This week was all about pests! In class we covered several varieties of insect pests and how these pest affect the health and quality of plants. Garden pests can be divided into two categories, as shown in the table below:
As the names indicate, chewing pests bite into the leaves and fruit of plants, either cutting it away or eating the plant matter, while sucking insects suck the nutrients from the leaves and can spread disease. Some pests that are notably present in our gardens are aphids, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and whiteflies.
As mentioned before, we use organic insecticides in our gardens to ward off pests. In, there are also beneficial insects that hep control pest populations. They can be split into predators, which eat the pests, and parasitoids, which lay their
larvae inside the pest insects to feed on as they develop.
In other exciting news, I have long-overdue pictures of my garden to share. In the garden this week, we did the usual weeding and fertilizing, and next week I plan on staking my tomatoes to provide them with more support--but more on that in my next post. Enjoy the pics below!
 |
| Large zucchini developing |
 |
| Several Ladybug peppers |
 |
| Eggplant beginning to appear |
 |
| Squash plants getting very large |
 |
| Lots of new lettuce |
 |
| Newly planted cauliflower |
 |
| Carrots finally sprouted |
 |
| Tightly packed bean plants |
No comments:
Post a Comment