"A & L Lane" wrote in message
...
if I remember correctly, Thiram is a funcicide to prevent root rot in
seedlings as they germinate. All commercial seed (that I'm aware of)
comes
with this as the company has no way of knowing if you are replanting your
veges in the same spot year after year and prone to disease. Maize seed
that you buy for farming comes like this too. It wont get into the crop -
it is a surface dressing on the seed to help it germinate and grow.
Having
said that, if you are keen to go completely organic, I would suggest
buying
an open pollinated variety of corn (from Seed Savers or somewhere like
that - our health food shop stocks some of this type of vege seed) and
then
keep your seed to grow again next year - that way you have total control
over what happens. It wont work with normal hybrid varieties of corn.

Also, this year at work, I have been growing a seed crop of birdsfoot
trefoil (a new pasture legume) and we always have major trouble with
caterpillars destroying pods and significantly reducing seed yield.
However, this year I decided to try Dipel - a bacterial powder that you
mix
up and spray on the leaves (or fruit/veges if that is what you have) - as
the little caterpillars eat it, they get sick and die. This stuff really
works and it is totally safe - the only things it works on are
caterpillars
(not moths and other insects, grasshoppers, frogs, mammals, birds, etc).
I
have been amazed at how well it has worked and I recommend it to all vege
growers (corn is particularly susceptible to heliothis caterpillars). I
needed it because we needed something to control caterpillars but not
affect
the honey bees we use for pollination but I reckon it would be great in
the
vege garden.

I'm fairly relaxed about sprays (used correctly of course) but I'm
certainly
pleased to find a softer alternative - better for everyone.


DS has serious food allergies, so i try & make/get everything as close to
natural as possible so we don't find more allergies.

thanks for the comprehensive info! i'm definitely going to check out seed
savers.
--
elizabeth (in australia)
DS 20th August 2002

"In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain." -- Pliny
the Elder (23 AD - 79 AD)