Graham and Beth Harden wrote:
: With all the commentary on organic vs inorganic, we seem to have lost the
: plot on the aphid scene. There need to be more people out there who have
: actual experience with aphids!

: I'm not surprised to hear that Garlic doesn't work, it's not a panacea,
: although very useful on some pests. I have heard that soapy water is best
: for removing the aphids, particularly smaller soft bodied ones.

Some people swear that if you plant some flowering plants near the
aphids they will attract predatory wasps. What flowering plants?
queen annes lace, carrots, coriander.

I do but I've never had a problem with aphids so can't tell you if this
changes anything.

regards


Chris



: "Andrew G" wrote in message
: ...
: Hi everyone.
:
: It's hard for us to go fully organic at work, epsecially in the way of
: fungicides on the greens, and in selective herbicides, but the boss has
: tried in one way.
:
: Last Friday we got some garlic spray, pine oil, and some others.
: The main thing, the garlic spray being for the aphids on the roses around
: the restaurant/pro shop. Also, the pine oil, as a weed killer around the
: pro
: shop. Both being better chemicals to be used around a place that has
: people
: walking around, eating and so on.
:
: Excited about this, with a possibility of the pine oil being used for all
: herbicide uses all around the course. How good we thought, walking around
: the garden beds, no mask or suit needed, so much more comfortable and
: safer
: feeling.
:
: So the garlic spray smells very strong, but fresh. Smelt like pureed
: garlic.
: Mixed at the rate of 20ml for 4litres (i think). So pretty concentrate,
: and
: we pump it on to the standard roses that were riddled in aphids. Check
: today, and none dead. Same amount on there. We think maybe we should have
: used the wetting agent (DC Tron Spray oil). But then, once before we used
: that at a rate of 1litre of oil, mixed with 10litres of water. Harmless to
: spray, but very effective on the aphids. So in theory, the garlic did
: nothing.
:
: So any ideas there? Any ideas on a good organic Aphid spray. We could
: blast
: them off with water, but wouldn't mind a spray.
:
: Ok, now my kinda rant. The garlic spray wasn't effective. It seems widely
: accepted that organic is good, right? Well I wonder where the incentive
: is,
: costwise for such chemicals. I Forget the cost of the garlic spray, but
: when
: worked out, rogor is much cheaper. Ok, it's nasty stuff, but works, and is
: cheap.
: Now get this. The pine oil, which we haven't used, but it's a glphosate
: (roundup) substitute. Smells nice, just like pine o clean.
: I was shocked to find out 4litres of the stuff cost $79. Ok, if that isn't
: bad enough, the mix rate is 490ml per 1litre. Insane I think. In a day of
: spraying gardens on the course, 3 of us may do around 8 backpacks of
: roundup
: mix each. 10litres a backpack, thats a lot of chemical. It would take us
: anywhere from 5 to 10 days of spraying that to do the whole courses
: gardens.
:
: Needless to say, a combination of the cost, effectiveness, and mix rates
: needed, there will be no more of those bought.
: Sorry for the rant, but it was something that suprised me. I just find it
: a
: little crazy, that in the day and age of "save our planey" "go organic"
: and
: so on is pushed so hard, yet these organic chemicals that are coming out,
: are doing so at a crazy cost.
:
: Thanks for listening, sorry for the rant :-).
:
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--
(:

Taking the "paranoid" out of "delusion".
icq #107970956