In article
songbird writes:
Drew Lawson wrote:
songbird writes:
...
i
grow tomatoes and strawberries without any *cides at
all.

Unfortunately, my garden is plagued by tomato leaf spot, so I am
dependant on copper sulfate. That's about all I use, aside from
RoundUp on the creaping thistle.

the tomatoes here get some kind of blight each
season but they still bear fruit and we get enough
so i've never treated for it.

Untreated, the varieties I grow just keep losing leaves until they
die.

i would not use copper sulfate for long as the
copper can build up in the soil.

It is a pretty light usage. A pound of powder lasts me a couple
years.

have you tried finding more resistant plants?
i have here but Mom is very fixated on what she
wants to grow so i gave up.

I doubt that modern hybrids would have any problem with it, but I'm
hooked on my Black Plum tomatoes. And my wife fully endorses the
resulting pasta sauce.

the troublesome weeds here are horsetail and
sow-thistle, but i've found out they can be
removed by manual methods and smothering once
you've got the worst of them cleared. you just
have to be sure to keep after any new ones that
may show up before they get going again.

I am a magnet for invasive weeds that spread beneath the surface.
I used to believe that mulch could cure everything, but bermuda
grass and creeping thistle have convinced me otherwise. Still,
mulch makes it easier.


--
Drew Lawson | I told them we had learned to change
| our swordblades into plows.
| I told them they should learn from us
| what should I tell them now?