Field sanitation
1. Use sterilized or diseased-free seeds for sowing.
2. Properly select healthy plants for transplanting.
3. Keep weeds under control at all times. Keep the surroundings of your farm free of weeds, unless they are maintained and intended as habitat for natural enemies.
4. Make yourself 'clean'. Always bear in mind that you might be the carrier of the pests while you move from one plant to another.
5. Pull plants that are heavily infected with insect pests and those that are showing heavy symptoms of disease infection.
6. Prune the plant parts where insect pests are found congregating and those that are showing heavy symptoms of disease infection.
7. Properly dispose all the infested plants. Do not put them on compost pile.
8. Plow-under the crop residues and organic mulches. This improves the soil condition and helps disrupt the pest's lifecycle. The pest is exposed to extreme temperature, mechanical injury, and predators.
9. Maintain cleanliness on the irrigation canals.
10. When possible, remove all the crop residues after harvest. Add these to your compost pile.
11. Make your own compost. Your compost pile is where you can place your plant trimmings and other plant debris.
12. Clean your farm tools. Wash plows, harrows, shovels, pruning gears after use. Lightly oil pruning gears.
Comments for REVIEW
mh, 16.6.09 Would be nice to include close-up of photographs so that the pattern of disease on leaves is visible. Maybe also include image of whitefly somewhere and if possible of castor bean. Kindly exchange technical word through something a bit simpler (symptoms: distortion, axillary, de-topping, clones) or explain. Are the varieties promoted without GM?