Going Organic Your Questions Part Two

In part 2 of the FAQ’s about organic gardening, we will look at 4 more of your questions:

Why are chemicals SO bad?

Do I have to plant special seeds?

What about pest control?

Is ‘No Dig Gardening’ the same as organic gardening?

Why are chemical SO Bad?
The chemicals that have been used for decades are man-made, they are designed to either feed the plants or to kill pests and weeds.

Lets look at chemical pest control, it does what the manufactures says it does on the label: KILLS. The problem here is it’s indiscriminate and so not only wipes out the ‘pest problem’ but also kills anything else in the near vicinity, and that includes the ‘good guys’ which are the beneficial insects.

What happens next is, exactly what you don’t want to happen, MORE unwanted pests move in because they don’t have any predators (the good guys) to keep them in check.

No competition and the baddies are there to stay. So you have a cycle of events in which the only solution is once you start spraying with chemicals you have to continue and eventually you will have to use stronger and stronger chemicals as the unwanted pests build up resistance.

Commercial seed manufactures now make hybrid seeds that can be sown directly into a paddock that has been recently treated with a very strong make of chemical weed killer.

Chemical commercial fertilisers consist of man-made nutrients, and they may replace the chemical elements needed for plant growth, but what they fail to do is replace the organic matter. Organic matter is an important element in creating the living environment for the microflora which works in the soil to provide food for the plants. It is said for every hectare farmed for maize in the United States treble the equivalent area is lost every year of top soil.

Chemical fertilisers also alter the soils natural pH which results in the formation of man made compounds which may help the plant in the short term but in the long term it is toxic to many soil organisms and will eventually kill them and the environment in which they live.

Do I have to plant special seeds?
No, but it would be a good idea to use organic seeds, as these seeds will be from a generation of plants and vegetables ‘used to’ organic principles and methods of growing, As I mentioned in ( part one LINK) the pivotal difference between non organic and organic is mainly to do with the feeding of the plants and vegetables.

And to switch from non-organic gardening to organic requires a period of time for the non-organic raised plants to establish a new feeding routine, the same will apply with seeds saved from a non-organically raised plant, you may find you need to ‘feed’ them with fertiliser teas for a while.

There are two types of seed and seedling:
Hybrid: These have been ‘bred’ to produce bigger harvests, earlier and have disease resistance, but their seed will not produce ‘true’ which means the next generation will be different to its parents. This could be in size, shape etc.
Heirloom: These are the ‘what you see is what you get’ guys, they are usually very old varieties which have been saved and passed from one generation to another with no changes from the original parent plant.
They grow slower that hybrids and contain unusual shapes, sizes and a few lumps and bumps which have be specifically bred out in hybrid seeds. But the do have intense superior flavours than hybrids (and once tasted you will never buy a hybrid seed again!) and their seed can be continued to saved for generations to come.

What about pest control?
The principle of organic pest control is to create an environment where ALL insects, animals etc are doing and living as nature intended. Plants produce their own chemicals to fight pests and diseases, nature created predators eat pests.

The main aim here is to revert your garden back to nature and build up equal populations of the range of pests and predators. You need pests for food for the predators, they in return will keep your plants healthy and the eco-system of your piece of paradise will be in equilibrium.

Is ‘No Dig’ Gardening the same as Organic Gardening?
‘No dig’ gardening has been made famous by it’s pioneer Sydney gardener Esther Dean in 1970’s which is basically a garden above ground made up of layers of organic matter that rot down into a nutrient-rich living soil.

It’s now an essential ingredient for organic gardening, because, every time you ‘dig’ your soil you mix up important layers and destroy air pockets and kill the army of workers that break down organic material to make food for the roots.

After this disturbance it takes 7 days for the soil layers to re-establish themselves and even longer for the army of workers to re-group in the area, so you can see the logic behind the ‘No Dig’ method.

To work a no dig regime, you simple pull out ‘spent’ plants and sow seeds or seedlings into the disturbed soil. Simple, easy and convenient. For more information please visit the ‘No Dig’ post. LINK

Related posts:

1. Going Organic Your Questions Part One Organic produce, like fruit and vegetables have become big business,...