Local Fruit Share
While Chris & Eve do grow organic strawberries and rhubarb, the majority of our fruit comes from Garden of Eve’s neighbors, Briermere Farm. Unfortunately, our climate makes it nearly impossible to grow organic plums, peaches, apples, cherries, and pears. Despite these harsh realities, in reverence to the environment, Briermere Farm employs Integrated Pest Management (IPM), otherwise know as “low-spray”, farming with techniques that are both effective and lean more towards environmental friendly farming.
IPM is a pest control strategy that uses an array of complementary methods: natural predators and parasites, pest-resistant varieties, cultural practices, biological controls, various physical techniques, and the strategic use of pesticides. It is an ecological approach that can significantly reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides.
An IPM system is designed around six basic components:
- Acceptable pest levels: The emphasis is on control, not eradication. IPM holds that wiping out an entire pest population is often impossible, and the attempt can be more costly, environmentally unsafe, and all-round counterproductive than it is worth. Better to decide on what constitutes acceptable pest levels, and apply controls if those levels are exceeded.
- Preventive cultural practices: Selecting varieties best for local growing conditions, and maintaining healthy crops, is the first line of defense.
- Monitoring: Regular observation is the cornerstone of IPM. Visual inspection, insect traps, and other measurement methods are used to monitor pest levels. Record-keeping is essential, as is a thorough knowledge of the behavior and reproductive cycles of target pests.
- Mechanical controls: Should a pest reach an unacceptable level, mechanical methods are the first options to consider. They include simple hand-picking, erecting insect barriers, using traps, vacuuming, and tillage to disrupt breeding.
- Biological controls: Natural biological processes and materials can provide control, with minimal environmental impact, and often at low cost. The main focus here is on promoting beneficial insects that eat target pests.
- Chemical controls: Synthetic pesticides are generally only used as required and often only at specific times in a pests life cycle. Biological insecticides, derived from plants or naturally occurring microorganisms fit in this category.