Organic gardening (without the use of chemicals to control weeds, diseases and insects) grows more popular each year. You can increase your chances of success with organic gardening if you follow some sound gardening practices.

As a starter, choose varieties that can be grown with little or no danger of damage from disease or insect pests. Radishes, lettuce, onions, leeks, chives, beets, chard, mustard, Chinese cabbage, parsnips, salsify, peas, spinach, sweet potatoes, turnips and most herbs fill this bill and can be grown with great success.

If you're willing to use biological methods to control insects, such as a spray of Bacillus thuringiensis (a bacteria insecticide to control caterpillars), you may add green beans, cabbage, kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower to your garden's roster.

You can grow tomatoes if you handpick tomato hornworms and snip off shoots that are harboring aphids. Stake, cage or mulch the plants to keep the fruit from coming in contact with the ground.

Sweet corn can also be successfully grown without chemicals if you pay attention to timing. Corn planted between May 7 and May 30 will generally silk after June 15 and before mid-July- a period during which there is little risk of serious earworm infestation.

Most organic gardeners will have trouble growing vine crops such as cucumber, muskmelon, pumpkin, squash and eggplant. These crops are attacked by insects that can only be controlled with chemicals.

Follow these tips to further assure success for your gardening efforts:

• Interplant varieties, but maintain adequate spacing for good air movement.

• Avoid spreading diseases. If a plant does become diseased, immediately remove the infected leaves or the entire plant. Diseases do spread quickly.

• Don't water in the evening or walk through the garden when it's damp.

• Use fresh, commercial seed that is grown under disease-free conditions.

• Keep out weeds and grass by shallow hoeing or mulching. Weeds compete for fertility, water and space and harbor insects and diseases. Straw, grass clippings and sawdust make good mulches.

• To avoid soil compaction, don't work the soil when it's wet.

• Use compost, manure, steamed bone meal, rock phosphate and muriate of potash or wood ashes to provide adequate nutrients for garden plants.

• Plant at the proper time.

• When feasible, use stakes, cages or other training methods to support plants.

• A plant that's growing in good soil, with proper water and fertilizer, can withstand insect and disease problems. Maintain proper moisture levels throughout the growing season.

DAVID ROBSON is a University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator.