I'm not sure what part of the country you are from, but here in the Midwest, if
you don't spray with chemicals at the proper time, you can kiss your fruit
good-bye. Organic methods are only partial solutions, so until you come up with
a preventative
for apple maggots and codling moths of which I get my share, I'm spraying with
the
proper chemicals to kill them. I'm not worried about getting poisoned because I
don't spray a few weeks before picking. That gives the sun and rain plenty of
time to
break down these chemicals. I also wash my fruit before eating it. For those
fanatics who still think they are in danger, you can peel the skin off an apple
since the
chemicals do not penetrate through it. Avoiding chemicals totally is
hypocritical, since we are exposed to much worse stuff in the air we breath,
etc., etc. If it makes
you feel better and you don't mind all that attacked fruit, go ahead and stick
exclusively to organics.

Sherwin D.

I Love Lucy wrote:

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
"I Love Lucy" wrote in message
ink.net...

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...

Perhaps not, but true, if you mishandle chemicals whose toxicity is
unknown. Since the toxicity of ALL garden chemicals is unknown, you
can draw your own conclusions.

My conclusion for some time has been that they could all be dangerous
and should be handled with extreme caution. My conclusion is also
that I do not fire the first volley of gratuitous insults at another
poster. But that's usenet. I'm used to it.

Shock has value. There is NO excuse for using these chemicals at home.
Not ever.

So who is going to dig all my dandelions, kill all my Virginia Creeper,
kill all my unknown kudzu-mimicing vine, all the underground root
systems, all my oxalis, all my creeping charlie, all my crabgrass, all
my lamb's ears (pull that by hand because of my violets), all my stuff
that looked like marijuana that nobody ever id'ed, my volunteer walnut
tree that refuses to give up when I whack it, and who knows what else is
lurking out there? This is my reward for my environmentally friendly,
bird-loving, pet-protectionist, self-protectionist do-nothing approach
for years. It's getting a couple apps of some broadleaf pesticide a
year and paint brushing from now on. I'd do it myself, but the tank
when full weighs 40 pounds and you wear it like a backpack. It's bad
enough I have to hand weed my wildflowers and some other spots.

I think I'll go dump all my old gasoline and chemicals in the rain drain
across the street because I don't want to waste fossil fuel, my time and
my energy driving it to the hazardous waste center where disposal is by
appointment only. I'm just kidding. I did dump gasoline in it years
ago before I knew better.

My yard is looking better every day since I got rid of most of those
weeds.

Unless we buy 100% certified organic food, we are eating products that
have been treated with chemicals by the hundreds of tons. I never will
spray my fruit trees though. One lady who wanted an apple from my tree
wouldn't let her kid pick any until I assured her they hadn't been
sprayed. Just about everything around us has one kind of chemical or
another in it.