For many people, the idea of dousing their veggie gardens with chemical pesticides or fertilizers is akin to dousing their nightly salad, children playing nearby and their companion animals with toxic sludge. Other individuals practicing organic gardening/farming may be looking for a compassionate way to deal with insects interested in their crops. So what do you do when the white flies take up camp in your kale patch?
Keeping bugs out of your garden begins from the ground up. Soil is a living substance and, like all living substances, needs to be respected and nourished. Strong soil equals strong plants, and strong plants are better able to protect themselves against insects. Just as we are what we eat, so are plants. When we cultivate the soil year after year, it can become depleted and the malnourished plants grown in this soil not only fail to wow at the county fair, they attract bugs.
There are a myriad of natural ways to revive depleted soil and deter insects, but the garden supplement we’re discussing today is so simple and miraculous it is too small to be seen by the naked eye: Effective Microorganisms.
Effective Microorganisms (EM), is a trademarked term for a specific blend of naturally-occurring beneficial microorganisms discovered by Professor Teruo Higa around 1980 at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan.
EM is easiest to describe as a probiotic for your soil. The mixture sold today usually consists of a blend of lactic acid bacteria, photorophic bacteria and yeast. These beneficial bacteria work in harmony to crowd out bad bacteria and bugs by creating a barrier around the plant along with improving the soil quality and nutrients available to your plants. It’s a composting catalyst, an insect deterrent and a natural fertilizer all in one.
NB: Lactic acid bacteria in EM is not dairy-derived. It’s a naturally-occurring bacteria, and is vegan in origin. To be sure that your EM supplier isn’t adding non-vegan ingredients, read the label thoroughly and call the company if needed. When researching this article, we called the company EM Hawaii, who verified that their EM is a vegan product. EM Hawaii also informed me that EM is not only beneficial in the garden, but it can be used as a probiotic for humans and companion animals as well.
Gentle World has been using a Bokashi starter (usually consisting of wheatgerm hulls, EM and molasses) instead of using EM activated in water. The Bokashi is sprinkled lightly around the base of young plants, especially after transplanting, followed by two handfuls of compost dirt and then a good watering over everything.
This is repeated once or twice over a course of the first three weeks of plant growth, depending on the species of plants and the conditions of the soil at the time. After that, veganic fertilizers are used as needed, with and without the aid of the EM-inoculated Bokashi, depending on weather, compost availability and the season’s insect activity.
Bokashi does not like being left out in the air, so covering it in compost dirt and watering after treatment is very important. Covering the Bokashi in compost also gives the EM more nutrients to break down and make available to your plants. Many organic gardeners and farmers use EM sprays directly on foliage, mixed into the watering supply or weekly in the compost pile to jump-start decomposition. You can experiment to see which method is most cost and crop effective for you.
However you choose to use this piece of knowledge, we wish you success in your gentle gardening… But you need not take our word for it; the proof is in the kale!
