Pests And Diseases
Healthy plants can best withstand disease and insect pressure. Organic growers also try to mimic and work with natural ecosystems to deflect problems by avoiding monoculture, choosing planting times judiciously, nurturing paradisiacal hedgerows where beneficial insects may flourish, and creating strains of tomato impervious to late blight in meticulously designed on-farm breeding programs. If you do all this perfectly, we promise you will never need to touch a pesticide.
Sometimes, despite all your best-laid plans, some aspect of management falls through the cracks and problems arise that may threaten your pantry or your livelihood. Do not despair.