Oct
29
2011
How to Make Your Soil More Pest Resistant
Author: adminPests in the soil can have an adverse effect on your vegetable and flowering plants. While there are many chemicals that can help you eradicate pests from the soil, they harm the environment and can also be harmful to you, your kids and household pets. The best way to make soil more pest resistant is to use organic pest control methods.
Diatomaceous Earth (DE) is an excellent way to remove pests from the soil. It kills ants and other soft-bodied pests in the soil. Sprinkle DE in the soil and just watch the regular soil pests disappearing. Of course, you would have to keep repeating the sprinkling process regularly for it to work.
Tilling the soil regularly and exposing it to sunlight and air will also help in making the soil resistant to pests. Typically, pests living in soil love moist and dark places. So, regular tilling helps to expose the pests and make the soil unattractive to them. While you are tilling, remove soft, moist organic matter from the soil, as they provide an ideal living environment for slugs. If you want to mulch soil, use hard mulch, such as straw or wood chippings.
Crop rotation has been practiced for centuries in pastoral societies. There was a reason for this. By rotating crops and changing the place where they were planted, farmers used to reduce the chances of pest infestations and decrease soil-borne pathogens. This is one tip as a gardening enthusiast that you should use regularly. Rotating plants and vegetables in your garden will also give the soil time to replenish its nutrients. Soil with right levels of nutrients facilitates growth of healthy plants, which are more resistant to pests.
Some people also attract beneficial animals and insects in their gardens to manage pests. Attracting toads, ladybugs and lacewings will help control pests on plants as well as in the soil, thereby making the soil more pest resistant. You can get these beneficial insects from a garden supply center in your neighborhood.