Controlling the Issue
How to approach issues in the garden
Generally, the presence of plant problems will require one of two approaches:
Minimal Intervention
If only a few plant parts are infected, you can dispose of those parts and the disease/pest may be easily managed. The issue may still be around, and you can try adjusting your environment to reduce it, but it remains manageable by monitoring and removal of infected tissue. Use a clean pair of scissors or pruner to remove the tissue – don’t just pluck it off or you may bruise the plant. You may find that you can control pests by simply squishing bugs, dabbing with rubbing alcohol on a q-tip, or using sticky traps to capture them. Try to correct any environmental conditions that are leading to problems.
Significant Intervention
It’s too late to just remove a few leaves or a few plants, the disease, pest, or condition seems to be taking over. In the case of a pest issue, check the recommendations on the Top Controls for Pests page. If you have a disease issue, you will need to cut away all of the infected plant material. If your condition is environmental, restore your garden to favourable conditions. Be sure to check out the specific advice for watch issue under the Diagnosis the Issue page. If your issue worsens, you may need to salvage as much as you can, throw out the rest, and determine what was wrong with your environment in the first place that led to disease, disorder, or pest.
Small Problem
- Ensure favourable growing conditions.
- Do nothing drastic & keep monitoring.
- Remove infected plant parts.
Big Problem
- Try to diagnose issues with the environment, pest, or disease.
- Correct problems with the growing environment.
- Use soap spray with repeated treatment.
- Discard or isolate infected plants.
- Submit an LGT help ticket or contact your local coordinator.
Top Controls for Garden Pests
One advantage to growing indoors is that pests are less likely to find your garden. Most often, pests will be brought into your classroom through other plants or in potting soil, especially if it has been stored outdoors. Once a pest has established in your garden, you can use the following controls. Remember, discard weakened plant materials on a regular basis and place sticky traps in your garden as a warning bell for pest infestation. Act on pest issues immediately!
Rule of Thumb
Prepare for repeated treatment of pests. Each method of controlling garden pests typically targets a particular stage in the pest’s life cycle. For example, if your method targets the adult pest, you will need to keep applying the treatment until all of the existing eggs have matured into adults.
Squish or dab with rubbing alcohol
Effective for mealy bugs and aphids. If your infestation of aphids or mealybugs is small, you may be able to simply squish them, or dab the bugs with a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol. Be sure to wipe off the eggs from the underside of leaves. Be very careful with rubbing alcohol as it can damage some plants. You want to rise plants immediately after the treatment.
Vacuum pests away
Effective for all pests. Simply use your handheld vacuum or vacuum cleaner hose attachment to suck up whiteflies every few days. Make sure that any newly hatched whiteflies can’t escape from your vacuum bag. Seal the bag when finished and leave in your freezer if available for 24 hours. Be gentle with your plant.
Sticky Tape
Effective for aphids, whiteflies, thrips and fungus gnats. Purchase sticky tape from garden stores or make your own with yellow cardboard and petroleum jelly. Pests are attracted to the colour yellow, which looks like a mass of new foliage and get stuck in the jelly, and die. Simply coat your yellow card or paper surface with petroleum jelly and place in your garden.
Soap Spray
Effective for mealy bugs, aphids, whiteflies and fungus gnats. Make your own soap spray by using dish soap and vegetable oil or pure castile soap. Mix 1 teaspoon dish soap/vegetable oil or 1 teaspoon of pure castile soap per litre of water and increasing concentration as necessary. Spray on plants, especially undersides of leaves. This method only kills the adult insect, so apply every 3-4 days until infestation is gone.
Trim infested or damaged leaves
Effective for all pests. If your plant is heavily infested, you will want to trim as much as you can without injuring the plant. This will help get the infestation under control faster by eliminating many of the nymphs and eggs. Make sure to properly dispose of the diseased leaves by burning them or sealing them into an airtight bag and throwing in the garbage.
Specific Tips for Fungus Gnats
Fungus gnats are attracted to wet soils that are high in organic matter and lay their eggs on the soil surface. In addition to the control advice here, you can use the tips below to battle your fungus gnat problem!
Replace top soil in container. If you still see an issue with fungus gnats in your garden, try removing the top inch of soil from your containers. Replace this with fresh, clean potting mix.
Let soil dry out for several days. Fungus gnat larvae live in the top few inches of soil. When the soil dries out, they will die. After that, ensure you are only watering into the bottom reservoirs of Earthbox/Growbox or that you let other containers dry out between watering.
Sand on the soil surface. Try spreading a ½ inch layer of dry sand or diatomaceous earth over your soil to discourage eggs hatching.
Consider re-potting your plants. If you are still seeing a problem, try re-potting your plants if this is possible in your situation. Discard your infected soil, trim any infected areas of your plants and then re-pot.
Still Stumped?
After going through the steps above, are you still scratching your head? Submit a help ticket to your coordinator for extra support!