Fighting Plant Enemies: Part 1 — Mechanical Protection
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The devices and implements used for fighting plant enemies are of two kinds:
- those used to provide mechanical protection; and
- those used to apply insecticides and fungicides.
This first of two parts, covers the former.
The covered frame is the most useful of the mechanical methods of protecting plants. It consists usually of a wooden box, some eighteen inches to two feet square and about eight inches high, covered with glass, protecting cloth, mosquito netting or mosquito wire. The first two coverings have, of course, the additional advantage of retaining heat and protecting from cold, making it possible by their use to plant earlier than is otherwise safe. They are used extensively in getting an extra early and safe start with cucumbers, melons and the other vine vegetables.
Simpler devices for protecting newly-set plants, such as tomatoes or cabbage, from the cut-worm, are stiff, tin, cardboard or tar paper collars, which are made several inches high and large enough to be put around the stem and penetrate an inch or so into the soil. I remember in elementary school the annual “Save Your Milk Carton” drives to collect used milk cartons for local farmers to use in this way.
Another sort of garden device protects them from their own weight and is used to support them. These devices include stakes, trellises, wires, etc. Altogether too little attention usually is given these, as with proper care in storing over winter they will not only last for years, but add greatly to the convenience of cultivation and to the neat appearance of the garden.
