Sally Scalera

Brevard County Horticulture Extension Agent
3695 Lake Drive -- Cocoa FL 32926 -- 321-633-1702

Pest-free gardening

August 2, 2008

Our job is to answer your gardening questions and naturally a lot of them deal with insect problems like aphids, whiteflies, scale and mealybugs, and then there is always diseases and weeds. Many residents prefer not to use pesticides like insecticides, fungicides and herbicides because they care about the environment and want to protect it. Considering that all of us who live in Brevard County are in a watershed for a major body of water gives us even more incentive to not pollute. Between the St. Johns River, Indian River, Banana River and the Atlantic Ocean, we all need to pay attention to the fertilizers and pesticides we use in our landscape.

The topic of my August classes is Pest “Free” Gardening and if you noticed the quotation marks around the word free I am sure that you realize that it is best not to take that word literally. It is impractical and unnecessary to try and have a totally pest free garden since some pests are good because they are food for beneficial insects. Also, most of us are too busy to be able to check each individual plant in our yards to make sure that there no pests. In actuality, there are plenty of things that we can do to help minimize pest problems in our yards, ornamentals and vegetable gardens.

One of the first things that we can do is to consider planting some native plants since they are easy to grow in our poor soil, which is actually just called sand, and they don’t require much, if any, fertilizer or supplemental water (once they are established.) I think every yard should have some natives in it just because there are many that are extremely ornamental and they are easy to grow. A variety of different plants, like a mixture of natives and non-natives, is also helpful in reducing the chances of an outbreak of insects or diseases

Now, for all of those other plants that you are growing, or want to grow that are not natives, they are going to do much better if you amend the soil with organic matter. That means adding humus, often called compost, grass clippings, aged manures, etc. You can apply the organic matter like a mulch, as often as needed, and let it work its way down into the sand.

If you are planning on adding any new plants, it is important to pick the right plant for the spot you have in mind. The main items to look at for that spot are the soil pH, soil moisture and the light conditions. Most plants can tolerate a wide range of pH but a handful of acid loving plants like azaleas, ixora, blueberries, American holly and bahiagrass prefer a pH of 5.0 to 5.5. If acid loving plants are planted in a neutral to a high pH they can show symptoms of minor element nutritional deficiency which appears as bright yellow on the outer part of the leaf and deep green in the center. That is a sign of a deficiency of one of the minor elements like iron or magnesium.

Soil moisture is pretty simple and most of our soils are well-draining so, look for plants that handle dry or droughty soils. Some areas have soil that stays moist with extended flooding and then some areas are wet. When it comes to light conditions there is full sun, which receives a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight or more each day, partial sun/shade and the last choice is shady which never gets any direct sunlight.

For vegetable plants and annuals, an important part of their success is to plant them at the right time of the year. Our Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide has a chart that lists what months the different vegetable plants can be planted into the garden. When it comes to planting annuals, it is pretty simple. We have two seasons for annuals; summer and winter. The shorter list of winter annuals contains snapdragons, petunias, pansies, stock and alyssum, just to name a few. Summer annuals can live through the winter as long as there is no freeze, but if your summer annuals die out in fall or early winter you are better off to replace them with some winter annuals.

A portion of the class will consist of pictures of some of the common insect pests and how you can control them. I will also touch on disease control and weeds. In addition, I have suggestions on things that you can do to reduce the outbreak of insects and diseases like using liquid seaweed, aspirin and even milk! At the end of the class I will show some pictures of beneficial insects and plants that you can plant in your yard to attract them.

If you are interested in attending a class, here are the locations and times. On Wednesday, August 20th I’ll be at the Cocoa Library from 10-11 a.m., on Thursday, 21st at the Mims/Scottsmoor Library from 2-3 p.m., Tuesday the 26th at Cocoa Beach Library from 10-11 a.m. and again that afternoon at the Satellite Beach Library from 2-3 p.m. and then on Wednesday the 27th at The Enchanted Forest from 10-11 a.m. The class costs $5 and if you would like to sign-up for the class just call us at 633-1702. If you can’t make the class but would like the handout you can call us and give us your address.

When it comes to our common insects like aphids, whiteflies, scale and mealybugs they are easy to control using Insecticidal soap or Ultra-fine pesticidal oil which is much better for everyone, including our pets. Harsh chemicals are not needed to control the majority of our pests and if you can keep your plants healthy, they won’t even attract the pests or be susceptible to the diseases!