Plant Protection

THE MAIN WAYS OF CONTROLLING PESTS OR DISEASES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

• Sanitation - maintaining good hygiene
• Physical control methods e.g. mowing, slashing, burning, flooding, hand removal, physical barriers (ie. netting, fences), etc.
• Using plant varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases
• Biological controls
• Chemical controls (artificial and naturally derived).
• Soil drenches/dips

This course takes a "wholistic approach, giving appropriate consideration to all of these "methods", without bias toward any particular method

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction - scientific names, terms, diagnosing problems.
2. Control Techniques - natural & chemical.
3. Chemicals - characteristics.
4. Identifying Diseases - symptoms, fungi and viruses, and other pathogens.
5. Disease Control - life cycle of fungi.
6. Insect Classification and biology.
7. Insect Control - how to control pests.
8. Other Pests - nematodes, snails, millipedes.
9. Weed Identification and chemical control.
10. Non-chemical Weed Control

Aims

• Identify the broad category which a plant health problem belongs to.
• Explain a range of methods for controlling plant problems.
• Select appropriate chemical pesticides for different problems.
• Identify the symptoms of different plant diseases, including most common and some uncommon problems, in your locality.
• Develop procedures to control specific plant diseases.
• Identify different insects, including significant taxonomic orders, common pest species, and some less common pest species
• Determine appropriate methods to control different types of insects.
• Identify different non-insect pests found in the learner's locality.
• Determine appropriate control methods for different non-insect pests.
• Identify different non-insect pests found in the learner's locality.
• Determine appropriate control methods for different non-insect pests.
• Manage the control of different types of weed problems.

How to Control Garden Pest and Disease

To control pest and diseases naturally there are four methods to consider:

1. Cultural Controls

• the methods you use to grow plants

2. Physical Controls

• methods which physically interfere with pests or diseases

3. Sprays or Dusts

• natural products which control pests or diseases without having any undesirable side effects

4. Biological Controls

• where other organisms control the pest or disease buy such means as
• directly attacking the problem
• by repelling it
• or by attracting or luring pests to a place where they can be easily trapped or collected, and then easily destroyed or removed elsewhere

• Improve your skills as a horticulture professional
• Give you confidence as a  professional gardener
• Work as a pest and disease control contractor
• Improve your garden and gardening skills
• Help designers in better plant selection
• Help nursery professionals improve the quality of the plants they produce

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