Keeping fruits, veggies and ornamentals safe from hungry bugs, invasive weeds, and the potential downsides of pesticides and fertilizers — it matters everywhere, of course, but it really matters in New York City’s watershed among the streams and rivers feeding into the reservoirs that provide safe drinking water to millions of people in metro-New York.
When you marry safety from hungry pests with watershed safety, basically you’re talking IPM. Which is why the Watershed Agricultural Council is hosting a workshop for farmers and greenhouse growers at Hilltop Hanover Farm & Environment Center — tomorrow, May 21. Register here.
Learn core tenets: how to ID pests so you don’t have to guess at solutions — and how to scout so you can monitor whether they’ve reached threshold or not. And if (not when!) they do, learn how to use and conserve beneficials — the natural enemies that help you keep pests under control. Learn too how to keep plants optimally healthy so they shrug off pests and how to chose the least-toxic remedies should pests get the upper hand.
No matter if you farm conventionally or organically — IPM works for you.