Abstract

WIDIN, KATHARINE D. 1987. Integrated pest management: A preventative maintenance approach to landscapes. Am. Nurseryman 165(10): 38-40, 42-43.

You can use IPM to manage residential and commercial landscapes. IPM controls plant insects and diseases through a combination of cultural, biological and chemical control measures. These controls are properly timed to hit insects and diseases at their most vulnerable stages. Periodic monitoring, during which all plants at a site are inspected for health problems, determines which insects and diseases are present and if they constitute a hazard to the plants. The IPM approach is not anti-pesticide but uses knowledge of pest and disease life cycles to properly time all control measures. The most effective chemicals are used to treat only plants that have problems. Biological and cultural control measures are used whenever possible. This approach is preferable to the spraying approach that blankets a landscape. A good IPM program is a total tree and shrub health-care program, dealing not only with pests but also with proper site and variety selection, fertilization, pruning and other cultural practices that enhance the growth and appearance of landscape plants.

• © 1988, International Society of Arboriculture. All rights reserved.