Components of a Plan

Know your pests
Today, we are armed with improved controls of weeds, insects and diseases. The arsenal of management strategies available allows for better control with less environmental risk.

Know your action thresholds
Just the presence of weeds or pests doesn’t justify the application of a control measure. The weed and pest pressure must be a threat to reduce yields or quality enough to make sense. This level of pressure to justify a control measure is called the action threshold.

Know your fields
Scouting is following a routine designed to detect a weed or pest problem that is serious enough (action threshold) to trigger a control measure.

Know your options
There are numerous approaches to effectively controlling problems. Resistant plants, cultural controls, soil amendments, beneficial insects, natural enemies, barriers, physical treatments, behavioral disruptants, biological and conventional pesticides are some of these alternatives.