In article ,
Bobbie wrote:
David in Normandy wrote:

What do you use to prevent / cure rust on the onion family? My chives
seem very prone to attack at this time of year. Similarly how do you
prevent / cure blight on potatoes and tomatoes?

Would you believe me if I was to tell you that so far we have not been
blighted in this way.
I think a lot has to do with being able to use untainted compost. from
our own compost heaps. ...

Nope. That has damn-all to do with it. Sorry. Blight is carried
by the wind, and starts whenever the weather conditions are right.
Most rusts are similar.

There ARE things that are soil-borne, but those two aren't. You've
just been lucky.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

wrote:
In article ,
Bobbie wrote:
David in Normandy wrote:
What do you use to prevent / cure rust on the onion family? My chives
seem very prone to attack at this time of year. Similarly how do you
prevent / cure blight on potatoes and tomatoes?
Would you believe me if I was to tell you that so far we have not been
blighted in this way.
I think a lot has to do with being able to use untainted compost. from
our own compost heaps. ...

Nope. That has damn-all to do with it. Sorry. Blight is carried
by the wind, and starts whenever the weather conditions are right.
Most rusts are similar.

There ARE things that are soil-borne, but those two aren't. You've
just been lucky.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Oh I do know that. It doesn't mean I can't get verticillium wilt or
Fusarium wilt but by choosing plants that are not so susceptible, I do
try to avoid it.I don't pretend to cure all or even avoid all but the
methods I use reduce the incidences to a manageable level, without
harming my animals or any that might find their way into the garden.
That is much more important to me than a prize bloom or bumper harvest.

Bobbie

Bobbie wrote:
Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
wafflycat wrote:
"Bobbie" wrote in message
...
David in Normandy wrote:
mogga wrote:
snippy
Ah, butt.! We have rain water butts wherever we can put a drainage
pipe. We use them for perforated hose irrigation in places and
always use rain water whenever lime is not recommended. John has
also utilised rain water butts to set up a kind of capillary
watering system for the
green house to water the tomatoes and cucumbers. We do live in a
hard water area. I do drink tap water, will I die?

Bobbie;-)

Nah, just rust

Hello Pete, how's tricks?

Bobbie:-)
Mmm, well, mares tail/slugs/blackfly just about sums it up.
Only thing doing well is me spuds.........unless the slugs have got them
too. Oh, and sweetcorn looking good.
--
Pete C
London UK

mogga writes
So can I still eat the spuds if it's glycowhatsit or other plantkiller?
Is it worth digging them up?

It's unlikely to be glyphosate because that is a systemic - the plant
has to absorb it into its system first. In other words, you wouldn't see
any effect on the plants for at least a week. So, basically, you don'
know what killed them. I don't think I'd eat them if they were mine.
--
Kay

Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
wafflycat wrote:
"Bobbie" wrote in message
...
David in Normandy wrote:
mogga wrote:
snippy
Ah, butt.! We have rain water butts wherever we can put a drainage
pipe. We use them for perforated hose irrigation in places and
always use rain water whenever lime is not recommended. John has
also utilised rain water butts to set up a kind of capillary
watering system for the
green house to water the tomatoes and cucumbers. We do live in a
hard water area. I do drink tap water, will I die?

Bobbie;-)
Nah, just rust
Hello Pete, how's tricks?

Bobbie:-)
Mmm, well, mares tail/slugs/blackfly just about sums it up.
Only thing doing well is me spuds.........unless the slugs have got them
too. Oh, and sweetcorn looking good.

You must be very pleased with your efforts on the allotment. There is
nothing quite like sweetcorn picked and eaten fresh.
Mares tails? that is a nuisance. Blackfly? on your broad beans? Just
wipe them off with your fingers. Slugs? try beer traps.
It isn't easy keeping up when you have to work as well but it will be
worth it when you start eating the fruits of your labour.

Bobbie

Bobbie wrote:
Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
wafflycat wrote:
"Bobbie" wrote in message
...
David in Normandy wrote:
mogga wrote:
snippy
Ah, butt.! We have rain water butts wherever we can put a drainage
pipe. We use them for perforated hose irrigation in places and
always use rain water whenever lime is not recommended. John has
also utilised rain water butts to set up a kind of capillary
watering system for the
green house to water the tomatoes and cucumbers. We do live in a
hard water area. I do drink tap water, will I die?

Bobbie;-)
Nah, just rust
Hello Pete, how's tricks?

Bobbie:-)
Mmm, well, mares tail/slugs/blackfly just about sums it up.
Only thing doing well is me spuds.........unless the slugs have got
them too. Oh, and sweetcorn looking good.

You must be very pleased with your efforts on the allotment. There is
nothing quite like sweetcorn picked and eaten fresh.
Mares tails? that is a nuisance. Blackfly? on your broad beans? Just
wipe them off with your fingers. Slugs? try beer traps.
It isn't easy keeping up when you have to work as well but it will be
worth it when you start eating the fruits of your labour.

