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Remember being a kid? You'd see a cool bug, watch it walk around for a while, and maybe catch it and put it in a jar? Or, perhaps you were the type to say "Ick!" and squish it? As you begin to grow plants, you will inevitably attract insects. Insects love plants. And plants, for the most part, love insects.
Insects use plants as apartment buildings, factories, and restaurants. They build homes. The nibble. They gather pollen. You'll find all sorts of bees, big and small, hovering around certain flowers. You'll find spiders making webs between leaves in your garden. You might see a catapillar find a place to settle in and become a butterfly.
Plants benefit from insects. They need insects to help them reproduce and bear fruit. You'll never see a flower swat a bee for coming too close.
My general advice for the insects in your garden is to let them be. Enjoy them. Make friends with them. Look at them up close and marvel at their colors and shapes. Sure, you may come across an occasional insect that acts like a real pest, but even so, why not sit back and watch them do what they do? You can learn a lot from simply paying attention. I've let caterpillars, for example, devour a licorice plant. The plant looked pretty bad while they were feasting, but once they curled up in their cocoons, the leaves all came back.
Whitefly is one insect that gets out of control. You'll find little white bugs under leaves that fly up and scatter when you get close to them. There are millions of ways to deal with them, but we are black thumb gardeners. Admit defeat immediately and put the infested plant away from others. (You can try to get rid of them later, with additional study, after you graduate...) Or if you want to try to control the problem, buy a natural bug killer containing pyrethrins (a plant extract) and spray the infested plant like there's no tomorrow. Do this once every few days for a couple weeks, and you should be able keep the white flies down to a dull roar.
Diseases are another matter. Like humans and animals, plants get sick for a variety of reasons. Maybe they haven't been getting enough nutrients. Perhaps it has been an especially wet season, or other adverse conditions weakened the plants resistance. You might be doing everything right (sun, dirt, water... remember?), but the leaves turn yellow and fall off. What to do?
Black-thumbers don't have the energy to deal with diseases effectively, and we really don't want to go through that much trouble just for a plant, right? But we still feel bad that our little green friend is ailing. There are a few things you can try.
First, move it away from other plants. This will prevent it from spreading to your other plants, and perhaps the change will do it good.
Second, watch the plant and take note of its symptoms. We've already discussed talking to other gardeners and searching the web for answers, so if you get a good list of symptoms you might be able to do some research and find a simple solution. Is the disease causing the leaves to change color? Does the plant look deformed? Are there any bumps or strange looking growths? These are the clues that will help you identify the disease. You may not be able to save this plant, but you can use what you learn to prevent the problem in the future.
Finally, don't bother with miracle cures and try to avoid buying plants that have been grown in factory-like greenhouses. Almost all of the diseased plants I have come across have been store-bought. I don't think it is the store's fault, but something about growing them unnaturally, packaging, and shipping them long distances causes the plants great stress and seems to increase the chances of disease.
Insects and diseases are a part of growing plants and it is in your interest to expect them, welcome them as opportunities to learn, and learn to minimize the damage to other, more healthy plants.
Lesson 9: It Really Wasn't Your Fault
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