Organic growers and those of a nervous disposition read no further. :-)
On of our allotment holders who has a number of allotments sterilises his
soil every few years with some powder which he incorporates into the top
layer of soil, waters well, covers with plastic sheeting and leaves for a
couple of weeks. He says the gas kills everything and has rid one of his
plots of Club Root and White Rot as well as killing any weed seeds so they
never build up. Sounds both a miracle and the work of the Devil to me.
Anyone know what he is using?

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 08/10/2010 14:13, Bob Hobden wrote:
Organic growers and those of a nervous disposition read no further. :-)
On of our allotment holders who has a number of allotments sterilises
his soil every few years with some powder which he incorporates into the
top layer of soil, waters well, covers with plastic sheeting and leaves
for a couple of weeks. He says the gas kills everything and has rid one
of his plots of Club Root and White Rot as well as killing any weed
seeds so they never build up. Sounds both a miracle and the work of the
Devil to me.
Anyone know what he is using?

From your description I would hazard a guess at Basamid or dazomet -
but it should be as granules rather than a powder. Not sure if it is
licensed for amateur use. I suspect that it is not...

http://www.hortweek.com/news/rss/Sea...iseases-weeds/

MSDS http://hazard.com/msds/mf/cards/file/0786.html

Regards,
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote
Bob Hobden wrote:
Organic growers and those of a nervous disposition read no further. :-)
On of our allotment holders who has a number of allotments sterilises
his soil every few years with some powder which he incorporates into the
top layer of soil, waters well, covers with plastic sheeting and leaves
for a couple of weeks. He says the gas kills everything and has rid one
of his plots of Club Root and White Rot as well as killing any weed
seeds so they never build up. Sounds both a miracle and the work of the
Devil to me.
Anyone know what he is using?

From your description I would hazard a guess at Basamid or dazomet - but
it should be as granules rather than a powder. Not sure if it is licensed
for amateur use. I suspect that it is not...

http://www.hortweek.com/news/rss/Sea...iseases-weeds/

MSDS http://hazard.com/msds/mf/cards/file/0786.html

He has so many allotments he can rightfully class himself as a smallholder.
Indeed he is already allowed to abstract water from our local stream as the
area he has under cultivation is in sufficient.
Interesting though for those of us with White Rot and Club Root.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 8 Oct, 16:55, "Bob Hobden" wrote:
"Martin Brown" *wrote



*Bob Hobden wrote:
Organic growers and those of a nervous disposition read no further. :-)
On of our allotment holders who has a number of allotments sterilises
his soil every few years with some powder which he incorporates into the
top layer of soil, waters well, covers with plastic sheeting and leaves
for a couple of weeks. He says the gas kills everything and has rid one
of his plots of Club Root and White Rot as well as killing any weed
seeds so they never build up. Sounds both a miracle and the work of the
Devil to me.
Anyone know what he is using?

From your description I would hazard a guess at Basamid or dazomet - but
it should be as granules rather than a powder. Not sure if it is licensed
for amateur use. I suspect that it is not...

http://www.hortweek.com/news/rss/Sea.../1023969/Growe...

MSDShttp://hazard.com/msds/mf/cards/file/0786.html

He has so many allotments he can rightfully class himself as a smallholder.

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
Organic growers and those of a nervous disposition read no further. :-)
On of our allotment holders who has a number of allotments sterilises his
soil every few years with some powder which he incorporates into the top
layer of soil, waters well, covers with plastic sheeting and leaves for a
couple of weeks. He says the gas kills everything and has rid one of his
plots of Club Root and White Rot as well as killing any weed seeds so they
never build up. Sounds both a miracle and the work of the Devil to me.
Anyone know what he is using?

No, but wouldn't it worry you a bit to eat crops from that ground
afterwards? It would me. If I want chemically contaminated veg I can get
it from the supermarket.
Tina

"Rod" wrote
- but

Yes, it's almost certainly Basamid or Dazomet. It's neither a powder
or granules btw, it's a prill - that is very tiny lumps of the
material of uniform size - like a powder but nothing small enough to
get airborne and too small to be called granules so it's very easy to
distribute evenly.
I used it in the greenhouses at work for sterilising the beds used
for early veg and salads. Also for replant problems in the rose
garden. I've heard of it's potential use for white rot but never tried
it. We tried it for rose replant disease on a 5 acre field on the
nursery where I worked in the '60s - it worked but it made growing
roses on that field a very expensive proposition. In the rose garden
here we felt it wasn't quite as effective as replacing the topsoil -
but in either case the treatment only lasts as long as it takes for
the rose roots to get down into the untreated soil below but the hope
is that by then the plants will be sufficiently well established to
withstand whatever it is that's causing the problem (and we still
don't know)