Bobbie
Thought about beer traps, as someone else said, what to do with the
deceased? ok, I'm squeemish.....can't touch 'em. I've put gravel round
runners/french beans, lettuce, brocolli and brussels. Oh............and a
few pellets......................ahhh, don't smack me!
--
Pete C
London UK

K wrote:
mogga writes
So can I still eat the spuds if it's glycowhatsit or other
plantkiller? Is it worth digging them up?

It's unlikely to be glyphosate because that is a systemic - the plant
has to absorb it into its system first. In other words, you wouldn't
see any effect on the plants for at least a week. So, basically, you
don' know what killed them. I don't think I'd eat them if they were
mine.
I beg to differ. Over the last 6 months, I've used 'a lot' of Roundup, and
see effects in 36/48 hours. And no, I wouldn't eat the spuds either.
--
Pete C
London UK

Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
Pete C wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
wafflycat wrote:
"Bobbie" wrote in message
...
David in Normandy wrote:
mogga wrote:
snippy
Ah, butt.! We have rain water butts wherever we can put a drainage
pipe. We use them for perforated hose irrigation in places and
always use rain water whenever lime is not recommended. John has
also utilised rain water butts to set up a kind of capillary
watering system for the
green house to water the tomatoes and cucumbers. We do live in a
hard water area. I do drink tap water, will I die?

Bobbie;-)
Nah, just rust
Hello Pete, how's tricks?

Bobbie:-)
Mmm, well, mares tail/slugs/blackfly just about sums it up.
Only thing doing well is me spuds.........unless the slugs have got
them too. Oh, and sweetcorn looking good.
You must be very pleased with your efforts on the allotment. There is
nothing quite like sweetcorn picked and eaten fresh.
Mares tails? that is a nuisance. Blackfly? on your broad beans? Just
wipe them off with your fingers. Slugs? try beer traps.
It isn't easy keeping up when you have to work as well but it will be
worth it when you start eating the fruits of your labour.

Bobbie
Thought about beer traps, as someone else said, what to do with the
deceased? ok, I'm squeemish.....can't touch 'em. I've put gravel round
runners/french beans, lettuce, brocolli and brussels. Oh............and a
few pellets......................ahhh, don't smack me!

It is very difficult to be totally organic and chemical free on an
allotment Pete. John had a problem with spray drift and pellets carried
on shoes. He didn't even try then, but when we moved here and we had
enough space and time for a decent veggie patch we set about eliminating
chemicals. Mainly because we wanted to keep a few free range chickens
and because of the dogs and goats. It has taken a lot of work, providing
alternatives. Growing plants with other plants that help to deter bugs,
things like that. There is an alternative to slug pellets and beer
traps that you water on. Trouble with organic alternatives is they cost
so much more. In fact some are ridiculously priced.Ask AnneJ about
copper wire. I don't like slimy slugs either but I use an old pair of
BBQ tongs, and just drop them in a bucket of very soapy water. The
resulting bucket full goes into a hole in the ground away form any veg
or flowers.
Good luck, sounds like a nice collection of veg there.

Bobbie

"Bobbie" wrote...
David in Normandy wrote:
mogga wrote:

So can I still eat the spuds if it's glycowhatsit or other
plantkiller? Is it worth digging them up?


Can't give a definitive answer. The ultra safe answer is not to eat them
and dig them up for the compost heap. However, I've eaten some potatoes
from plants that had a "glancing blow" while spraying weeds alongside.
The plants survived but were poorly for a while. The potatoes themselves
looked superficially ok and tasted normal, but I noticed they did not
keep well.

However, you can't be sure it was glyphosate or something more obnoxious?
On that basis I wouldn't eat them and just compost them.

The normal practice is to keep different sprayers. One specifically for
weedkillers. Alternatively, to always thoroughly wash out after using a
weedkiller.


Better still, give up using chemicals and pesticides. Go Green, go
organic. So much better for you and the environment.
I have a large garden, and a my husband has a good sized vegetable garden,
we don't use any chemicals. The veg are doing well and so are the flower
beds.

In most cases much, much easier to do in a back garden than an allotment!
Totally different type of environment.

We would love to grow totally without chemicals but it would mean giving up
growing some major crops... peas and beans, sweetcorn, all brassicas.
Unless there is a non chemical way to deal with mice, rats, pea & bean
weevil, slugs, flea beetle........

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
news:4a354fe7$0$12641
I've got a 500 litre water butt which is very useful, especially when on a
meter; besides it is better for the plants than tap water. I plan to rig
up another some time in the future. We also have an underground water
reservoir that catches something in the region of 3000 litres of rain
water (pure guess) plus a well which comes in handy in the case of a
prolonged drought, but it is a faff rigging up the pump and cables to
reach it.


