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Pests and disease control

Getting ahead with pests and disease control

There are more and more pests and disease around our gardens. Therefore it is important to not only take preventative measures but also actively identify and combat problems as soon as possible.

Prevention is better than cure

On a preventative level it is important to check plants before you buy> You can even monitor them for a few days before planting out. Whilst any good nursery will check its stock before selling plants, from time to time even the experts can be caught out . Luckily for really bad and sinister diseases there are lots of rules and regulations on the transport of plants. In fact plants even have to have a passport if being exported/imported! At St Bridget Nurseries we follow stringent internal quality checks and our nursery is inspected annually by DEFRA. Currently there is a great concern in the industry about a disease called xylella fastidiosa which is a very harmful bacterial plant disease. There have been recent severe outbreaks in Europe and Britain is on high alert.

The importance of local growing

Because we grow nearly 85% of the plants we sell, we keep things local and fresh giving you the confidence of receiving high quality plants that have not been shipped from abroad.

The benefits of having your plants grown locally are numerous. Firstly, they are likely to thrive when you take them from us as they have been grown in the local conditions and are therefore acclimatised to the local climate. Secondly,(with regard to disease) because we nurture our plants right from seeds, they absorb many vital nutrients and become stronger and therefore more resistant to disease. Finally, there is of course no concern about foreign pests.

Avoiding spreading disease

Most pests and diseases you will find on your plants though are most likely already in your garden. Some great tips to try and avoid spreading diseases are as follows;

Following all of these tips will be great for disease prevention. However it is equally important to be able to identify problems by regularly checking and watching the health of your plants. It is also helpful to know the symptoms of disease.

Our garden centres have a wide range of control methods including chemical, organic and mechanical options.  Please ask our friendly team for advice on the options that are availably to you.