Cultural control is the use of horticulural practices that have an effect on crop protection.The aim of such measures is to increase the resistance of the plant to pests and diseases. This can be achieved by meeting the following conditions:
- Optimise plant growth.
- Increased resistance of the crop against pests and diseases can be achieved by taking good care of growing factors such as climate, fertilisation, irrigation, pH, EC, etc.
- Growers themselves can manage most of these factors.
- When one of the growing factors is sub-optimal, the plants express symptoms of plant stress. They become weaker and their resistance decreases, making the crop more vulnerable to pests and diseases. If, on the other hand, the crop is healthy, a reduced need for crop protection chemicals is often the result.
- Use resistant or tolerant varieties when and where appropriate.
- Grow susceptible varieties preferably in a period when the level of infestation is low. Moving up or delaying the growing period may result in reduced infestation pressure of certain pests.
- Avoid high planting densities.
- High plant densities result in thin, weak plants that are susceptible to pests and diseases.
- Use plant material from tissue culture as much as possible. This is the basis for disease-free propagation material.
- Use plant material from nurseries where IPM is practised as much as possible.
- Prevent plants from being under- or overloaded with fruits or flowers. Plants harvested at irregular intervals are weakened and are consequently more vulnerable to harmful organisms.
- Use crop rotation. If the crops with overlapping pests are rotated with crops with other pests, the level of infestation will remain relatively low.