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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] potato beetles

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  • From: "Alex McGregor" <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] potato beetles
  • Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 15:48:11 -0400

OFRF (www.ofrf.org/) funded on-farm research on avoiding potato beetle
damage 10 or more years ago. I sent my copy to a friend that grows a lot
of them. I remember that the farmer used different kinds and densities of
mulch with a no mulch/ clean cultivation control group, all planted in the
same field.

He found that plants mulched with hay or straw (long, thin mulch) did
better than any of the others and the no-mulch control was almost
completely eaten.

He also found that density didn't matter in the hay & straw mulches. The
rows with just enough mulch to cover the soil had as little damage as those
with deep mulch. His conclusion was that the fibrous mulches might confuse
the beetles.

For tomato blight- I assume you're talking about early blight, a fungus
that kills the leaves from the bottom up. I've had it on all my tomato
plants every year, but the plants grow faster and produce ahead of the
fungal progression. I think this is due to the relatively high soil
organic matter I maintain (7 - 8.5%) and the balanced minerals. Also, I
have permanent beds and don't do tillage which destroys the beneficial
fungal communities in the soil.

A friend of minr who grows Brandywines (one of the most suscetible to
blight I've found) had really good success with hydrgen peroxide, but said
the cost was too high. He now prunes lower limbs and keeps the plants well
staked to improve air movement, while using the Biodynamic prep for fungus.

Alex McGregor
Walden Farm





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