Learn Horticultural Methods of Plant Protection
In this course you learn how to identify diseases, insects and weeds, understand their life-cycles, and choose methods of control including chemical and non-chemical means.
The main ways of controlling pests and diseases are as follows:
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Sanitation - maintaining good hygiene
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Physical control methods e.g. mowing, slashing, burning, flooding, hand removal, physical barriers (ie. netting, fences), etc.
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Using plant varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases
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Biological controls
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Chemical controls (artificial and naturally derived).
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Soil drenches/dips
This course takes a 'holistic' approach, giving appropriate consideration to all of these methods without bias toward any particular ones. Upon completion, students will have a great insight into how to tackle commonly encountered problems. Knowledge gained is of value for pest, disease and weed control regardless of to where you live in the world.
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
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Introduction - scientific names, terms, diagnosing problems.
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Control Techniques - natural & chemical.
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Chemicals - characteristics.
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Identifying Diseases - symptoms, fungi and viruses, and other pathogens.
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Disease Control - life cycle of fungi.
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Insect Classification and biology.
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Insect Control - how to control pests.
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Other Pests - nematodes, snails, millipedes.
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Weed Identification and chemical control.
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Non-chemical Weed Control
Aims
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Identify the broad category which a plant health problem belongs to.
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Explain a range of methods for controlling plant problems.
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Select appropriate chemical pesticides for different problems.
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Identify the symptoms of different plant diseases, including most common and some uncommon problems, in your locality.
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Develop procedures to control specific plant diseases.
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Identify different insects, including significant taxonomic orders, common pest species, and some less common pest species
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Determine appropriate methods to control different types of insects.
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Identify different non-insect pests found in the learner's locality.
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Determine appropriate control methods for different non-insect pests.
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Identify different non-insect pests found in the learner's locality.
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Determine appropriate control methods for different non-insect pests.
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Manage the control of different types of weed problems.
There are a variety of ways to control pests and diseases.
Chemicals will normally kill pests and diseases effectively, but there can be problems if you don't use the right chemical or the right method. There is also considerable concern by many that the chemicals used pose an unacceptable health risk to humans, in particular, and the environment, in general. Other ways of controlling pests and diseases rarely give the complete control that chemicals do. They can also be expensive or time-consuming to use.
The preferred option these days is usually to use a combination of control techniques which has the following advantages:
- Nothing is overused to the detriment of the environment or to the extent that pests become accustomed to it and build up a resistance to that particular method.
- Each different technique weakens the pest or disease that little bit more. The overall effect is a better control.
- Expensive controls (e.g. some costly chemicals) are only used in limited quantities, keeping costs down.
This idea of using a combination of different control techniques which each contribute to the overall control is sometimes called "IPM" or "Integrated Pest Management."
WHY STUDY THIS COURSE?
Plants are prone to a range of pests and diseases whether they are grown as crops or ornamental plants. Not only do they have to fend off these invaders but they also have to compete with other plants for air, nutrients and water. Whichever environment plants are grown in, they can be helped to overcome these problems through good techniques and strategies of management. In this course students learn about a range of different pests, diseases and disorders of plants, and how to tackle them. They also learn about weeds and how to identify and remove them. This is an ideal introductory course which covers a range of problems.
This course is suited to people working in:
- Garden maintenance
- Parks & gardens
- Landscaping
- Garden restoration
- Nurseries
- Garden centres
- Greenhouses
