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I will tell you here how to grow your vegetable garden without using pesticides.

With proper pest control practices and effective garden maintenance, home gardeners and farmers can cut the losses experienced each year due to garden pests. Plants that receive bad care are more vulnerable to pests than are those which get the correct amount of water, fertilizer, and good cultivation. Horticulturists agree that you should start out by finding types of plants which have a high resistance to a wide variety of pests.

There are varieties available that are resistant to some common types of plant diseases, although they are not usually resistant to insects. One way to prevent pests is to only grow plants from newly purchased seeds, don't save old seeds to be re-used in a new garden. A great number of diseases turn out to be carried by seeds. Rather, you should purchase new seeds annually off of dealers who possess a well regarded reputation for vending pest free and good quality seeds. If you buy transplants, make sure that they are strong and healthy. If your plant appears to be young or old, or spindly and weak, then you may not want to try and transplant these plants as they may not survive through the transplant shock and can be more susceptible to certain pests.

It's also important to rotate the vegetables and plant each type in a different location in the garden each year, as this helps to eliminate diseases that are carried in the soil. You could try alternating corn with other types of vegetables. A good four year rotation would be to alternate corn with plants like broccoli, greens or cabbage, and then alternate those with plants such as pepper, potatoes, and tomatoes, and further alternate those with beans, legumes or corn once more.

Samples of smart sanitation to be utilized for good pest control include making sure that the garden is free of infested crop debris, cull piles, and volunteer plants. Pests find these materials ideal for living in, so they should not be saved for mulching or any other use. If you are going to mulch, use leaves or straw. Although much has many desirable qualities, it does have one serious drawback that you need to be aware of. Permitting them to get to your plants as you can not first spot them, mulch offers shelter and disguise to a variety of insects.

Being sanitary is one key thing to practice in order to prevent spreading plant viruses within your garden. Before you do any handling of your plants like transplanting or close cultivation, you need to be sure to keep all tools and hands washed clean with soap and water. This is especially important if you're a smoker, because some quite deadly plant viruses actually originate in tobacco.

Weeds can also carry and attract garden pests. There are certain weeds that will attract pests, so it's a good idea to keep your garden completely free of weeds. You might also want to patrol the area around your garden and keep it free of weeds. Insects such as mites, beetles, and aphids take up residence in weeds, and they can cause plant diseases to spread among your crop. You want to keep the are surrounding your garden just as weed-free as the garden itself so that you don't have any cross over, and be sure to watch out for Johnson-grass which attracts insects.

Another way to control garden pests is through the control of water. You should water early in the day to help control plant diseases. If you water early in the morning, you might be able to avoid using powerful fungicides. Watering your garden at night can cause water to linger on your plants, which can give rise to a fungus problem, as fungus survives in environments which are wet and warm.

Create a barrier of some kind to surround your transplants, as this can prevent certain insects from reaching them. A milk jug, some cardboard, any other material bugs won't be able to penetrate will do, make sure that it goes into the soil a couple of inches down for the right protection. This kind of wall can keep your peppers and tomatoes safe from grubs, cutworms, wire worms, and other types of creatures which live underground. There are a few potential biological means you could use such as having a predator insect that will eat the pest, but there are ethical concerns about introducing foreign predators. However, there are helpful predators that you should learn to recognize. This will allow you to leave them alone if you see some in your garden. These include the praying mantis, ladybugs, lacewings, ground beetles, spiders and syrphid flies.

If, despite all of your best efforts, these natural methods aren't keeping pests away you may consider a pesticide, but leave it as a last resort. If you choose to use a pesticide carefully read the instructions on the container. Wait the number of days which the directions recommend, since over use will damage your garden; when the directions tell you plainly to wait a fixed number of days after spraying the chemical before you begin harvesting, do as they tell you.

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