One of the challenges I am facing lately in my Okro Garden is the invasion of stubborn pests. To minimize this there are sometimes best practices I need to adopt as Okro Gardener. The timely of cultivation, the varieties of seeds in relation to its resistivity to the Climatic conditions. The insects pests are the prevailing cause of this menace. Many of these insect prefer attacking the leaves and cause most of the Okro flowers to fall. Some attack the buds of the plant ceasing the bearing of Okro fruits.
Timely of cultivation has become very vital for Okro production. Too much moisture or humidity is associated with the invasion of insects pests to the Okro plants. The Okro plants becomes more turgid with in their vacuoles than what their cells should contain. At the young stage, the plants easily die off. There is a possibility of the plants experiencing flower abortion at the flowering stage.
The Leaf Hoppers, fruit borers, caterpillars and aphids are more Of the prevailing insects that destroy the plants. For instance the caterpillars and leaf hoppers would mostly chew the leaves and make holes into the leaves. The leaves too are the most vital part for photosynthesis and most active part for the plants to get feed. If the leaves are destroyed, it means the leaves find it very difficult to trap Sun light as well as the lamina finding very difficult to function since it's highly photosynthetic and crucial place the contain the chloroplast.The affected plants wouldn't be able to bear much fruits.
What this mean to me is that, the effects of these pests will bring bad results to me the farmer. I wouldn't meet the standard demands of my marketers. It would decrease the market value for me. Most buyers would first look at the quality of the fruits compare the what others have brought. The fruits that have been infested by insects pests would then be bought at a low cost. I would then incur loss since that income that would be received on the products wouldn't be able to settle the cost of farm inputs.
Low yield nother important thing I'm considering. If more Okro plants and fruits are being destroyed, it means a lot of fruits wouldn't bear fruits and hence it is going to decrease the amount of Okro fruits I would be getting from the farm.
I'm taking concrete measures to combat these stubborn insect pests on the field. Actually, we have recommended chemicals for controlling these insects. But, the most difficult aspect it that, if the situation becomes obviously severe attack it makes the eradication tougher to control. At this season that the rain has been raining in regular basis, it's not advisable to plant Okro. We need to wait for some time for the rain subside so that we can grow them at early september and have little rain October and November before the drought set in December.