On Jul 20, 11:05 pm, Sacha wrote:
On 20/7/08 23:01, in article
, "Judith



in France" wrote:
On Jul 20, 10:48 pm, Sacha wrote:
On 20/7/08 19:31, in article
, "Judith in

France" wrote:
On Jul 20, 7:25 pm, wrote:
On 20 Jul, 13:28, Judith in France
wrote:

I'm afraid I am not too organic, mea culpa although I am trying hard
to be. I wouldn't buy meat, eggs or poultry unless I know where they
come from and they have to be free range. I have been messing around
with soap sprays instead of chemicals but for the potatoes we have to
use a spray as the Colorado beetle is endemic here and without
spraying, twice, we would not get a crop. I hate the spray as it says
do not eat for x days, even I have worked out that is bad - what's an
alternative?

Being organic is not spraying weely neely with chemicals on anything
that's moving. Never. You've said on the allotment thread that you've
sprayed quote 'some awful clinging stuff climbing up some bushes, I
put a tray behind it to protect the foliage and let it have all of one
barrel, hopefully it will die off soon'.

The alternative would be to stop spraying - find out what the
'clinging stuff' is, find out what 'some bushes' is, and then you'll
will understand why some creatures are climbing and eating your crops
and remedy in an organic responsible way. What did the 'awful clinging
stuff' looked like?

As for the colorado beetle - unless you're feeding thousands and
exporting tons of food to europe and the world, you shouldn't use
anything to kill it in your garden. You simply should purchase your
spuds which have been growing organically in some fields which doesn't
use chemicals and leave the spraying of the colorado beetle to large
farmers who understand how to control it, in a safe way. Having said
that, regulations are not entirely maintained everywhere - but I'd
like to think we're getting there. I'm not also entirely against
chemicals - I can't when it comes to our livelihoods. It would be
silly to think we can spray 500 acres with washing up liquid.

But when it comes to our allotments, our gardens, I really don't see
it to be sensible at all.

I agree with much what you say, I have yet to find out who grows
potatoes organically here, the Colorado is a real threat, not just in
this area, Emerys says it is the same in Northern France.

Judith

As you may imagine, it's greatly feared in Jersey which is very close to
Northern France!
--
Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

There is nothing like digging up potatoes, rubbing off the skins and
eating them within half an hour from soil to stomach. I wish I could
find an organic way to sort this out, I don't want to eat poison. I
took a look at Helene's links, there is only one in the Puy de Dome, I
will telephone them to ask how they keep them disease free.

Judith

AIUI, being organic doesn't mean NO bug killers, it means some things are
allowed and some aren't. But it's possible they use companion planting,
perhaps or a permitted plant based deterrent? If you manage to find out, it
would be very interesting to know what it is.

--
Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

When I find out I will post on it.

Judith