10 tips for companion planting for natural pest control and organic sustainability

Companion planting for pest control and to encourage plants to grow with more vigor has fascinated men for centuries; however, few backyard gardeners know how to use these natural methods for organic sustainability and how to improve your garden. Plants that work together to help one another grow; plants that repel insects for organic pest management; and plants that repel other plants for natural herbicide control are of great value to both small backyard gardeners and commercial growers.
Certain protective botanicals don’t always act instantaneously, and must be planted several years or seasons in advance to be of utmost cumulative effect. For example, companion planting pest control using marigolds to prevent nematode growth should be done at least one season ahead before expecting to see great results.

It’s important to remember that both secretions and odors from various plants are valuable traits for organic pest control and companion planting where repelling or attracting certain aspects and effects is attempted.

Ten easy companion planting tips for to use now

Companion planting for chemical free pesticides and organic sustainability is a huge subject that can take years to master; however, there are a few easy things you can do in your own garden right now to make use of this intriguing method of gardening.

1. Protect carrots by planting them with leeks to repel both carrot and onion flies. They won’t even lay their eggs and your yield will increase tremendously.

2. Growing radishes or kohlrabi? Plant them with lettuce to repel earth flies that hate the smell of lettuce and make them take flight.

3. Aphids will injure almost all plants, causing headaches for gardeners everywhere. To repel aphids, plant nasturiums around broccoli and bunches of chives among sunflowers and tomatoes to discourage infestations.

4. Ladybugs are natural enemies to aphids and are excellent for use in organic pest management. Order ladybugs in bulk online or buy them from gardening centers. If you’re wondering how to improve your garden and reduce the aphid population, this is one of the most effective methods of doing so.

5. Asparagus and tomatoes complement one another and improve the vigor of both plants. Place a row of asparagus between two rows of tomato plants.

6. Beans and potatoes work in concert for organic pest control. Planting bush beans with potatoes in alternating rows protects the spuds from the Colorado potato beetle and the beans from the Mexican bean beetle.

7. Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables belonging to the cabbage family do well when companion planted with celery, dill, peppermint, sage and rosemary; as well as potatoes, onions and beets.

8. Repel moles around a vegetable garden with a border of castor beans; mice with a border of daffodils; and yarrow makes a wonderful boarder for an herb garden as it encourages the growth of essential oils in the herbs.

9. Remember that companion planting for pest control includes keeping those cute little rabbits out of the garden. Onions repel rabbits and can be inter-planted with peas, beans, lettuce and cabbage.

10. If your garden attracts raccoons, plant corn and pumpkins together so that the large pumpkin leaves grow around the base of the corn stalks. Cayenne pepper sprinkled on the corn silk will also act as a deterrent.

Because some plants are poisonous, it’s important to keep unattended young children away from the garden. Natural organic pest control may be a complex subject; however, there are many simple things you can do in to improve your garden for increased vegetable yield and organic sustainability.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companion_planting

http://www.seedsofchange.com

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/companion-planting.html

Riotte, Louise. Carrots Love Tomatoes. Charlotte: Garden Way Publishing, 1975

Mayer, Dale. The Complete Guide to Companion Planting: Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Garden Successful (Back-To-Basics Gardening). OcalaL: Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 2010

About the author:
READ MORE OF JEAN (JB) BARDOT’S ARTICLES AT THE FOLLOWING LINKS:

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JB Bardot is an herbalist and a classical homeopath, and has a post graduate degree in holistic nutrition. Bardot cares for both people and animals, using alternative approaches to health care and lifestyle. She writes about wellness, green living, alternative medicine, holistic nutrition, homeopathy, herbs and naturopathic medicine. You can find her at The JB Bardot Archives at www.jbbardot.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jbbardot23 or on Twitter at jbbardot23 or https://twitter.com/jbbardot23

Source of Article is Natural News, article published for only information purpose.

