More than a few years back a cotton farmer called and asked what the university entomologists were saying about spraying for a new bug called Western Flower Thrips. Well, the insect wasn’t new but it was newly found in cotton and there were lots of them.

Dr. Head at Mississippi State University told me two things about this particular critter. First, none of the pesticides were killing them and, secondly, the experts had not determined that the thrips were harming cotton anyway. When I relayed the message, my farmer said, “Good. I’ll just keep that 10 dollars an acre.” In other words, that was a $20,000 phone call for his two thousand acres of cotton.

I reminisce with that story to point out a significant difference between raising big acreage plants for a living and raising plants in the garden, yard or flowerbed.

Sometimes we gardeners overdo with fertilizers and pesticides. Often money is not the main concern. A 50 pound bag of Triple 13 will go a long way at a rate of 10 pounds per thousand square feet. Since we paid for the whole bag and everybody knows the fertilizer can get hard left in the bag over a couple of years, why not just spread it all out there? That shows we really care about the garden and don’t want to shortchange our horticulture hobby, right?

Wrong.

There are several things wrong with using more than needed fertilizer and pesticides. For one, it is a waste of money, even if not at the level of real farming. Also, it can hurt the plant growth we are trying to bolster.

Most of us have likely at one time or another talked ourselves into the “if a little will help, a lot will be better” theory, which is actually more excuse than logic. Over-fertilized plants can grow too fast and not give us the flowers or fruit or vegetables we plan on. Way too much fertilizer can cause plants to regress and even croak. Based on which herbicide is used, the result of too much might mean the demise of the good plants instead of just the weeds or soil overloaded with chemicals.

One other important thing to think about is the final destination of too much fertilizer or plant protection chemicals, including organic gardening chemicals. Water is the greatest solvent we have. Rainwater dilutes stuff on plants and in the soil and carries it to ditches which drain into creeks that flow into small rivers that empty into the Mississippi River that takes it all out to the Gulf of Mexico.

There is an area in the gulf where the oxygen level has been lowered by overly rich runoff water to the point much of the native animal and plant life no longer exists there. Certainly agriculture and home horticulture are not the only causes involved, but they do contribute and we need to do our part to keep the earth’s water healthy, both river fresh and ocean salty.

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Terry Rector writes for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District, 601-636-7679 ext. 3.