Video: Row Covers for Insect Control in the Vegetable Garden
As you know, I am committed to gardening organically. Row covers are one of the tools in my arsenal against damaging insects in our vegetable garden. So that is the topic for this week’s video.
What I love about them is that I don’t have to use any sprays at all — not even organic ones. The main concept behind row covers is that they act as a physical barrier to keep certain insects off crops.
The most important thing you need to remember is to cover the susceptible crops as soon as you plant them. Insects are sneaky, and if you delay that process, they’ll take advantage of it!
What’s in this video about row covers?
- The 3 types of row covers I’ve used (bridal veil netting, floating row cover, and agricultural insect netting)
- What they look like and their pros and cons
- Why I don’t use bridal veil netting anymore
- The insects that I use row covers for in our garden. Those are primarily aphids, cabbage worms and leafminers.
- How to use the covers
- The types of crops that row covers aren’t practical for
- Where to find them
Special note: During the video, I demonstrated our hinged row covers that work great for raised beds. I am the author of the best-selling book called “The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook.” In addition to the information about both damaging and beneficial insects, there’s a chapter on DIY pest control projects.
One of them is for making hinged row covers, which has been really popular with gardeners. Bill and I initially used floating row cover for the project because that’s all that was available at the time.
However, I finally found a source for agricultural insect netting not long after that. (it figures, right?) So we decided to swap the floating row cover on them for ag netting. And furthermore, we made some modifications to the covers about a year ago. I wrote a blog post about the process and wanted to give you the link to it. Here it is: Agricultural Insect Netting Update.
But to sum things up, agricultural insect netting is my favorite row cover. Why? It’s durable, the holes are tiny (even aphids can’t get in!) and you can easily see through it.
Here’s the link to my “Use Row Covers for Insect Control” video:
Did you find my video helpful? Do you have additional questions? Just drop me an email at Susan@SusansintheGarden.com. Here’s a direct link to my YouTube channel. Did you know I’ve shot a lot of videos about dealing with insects? Here’s a link to the Insect Videos playlist, so you can pick and choose what you’d like to watch.