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Pakistan participates in Fruit Logistica-2014 Fair in Berlin

As many as 13 Pakistani companies participated in the world's leading international fresh produce trade fair, Fruit Logistica-2014, this year in Berlin that ended on Saturday. Pakistani exhibitors were optimistic of substantial increase in export of fresh produce from Pakistan as they made good contacts with the international buyers of fruit and vegetable products.
Buyers from Russia showed keen interest in Pakistani potatoes whereas Pakistani mangoes have also made inroads into EU market with increase in shelf life through better processing technology and other corrective measures. Earlier, Pakistan Ambassador to Germany Abdul Basit visited Pakistan Pavilion along with Commercial Counsellor, Dr Erfa Iqbal and met with Pakistani exhibitors.
He also held a meeting with the delegation of mango growers and exporters of Pakistan, who put up their stalls under the umbrella of UNIDO and the USAID. Both the organisations are running projects of increasing income through improvement of quality and better yield and generating additional employment's in the major mango-growing areas of South Punjab and Northern Sind.
The Ambassador said the world's leading trade fair provides great opportunity for promotion, development and marketing of fresh fruit and vegetable products. He emphasised the need of intensive interaction between farmers and exporters to up-grade the quality and increase yield of fresh products. He said there is a growing market for Pakistani fruits, especially mangoes and Kinnow/mandarin. Pakistani exporters should give due importance to fruit processing and packaging for longer preservation of these perishable products, he added.
He urged the traders to spend sufficient amount of their income on research and development, which is essential to keep pace with the ever changing market trends. The exhibitors expressed their satisfaction over the arrangements made by the Commercial Section of the Pakistan Embassy and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. About 2,566 including 2,311 foreign exhibitors from 84 countries presented a comprehensive overview of all levels of fruit and vegetable production and marketing and more than 58,000 trade visitors from 130 countries visited the exhibition and made business contacts besides a large number of general public/end consumers.

Source: Business Recorder

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GMO challenges: Ministry asked to call crucial meeting

The Federal Law Ministry has finally given a ruling, asking Climate Change Ministry to convene a meeting of National Bio-Safety Committee for granting approval to the long-awaited 15 Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) of cotton varieties for commercialisation, sources revealed.

Well-placed sources revealed to Business Recorder that Textile division had approached Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the reportedly delaying tactics by the Climate Change Ministry for convening a meeting of NBC.

Prime Minister on January 16, 2014 constituted a committee comprising Secretary Textile division, Secretary Law and Secretary Climate Change and directed them to hold a meeting within 10 days for resolving the issue. The committee met last week and Law division gave a ruling asking for convening a meeting of NBC to grant approval for commercialisation of cotton seeds, sources maintained.

Certified cotton seed was becoming a serious issue as no BT certified cotton seed would be available for cultivation for the upcoming crop season due to non-approval of GMO cotton varieties by NBC which might encourage the seed-mafia, besides negatively impacting commodity production, official maintained.

Official sources revealed that Pakistan being a signatory to the international Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety had to regulate GMO through establishing a Bio-safety system in the country. NBC and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA) have responsibility to evaluate, regulate and monitor GMO for lab or field research and their commercial scale production or marketing in the country.

The NBC had not held its meeting since February 2011, which had delayed the regulatory process required to test and approve GMOs crops, said sources, adding that applications submitted by various public and private sectors organisations seeking approval of different GMO crops were yet to be reviewed by the NBC.

Currently only transgenic crop commercially cultivated in Pakistan is cotton and eight BT varieties and one cotton Hybrid were approved by Punjab Seed Council (PSC) in April 2010 and commercialisation certificate was granted by NBC. In February 2012, PSC provisionally approved eight BT varieties (Tarzen-1, MNH-886, NS-141, FH-114, IR-NIBGE-3, CIM-598, Sitara-009, A-One) subject to the grant of commercialisation certificate from the NBC and TAC had to clear cases before consideration in NBC, sources maintained.

BT cotton varieties in Pakistan, which were granted certificate for three years (now expired) included IR-3701, Neelum-121, FH-113, Sitara-008, MG-6, Ali Akbar-703, Ali Akbar 802, IR-1524 and GN Hybrid-2085. BT cotton varieties waiting for commercialisation certificate included Tarzen-1, VH-259, MNH-886, BH-178, NS-141, CIM-599, FH-114, CIM-602, IR-NIBGE-3, FH-118, CIM-598, FH-142, Sitara 009, IR-NIBGE-824, A-One IUB-222, Sayaban-201, Sitara-11M, A-555, KZ-181, Tarzan-2 and CA-12.

Source: Business Recorder

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