 
with a non-drying kind of glue or flypaper, and put them on the ground 
along the rows that have the worst problems. In combination with row 
cover, they said it worked very well. I haven't tried it yet.

Another sacrificial crop that works good here is mustard. They seem to 
love mustard and radish and bok choi here.

If I find the link, there was a blurb on the internet from some 
university about flea beatles and it covered the timing issue about when 
they come out (temperature-wise). If you till up an area early and plant 
radishes, then wait for them to emerge and attack the radishes, you can 
then put something nearby and cover it with row covers once they have 
emerged and moved to the radish. That was the gist of one way of dealing 
with them, from what I remember.

I use a garlic spray from Veggie Pharm that helps, but doesn't really 
knock them out, and works best if they have another sacrifice crop to 
move to.

Guinea hens?

Dan C.