So with White Rot it should work as the onions are shallow rooted and even
cabbages roots don't go down too deep.
Interesting.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 8 Oct, 23:08, "Bob Hobden" wrote:
"Rod" *wrote
- but





Yes, it's almost certainly Basamid or Dazomet. It's neither a powder
or granules btw, it's a prill - that is very tiny lumps of the
material of uniform size - like a powder but nothing small enough to
get airborne and too small to be called granules so it's very easy to
distribute evenly.
I used it in the greenhouses at work for sterilising the beds used
for early veg and salads. Also for replant problems in the rose
garden. I've heard of it's potential use for white rot but never tried
it. We tried it for rose replant disease on a 5 acre field on the
nursery where I worked in the '60s - it worked but it made growing
roses on that field a very expensive proposition. In the rose garden
here we felt it wasn't quite as effective as replacing the topsoil -
but in either case the treatment only lasts as long as it takes for
the rose roots to get down into the untreated soil below but the hope
is that by then the plants will be sufficiently well established to
withstand whatever it is that's causing the problem (and we still
don't know)

So with White Rot it should work as the onions are shallow rooted and even
cabbages roots don't go down too deep.
Interesting.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

A couple of things I didn't mention.
It's ony partial sterilization at best and only works to the depth
that it was rotavated in to.
The weed seed thing only works if the ground is moist and the seeds
are in a good state for germination, it's practically useless on
deeply dormant weed seeds so ground preparation prior to treatment is
very important.

Rod

"Rod" wrote
"Bob Hobden" wrote:
"Rod" wrote
Yes, it's almost certainly Basamid or Dazomet. It's neither a powder
or granules btw, it's a prill - that is very tiny lumps of the
material of uniform size - like a powder but nothing small enough to
get airborne and too small to be called granules so it's very easy to
distribute evenly.
I used it in the greenhouses at work for sterilising the beds used
for early veg and salads. Also for replant problems in the rose
garden. I've heard of it's potential use for white rot but never tried
it. We tried it for rose replant disease on a 5 acre field on the
nursery where I worked in the '60s - it worked but it made growing
roses on that field a very expensive proposition. In the rose garden
here we felt it wasn't quite as effective as replacing the topsoil -
but in either case the treatment only lasts as long as it takes for
the rose roots to get down into the untreated soil below but the hope
is that by then the plants will be sufficiently well established to
withstand whatever it is that's causing the problem (and we still
don't know)

So with White Rot it should work as the onions are shallow rooted and
even
cabbages roots don't go down too deep.
Interesting.


A couple of things I didn't mention.
It's ony partial sterilization at best and only works to the depth
that it was rotavated in to.
The weed seed thing only works if the ground is moist and the seeds
are in a good state for germination, it's practically useless on
deeply dormant weed seeds so ground preparation prior to treatment is
very important.

The chap that is using it has one of those very expensive powerful
cultivators that has many attachments, rotovator, plough, ridger,
barrow.......
so he can get down quite deep.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 8 Oct, 21:39, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
"Bob Hobden" wrote in message

... Organic growers and those of a nervous disposition read no further. :-)
On of our allotment holders who has a number of allotments sterilises his
soil every few years with some powder which he incorporates into the top
layer of soil, waters well, covers with plastic sheeting and leaves for a
couple of weeks. He says the gas kills everything and has rid one of his
plots of Club Root and White Rot as well as killing any weed seeds so they
never build up. Sounds both a miracle and the work of the Devil to me.
Anyone know what he is using?

No, but wouldn't it worry you a bit to eat crops from that ground
afterwards? *It would me. *If I want chemically contaminated veg I can get
it from the supermarket.
Tina

You shouldn't need to worry on that count Tina, part of the procedure
is to clear the gas that does the sterilising. When that's gone there
is no residue to contaminate anything.
The covers are removed and the ground rotavated - it's then left for a
period after which several samples of the treated soil together with a
'control' sample of untreated similar soil.
Ordinary salad cress (it's extremely sensitive to this stuff) is sown
in each sample and the germination is observed. If no difference is
seen OK, otherwise the rotavation, waiting and testing are repeated as
required.
Having said all this, along with many other growers and gardeners, as
we learn more about the biology of soil at the micro level, flora,
fauna, fungi etc we begin to understand just how complex it is and
that in general - at least for outdoor crops the less we interfere
with it the better. Greenhouse cropping is a different game, it's
wholly artificial anyway so sometimes the systems are simplified by
using sterile media like rockwool etc or by sterilising an existing
medium using steam or chemicals. In the glasshouse environment it is
all too easy for pests and diseases to get out of hand if things
aren't kept clean and mother nature isn't always on our side in that
artificial set up.

Rod