Top 8 effective plant pests and disease control measures to implement in an urban farm

Pests and disease control measures are strategies taken to control, eradicate and curtail the adverse effects of pests and diseases to plant growth and produce. Pests and diseases attack plants at all growth stages but are more rampant in the early stage when the immunity is not fully developed. They also attack plant produce in store leading to losses.

It’s therefore very important to have measures in place to avoid the negative effects of pests and diseases on plant growth and produce like:

1. Stunted plant growth
2. Plant death
3. Poor yields
4. Damage to produce in storage
5. Negative effects on human health

Common plant pests include:

1. Weevils
2. Aphids
3. Mealy bugs
4. Spidermites
5. Whiteflies
6. Worms – cabbage / cut
7. Fungus gnats

Plant diseases can be caused by both bacteria, fungi and viruses.

Common bacterial plant diseases include:

1. Bacterial spot
2. Bacterial blight
3. Bacterial wilt
4. Bacterial soft rot
5. Black rot

Common fungal plant diseases include:

1. Rots
2. Rusts
3. Blights
4. wilts
5. mildews
6. Anthracnose
7. Damping off

Common viral plant diseases include:

1. Viral mosaic virus
2. Mild mottle virus
3. Viral spotted virus

Pest and disease control measures in a plant urban farm should take into account the following cautions:

1. Effects of pest and disease resurgence

Resurgence is when pests and disease numbers multiply more after continued application and use of control measures like herbicides. After applying the herbicides, the pests and diseases can get used, digest, and break it down. Changing application time, herbicide type or rate with appropriate consultation from your agriculturalist can help you avoid resurgence and spread to other areas

• Effects on human health

Whichever measure is chosen, the end food product should not be contaminated or have pathogens that can affect human health. Overapplication of chemicals results in residues in the products that can cause diseases like cancer to humans. Over and improper application of chemicals and organic manure can result in a bad smell in the agricultural products that will lower the quality and appeal to customers.

• Effects on soil profile

Farming generally affects the presence, growth and functionality of important soil organisms like earthworms, and useful Bacteria like nitrogen-fixing bacteria that break down organic matter and replenish the soil. Chemicals, over ploughing and growing the same crop season after season also have detrimental effects on the entire soil profile. The resulting poor soil will have low yields.

• Broad spectrum or narrow

Narrow spectrum practices target a particular pest or disease while broad spectrum can target everything in that range or circle. The latter is not good as other useful organisms and plants can be killed in the process.  This is more seen in pesticide and herbicide applications.

• Effect on biodiversity and the environment

Some pesticides and herbicides or any other chemicals can be hard to break down and persist for years after application. When carried by rain, wind, water bodies or running water, these can have negative health effects on biodiversity and other ecosystems.

We need food, but it has to be produced precautiously in a healthy and sustainable manner that ensures:

1. Increased crop yields
2. Healthy food for consumption
3. Sustainability for today and future generations
4. Zero adverse effects on the environment and biodiversity.

Top 8 Plant pests and disease control measures to implement in an urban farm

Plant pests and disease control measures to implement in an urban farm include:

1.Spacing

Plant spacing is done to ensure proper plant growth through:

1. Reducing plant completion for nutrients and resources
2. Reducing disease and pest spread by avoiding overcrowding
3. Allow for enough space to spread and fruit well

Plant spacing depends largely on:

1. Plant requirements e.g. the size of the plants upon maturity. The larger the spacing
2. Size of the farm and farmer’s goals
3. Plant pests and disease profile and farm established control measures.
4. Short-term or long-term growth requirements. E.g. it wouldn’t be wise to cramp fruit trees together in an orchard upon transplanting.

2.Growing resistant plant varieties

These are plant varieties that are able to resist pest and disease attacks, withstand adverse conditions like drought and also yield greatly.

3.Sterilization

Modern urban farm equipment and systems need to be sterilized and cleaned periodically or often to maintain them so that they last longer and more so to prevent clogging and buildup of pests, diseases and parasites which can attack crops in the next growing season. This helps to curb disease spread.

Sterilization and cleaning can be done manually by hand for smaller systems or flushing and cleaning machinery for larger systems in aquaponics and hydroponics. Acceptable amounts of cleaning chemicals and detergent can be used during the process as not to have adverse effects on the plants.

Sterilization can also be done on seedlings and sucklings before they are planted in the garden. The soil can also be sterilized using minimal chemicals, fertilized and then left to rest for some time before new crops are planted in the next growing season.

4.Crop rotation

This involves growing different types of crops alternately on the same plot of land with each growing season. This is very important, especially on large farms growing on a soil medium. Smaller backyard farms, allotment gardens, rooftop and vertical farms occupy less space and soil is easy to manage. Here, microorganisms like bacteria and earthworms can be inoculated to facilitate crop and plant growth, unlike larger ones. It can be costly. In crop rotation, legumes like beans, and peas, are included in the growing profile or can be intercropped with other crops to nourish the soil with nitrogen. These have nitrogen-fixing bacteria: nitrosomonas and nitrobacter which fix nitrogen in the soil.

5.Liming

Liming is done to maintain growing medium PH in acceptable ranges of acidity or alkalinity. Plants thrive well in medium with ideal PH levels.  PH affects:

1. Availability of certain nutrients
2. Water quality
3. Prevalence of certain pests and diseases

Calcium carbonate is applied in recommended levels as per the

1. Soil scientist directions,
2. Growing medium profile
3. Plant growth stage
4. Pest, disease and parasite prevalence.

Liming helps to fix the PH of the growing medium and to control certain pests and diseases.

6.Thinning

Thinning is done to remove extra plants in the garden. It’s done to:

1. Ensure proper plant spacing for optimum growth
2. Reduce competition amongst plants for resources
3. Remove poor-performing and sickly plants leaving those that are doing well
4. Remove sick plants from the garden to control pest and disease spread.

7.Pruning

This is the removal of extra or unwanted plant parts. It’s done to:

1. Remove diseased plant parts to avoid furthure spread
2. Reduce excess growth to allow optimum growth
3. Landscaping in ornamental plants
4. Grooming trees and fruit tree branches for optimum future plant growth and fruiting support.

8.Spraying

Spraying with pesticides and herbicides to control pests, diseases and parasites. The application should be done periodically not regularly and with care to ensure that correct amounts are applied depending on the

1. Plant stage. Young plants may not be able to withstand heavy concentrations and applications. They can also get scorched by the chemicals and die.
2. Pest and disease growth stage: adult pests and diseases are more resistant than the young ones.
3. Time and season: application is not effective in windy and wet rainy weather
4. The number of plants. More plants require more application than fewer ones.

Pesticides and herbicides inhibit pest and disease growth and propagation thereby killing them rendering the plants free.

Conclusion

Pests and diseases affect plant growth and yields. These strategies can help you get started so that you eradicate parasites, pests and diseases, yield greatly in your urban farm and agribusiness.