ays to keep the ground around your fruit and nut trees free from debris
Keeping the ground around your fruit and nut trees clear of debris will reduce common gardening problems such as insects and diseases. It is also more attractive. Many times insects, disease and weed pests come from your own garden or nearby areas where they have been living on weeds and plant debris. It is also quite common to inadvertently bring pests into your garden on contaminated seeds, transplants, soil or equipment. To help avoid bringing any of these problems into your garden, it is important to make sure any crop seed and organic soil amendments, including manure, do not have weed seeds or pathogens. When ever possible, use certified seed or stock. When you are moving plants in from another garden, check for signs of insects or diseases. Make sure to check the roots for signs of root knot nematodes. Never put soil in your garden or around your fruit and nut trees that you suspect may be infested with nematodes or stems of Bermuda grass. Always clean gardening equipment when moving from garden to garden. This is important because nematodes and soil-borne diseases may be transported in soil which may adhere to cultivating tools. Also, keep in mind weed seeds and disease may be inadvertently transported on lawn mowers.
Remove any plant debris from previous crops before planting a new crop. Pests like the navel orange worm and the codling moth survive in old cull fruit and nuts that remain in the trees or on the soil surface. Be sure to remove the fruit and nut culls or knock them down to the ground and then till them into the soil. It is also important to remove or destroy pruning's that may be infested with borers.
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A good method of destroying crop and weed residues around the garden is composting. Composting also helps control pests that may be hiding in the residue. The best composting process is to make a pile approximately 3ft x 3ft x 3ft, turn the pile every one to three days, and maintain a temperature of around 160 degrees F. Once the composting process has begun, add nothing to it. When done correctly, composting will control all insect pests, nematodes, and most disease organisms, except for heat tolerant viruses such as tobacco mosaic virus. With the exception of oxalis bulbs, bur clover seeds, pigweed seeds and cheese-weed seeds, composting will destroy most types of weed seeds.
It is important to keep weeds under control at all times. Also before you begin new plantings be sure to remove weeds in and around your garden. If you do not regularly remove weeds, the pests may move into your garden and onto your fruit and nut trees.
Weeds produce seeds that may end up in your garden. Weeds are typically sources of insect pests as well. Cutworms, grasshoppers, slugs and snails, stink bugs and thrips are common pests that move from weeds into your garden. There are also certain types of weeds that harbor virus diseases that can be transmitted to your vegetable plants by aphid and leaf hoppers.
Facts:
1. One of the most important factors in pest management is to maintain healthy soil. Soil that is healthy will produce healthy plants and trees. Healthy plants and trees are better able to withstand disease and insect damage.
2.Compost improves soil structure, texture, and increases the soil's water holding capacity. It also promotes soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development.
3. The best organic matter for bed preparation is compost made from anything that was once alive, such as leaves or grass clippings.
