Fall is a great time to level the playing field, or in some case even better, flatten the competition.
A timely fall reminder: Many growers will adopt and even cling to a misunderstanding that can cost them money in myriad ways. Specifically: Spring is the time for bugs and, thus, that’s the time for fighting them. Having these thoughts can be downright dangerous. Spring is a time for bugs and it is a good time to do battle with them. But it’s not the only time of year for pest control, and in some cases it’s not even the best time of year.
Summer is another period of activity. And if you have a greenhouse or other weather-preserving environment, you can even include the mid-winter. But there’s one more very important season: Autumn. Fall is a great time to level the playing field, or in some case even better, flatten the competition. Think about it for a moment. As we come indoors for the winter, so do many pests, or at least they try. Try out this scenario:
Let’s say you fired up your greenhouse in mid-winter, 2005, bringing the temperatures up from a holding state to an active one. Almost immediately you discovered some pests. It seemed as if you applied heat and water and brought about life. And it seemed that way because that’s what happened. You fought them back, though, and won yourself a reprieve. Now let’s fast-forward a bit.
Mid-summer came. You were pretty much sold out of everything you had except your stock plants. Those spent the summer outside basking in the warm sunshine, busily redefining the very meaning of plant heath. During this time you had buttoned up your greenhouse in hopes of baking the contents in an effort to kill pests, diseases, and weeds. That, of course, went as planned. A good baking is always a good idea.
So now here we are at the present time. You are start moving your stock plant material inside to keep it all alive — and to try and retain that summer flush. You do this so you can take cuttings in the mid winter to start your crops for next spring. You do this because your plants need to stay protected for the winter. Very much the way many pests do. They seek cover and protection from the brutality of winter. Small numbers of good bugs do this as well.
Inside your greenhouse, due to the summer baking. You have no pests, but as you move your plants inside, other creatures are making their way inside as well. The conditions inside are now not only habitable, but quite tempting too. Warmth, sunshine, still watering. Wow, in the eyes of the pests it must be like spring all over again.
Is this the course you run? Is this your cycle? If so, fall is a great time to introduce biocontrols into a greenhouse. They will feed during the fall, awaken early in the mid-winter just like the other critters inside your winter greenhouse, and provide you with a presence and small population of good guys when and where none previously existed.
This can also happen to a degree in some field crops like strawberries. Putting out a hardy mite like Neoseiulus fallacis into a strawberry crop will help disable the two-spotted mite population in the field come spring. Moreover, you will begin the season with some predators.
Yes, fall’s another time for the good fight. Bear this in mind now as now’s a great time to act and prepare for next year.
