Third level Certification

We protect the environment at camp by gardening without pesticides. 

Because plants use their leaves to capture the sun's energy, the leaves need to be stretched out, green, and moist.  Unfortunately, bugs like to eat plant leaves.  That makes the leaves curl up, turn brown and dry out.  So what can we do to keep the bugs off our plants so our leaves will stay healthy?

Our first defense is water.  A wilting plant is a dying plant and dying plants get bugs.  We water this garden just a few minutes everyday -- to keep the bugs away! 
Water - 100% natural, most effective pest control!

Leaves that touch the ground often get disease and bugs.  These plants lean on string tied to T-frames, to keep their leaves off the ground.  We use scissors to prune away any leaves that still touch the ground and the lower leaves as they naturally die.  Those are the first leaves that get bugs.  We could spray the plants with insecticide and it would kill the bugs but it would kill the good bugs like bees and ladybugs, too. Pruning the leaves is a safer option for us and the environment.   

To help us decide what to prune off we need to step back and look at the whole plant.  What matters most is the top 3/4 of the plant.
As long as the top is still healthy, the plant will continue to grow and produce.

This is how the leaves should look, a rich green color.

These are the ones we cut off.  These kinds of leaves attract bugs which then get on the good leaves, damaging the plant's ability to produce food.

Once we've removed the bad leaves then we remove any suckers.  Suckers are actually whole tomato plants, growing on our tomato plant.  They suck up the energy our plants need to produce fruit. 

To find the suckers we need to understand the parts of our tomato plants.  The very top of the plant is called a growing tip.  It looks like a little bouquet of brand new, tiny, leaves.  We don't remove the growing tip. 

This is a sucker.  Notice how much it looks like the very top of the plant.  We could actually cut off the sucker and root it in pot of moist soil and it would make another whole tomato plant.

Suckers are a problem because there are so many.  A sucker will form everywhere there is a branch.  Not only that, but if a sucker is allowed to grow, it will make another whole plant which will also have suckers!  If we didn't prune the suckers from this plant, there could be as many as 144!  I've often heard people say, "I have a lot of tomato plant, but I don't have any tomatoes."  To which I say, "Your plant doesn't have the energy to make fruit because it's supporting too many green leaves. 

So we remove the suckers.

Picture from lessnoice-moregreen.com 

Suckers form in the inside elbow where a branch of leaves join the main stem.  This is the ideal size to pinch off the suckers.  

Pruning suckers is like cutting hair.  We don't just start cutting.  We need to stand back and consider the whole plant.  We start at the ground to find the main stem.  Then we follow it all the way to top to find the growing tip.  Can you find the growing tip?  Do you see the blossoms and the suckers?  They are marked in the next picture. 

Did you find them?

Can you find the tall sucker?  HINT: Start at the bottom of the picture and find the main stem then follow it to the growing tip.

By starting at the bottom and following the main stem, it's easier to see when the main stem bends to the left.

Can you find the small sucker on this plant?  HINT: Follow the main stem.  When you think you've found it, check to see if it has a white ring around the base. 

There it is?

Can you find the suckers?  HINT:  There are two, one is very tall and one is small.

On this plant it helps to look for the thick main stem.  Then look for the branches and to see if the suckers have the white ring around the base and the 'stuck in' look.  Before I cut the sucker off, I check again to make sure the growing tip is healthy.  
Sometimes, the growing tip breaks accidentally.  If that happens, I let a sucker become my new growing tip.  That is why I always check the growing tip before I remove the sucker. If a plant doesn't have a growing tip it will stop growing.   

 One caution:  Identify the blossoms.  They look a little like a sucker except they don't grow out of the elbow of the branch.  They usually grow in the middle of the main stem or in the middle of branch.  The blooms are where the tomatoes will grow so we need them to have fruit.  See the blooms in the picture below.  

If you would like to watch pruning being done, this is a helpful video by LDSPrepper (David Gilmore). 



By pruning instead of using insecticide, we are protecting the environment.