Were I to be blessed with a well, it would be permanently rigged up with
cable and pump.
Not too much faffing about to do then, before flicking the "water please"
switch !

Regards
Pete
www.thecanalshop.com

In article ,
Bobbie wrote:

Oh I do know that. It doesn't mean I can't get verticillium wilt or
Fusarium wilt but by choosing plants that are not so susceptible, I do
try to avoid it.I don't pretend to cure all or even avoid all but the
methods I use reduce the incidences to a manageable level, without
harming my animals or any that might find their way into the garden.
That is much more important to me than a prize bloom or bumper harvest.

I agree. But my point was that your approach has damn-all to do
with the fact that you haven't had blight.

It MIGHT have something to do with rust reduction, but even that's
pretty implausible.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In message , wafflycat
writes

"Bobbie" wrote in message
...
wafflycat wrote:

"Bobbie" wrote in message
...
David in Normandy wrote:
mogga wrote:

So can I still eat the spuds if it's glycowhatsit or other
plantkiller? Is it worth digging them up?


Can't give a definitive answer. The ultra safe answer is not to
them and dig them up for the compost heap. However, I've eaten some
potatoes from plants that had a "glancing blow" while spraying
weeds alongside. The plants survived but were poorly for a while.
The potatoes themselves looked superficially ok and tasted normal,
but I noticed they did not keep well.

However, you can't be sure it was glyphosate or something more
obnoxious? On that basis I wouldn't eat them and just compost them.

The normal practice is to keep different sprayers. One
specifically for weedkillers. Alternatively, to always thoroughly
wash out after using a weedkiller.


Better still, give up using chemicals and pesticides. Go Green, go
organic. So much better for you and the environment.
I have a large garden, and a my husband has a good sized vegetable
garden, we don't use any chemicals. The veg are doing well and so
are the flower beds.

Bobbie

Water is a chemical. I hope you haven't given up using that ;-)

Ah, butt.! We have rain water butts wherever we can put a drainage
pipe. We use them for perforated hose irrigation in places and always
use rain water whenever lime is not recommended. John has also
utilised rain water butts to set up a kind of capillary watering
system for the green house to water the tomatoes and cucumbers. We do
live in a hard water area.
I do drink tap water, will I die?

Bobbie;-)

Be careful, you never know.. ;-)

http://www.dhmo.org/


Sorry, it's one of my nitpicks.. this organic doesn't use chemicals.
Apart from the fact that *everything* is a chemical, organic does allow
the use of certain 'man-made' 'chemicals' I'm all for using the
minimum and whenever possible working with Mother Nature rather than
fighting against her and am against the *reliance* upon 'chemicals' but
this blanket "don't use chemicals' approach is plain wrong.

And it turns out to be a "don't use *some* chemicals". The Soil
Assocation allows some copper compounds, rotenone, sulphur and soft
soap.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

On Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:03:22 +0100, "Pete C"
wrote:



K wrote:
mogga writes
So can I still eat the spuds if it's glycowhatsit or other
plantkiller? Is it worth digging them up?

It's unlikely to be glyphosate because that is a systemic - the plant
has to absorb it into its system first. In other words, you wouldn't
see any effect on the plants for at least a week. So, basically, you
don' know what killed them. I don't think I'd eat them if they were
mine.
I beg to differ. Over the last 6 months, I've used 'a lot' of Roundup, and
see effects in 36/48 hours. And no, I wouldn't eat the spuds either.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/25345470@N02/3629091868/
Does that fit in with weedkiller?

--
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk
http://www.holidayunder100.co.uk

On Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:31:11 +0100, Bobbie
wrote:

David in Normandy wrote:
mogga wrote:

So can I still eat the spuds if it's glycowhatsit or other
plantkiller? Is it worth digging them up?


Can't give a definitive answer. The ultra safe answer is not to eat them
and dig them up for the compost heap. However, I've eaten some potatoes
from plants that had a "glancing blow" while spraying weeds alongside.
The plants survived but were poorly for a while. The potatoes themselves
looked superficially ok and tasted normal, but I noticed they did not
keep well.

However, you can't be sure it was glyphosate or something more
obnoxious? On that basis I wouldn't eat them and just compost them.

The normal practice is to keep different sprayers. One specifically for
weedkillers. Alternatively, to always thoroughly wash out after using a
weedkiller.


Better still, give up using chemicals and pesticides. Go Green, go
organic. So much better for you and the environment.

I wouldn't have intentionally used weedkiller! I'd rather have weeds
(I think of them as potential composting materials & the bees love
buttercups! ) - but obviously I was really foolish not using a clean
container.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25345470@N02/3629091868/


I have a large garden, and a my husband has a good sized vegetable
garden, we don't use any chemicals. The veg are doing well and so are
the flower beds.

Bobbie
--
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk
http://www.holidayunder100.co.uk

mogga wrote:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/25345470@N02/3629091868/


They don't look very happy.


--
David in Normandy.
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