A blister beetle in hand
[HOST INTRO] What do you do when your garden is invaded by bugs? If you’re an organic gardener, a plague of pests can test your convictions. Do you patiently pick the bugs off, accept serious losses or pull out the big chemical guns?
In this installment of the Market & Garden Report correspondent Guy Hand visits an organic gardening class struggling to balance idealism with practicality when pests threaten to destroy their crops.
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(Hand) So what are these? (Clay) They’re black blister beetles.
(Hand) Clay Erskine is showing me the pests that have invaded his organic gardening class garden.
(Clay) And it looks like just in a five by five square food area there’s about maybe a thousand bugs.
Blister beetles on potato plants
(Hand) These shiny black beetles have descended on the classes previously idyllic organic garden in horror movie numbers. But rather than bring out chemical sprays, albeit organic ones, Erskine sees the infestation as a way to put fundamental organic gardening principals to the test.
Kids with a tray of freshly-picked blister beetles in vegetable oil (not as appetizing as it may sound).
(Clay) That’s the philosophical idea of organics is that you just don’t knee-jerk spray no matter what. Organics is more of trying the least invasive process of just monitoring, hand picking and make sure you’re following all the processes before you step it up the next notch rather going straight to the great big gun.
(Hand) The great big gun would be organic pesticides, which can kill beneficial insects as well as pests. Instead, the class is trying the least invasive method: picking the bugs off plants by hand. After a long week of handpicking, I ask the class if they’re still committed.
(Hand) Why don’t you just spray rather than spend all this time picking bugs? (Ellie Rodgers) I don’t want to kill the beneficial insects. Some of it is keeping the natural balance of things and realize you can’t have this perfect, beautiful garden with out pests because a lot of them serve a purpose. (Hand) Are most of you on board with that, that you’d rather do all those other things before you spray? (Heather Cooper) I actually would have voted for spraying. I find that the time issue is just not an option for myself. And I think it might deter some people that might try organic gardening because if you go and you say you gotta pick all the bugs off and they’re lucky to get the seeds in the ground and consistently watered, but that’s just my own tolerance level. (Hand) If it got down to losing your tomato plants or spraying, would you feel good about spraying then? (Class) I’d spray, I think so, I would spray, I wouldn’t lose tomatoes . . .
Gardening class member picking beetles off tomato plants one by one. It's tedious, but less invasive than spraying pesticides, even organic pesticides, on the garden.
(Hand) So far, the class hasn’t resorted to sprays. As one more alternative, Clay Erskine offers a little gardening philosophy.
(Clay) When you look at the garden you can’t focus on the worst. Because there’s always going to be something bad and something going wrong and some bug that’s driving you crazy. So when you come out, look at all the beautiful things . . .
(Hand) For Edible Idaho’s Market & Garden Report and Boise State Public Radio, I’m Guy Hand.
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Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture.
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How do I get involved with organic gardening classes? I started my own raised organic garden this year and it seems to be doing fairly well, but I would love to learn a lot more so I can be much more effective. Thanks.
I’ve been following Peaceful Belly Farms’ season-long organic gardening class in the Market & Garden Report. You could contact them. Here’s a link: http://www.peacefulbelly.com/garden-class/.