Janet wrote:
A wide barrier-ring of dry woodash works well, slugs and snails hate
crawling across it even when it's wet. Or, old dry dead bracken, mashed up
a bit.

Isn't bracken supposed to be carcinogenic?

On 11/05/2012 12:53, wrote:
wrote:
A wide barrier-ring of dry woodash works well, slugs and snails hate
crawling across it even when it's wet. Or, old dry dead bracken, mashed up
a bit.

Isn't bracken supposed to be carcinogenic?

Yes - if you eat it. But it is a natural carcinogen so that's all right.
Organic(TM) growers are allowed to use it... go figure.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
says...

Janet wrote:
A wide barrier-ring of dry woodash works well, slugs and snails hate
crawling across it even when it's wet. Or, old dry dead bracken, mashed up
a bit.

Isn't bracken supposed to be carcinogenic?

Only if you ingest it, and not to courgettes. It's a great compost
material and soil conditioner.

Janet.

Janet wrote:
A wide barrier-ring of dry woodash works well, slugs and snails hate
crawling across it even when it's wet. Or, old dry dead bracken, mashed up
a bit.

Isn't bracken supposed to be carcinogenic?

Only if you ingest it, and not to courgettes. It's a great compost
material and soil conditioner.

Fair enough. I thought there was also an issue with it giving off some kind of
spores that weren't good to breathe. I only have a vague memory of a discussion
about this, though, so I may have dreamt up the whole thing.

On 11/05/2012 17:25, wrote:
wrote:
A wide barrier-ring of dry woodash works well, slugs and snails hate
crawling across it even when it's wet. Or, old dry dead bracken, mashed up
a bit.

Isn't bracken supposed to be carcinogenic?

Only if you ingest it, and not to courgettes. It's a great compost
material and soil conditioner.

Fair enough. I thought there was also an issue with it giving off some kind of
spores that weren't good to breathe. I only have a vague memory of a discussion
about this, though, so I may have dreamt up the whole thing.

That is more or less correct. But in Japan young bracken shoots are
cooked and eaten as the delicacy "mountain greens". They don't taste
particularly good to eat and I avoided them after working out the
translation. Some details on the active ingredient - nasty stuff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptaquiloside

Forms a powerful alkylating agent and seriously damages DNA.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Martin Brown wrote:
That is more or less correct. But in Japan young bracken shoots are
cooked and eaten as the delicacy "mountain greens". They don't taste
particularly good to eat and I avoided them after working out the
translation. Some details on the active ingredient - nasty stuff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptaquiloside

Forms a powerful alkylating agent and seriously damages DNA.

Which is odd, since Japanese cuisine and longevity are always lauded
about (tending to people pointing fingers at how healthy eating fish
is).

In article , wrote:
Martin Brown wrote:
That is more or less correct. But in Japan young bracken shoots are
cooked and eaten as the delicacy "mountain greens". They don't taste
particularly good to eat and I avoided them after working out the
translation. Some details on the active ingredient - nasty stuff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptaquiloside

Forms a powerful alkylating agent and seriously damages DNA.

Which is odd, since Japanese cuisine and longevity are always lauded
about (tending to people pointing fingers at how healthy eating fish
is).

You forget the Merkin effect. The environment is full of carcinogens,
but anything that doesn't have the backing of Real Money behind it
gets flagged as really bad news, however far down the list of dangers
it is. That being said, bracken isn't one of the really lunatic
cases, and is well worth not eating.

Actually, it's unfair to blamce just the Merkins. Our apologies for
governments refused to do anything about azo dyes for ages (and, to
some entent, still do), despite the carcinogenicity of some (e.g.
kipper brown) and foul effects of others (e.g. tartrazine).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
says...

Janet wrote:
A wide barrier-ring of dry woodash works well, slugs and snails hate
crawling across it even when it's wet. Or, old dry dead bracken, mashed up
a bit.

Isn't bracken supposed to be carcinogenic?

Only if you ingest it, and not to courgettes. It's a great compost
material and soil conditioner.

Fair enough. I thought there was also an issue with it giving off some kind of
spores that weren't good to breathe.

http://cancerhelp.cancerresearchuk.o...cancer/cancer-
questions/does-bracken-cause-cancer

Janet

wrote:
You forget the Merkin effect. The environment is full of carcinogens,
but anything that doesn't have the backing of Real Money behind it
gets flagged as really bad news, however far down the list of dangers
it is. That being said, bracken isn't one of the really lunatic
cases, and is well worth not eating.

Speaking of the Merkins, you're not allowed to call them lunatics any more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17997413

(it's even more bizarre sounding on reading the article than it first
appears, imho)

Janet wrote:
Only if you ingest it, and not to courgettes. It's a great compost
material and soil conditioner.

Fair enough. I thought there was also an issue with it giving off some kind of
spores that weren't good to breathe.

http://cancerhelp.cancerresearchuk.o...cancer/cancer-
questions/does-bracken-cause-cancer

So basically, a reference saying they don't know?
"However, we couldn' t find any studies that have looked into the cancer risk of inhaling bracken."

wrote in message
...

Oh, btw - what variety are you going with? If you want a near-guaranteed
success, get Green Bush. The others all sound so much more exciting, but
I
have found that they are very hit and miss, but the green bush ones will
just
keep going until first frost. Cut them small and they will just keep
coming.
(watch out for accidentally missing one and it grows into a giant, which
will slow down production of new ones)

I have "All Green Bush" plus "de Nice a Fruit Rond" (a round once as
suggested by the name) and a patty pan "Custard White"
I haven't started them yet. It's far too cold.
I have an aluminium greenhouse, 8 x 6 but it was covered with plastic and
the plastic blew off in the last gales.

wrote in message
...
Janet wrote:
A wide barrier-ring of dry woodash works well, slugs and snails hate
crawling across it even when it's wet. Or, old dry dead bracken, mashed
up
a bit.

Have plenty of woodash, I have a woodburner.

Christina Websell wrote:
I have "All Green Bush" plus "de Nice a Fruit Rond" (a round once as
suggested by the name) and a patty pan "Custard White"

Probably not a bad collection. I'm not altogether sure /what/ I have this year, but
I have a sneaking suspicion I didn't actually do any green bush, despite what I said.
I definitely have some Nero di Milano, and an orange patty pan of some kind. They
are about 6" tall and hiding in the greenhouse, but looking a bit unhappy, if truth
be told.

I haven't started them yet. It's far too cold.
I have an aluminium greenhouse, 8 x 6 but it was covered with plastic and
the plastic blew off in the last gales.

We always always run out of window sill space. So this year Nick has put 2 of those
plastic greenhouse things without the plastic cover up in the south facing living
room window. (Fortunately they are very tall and wide windows - both sets of shelves
plus a tangerine tree fill it quite nicely!) They may become a permanent fixture,
but then of course I'll end up needing to find seedling space next year if they do.

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
On 10/05/2012 08:29, wrote:
In ,
Christina wrote:
Well I had hoped that it would rot down, when the digger made a heap of
it,
but now it's just a huge amount of couch grass growing again in a 3 ft
high
heapsigh
I guess growing courgettes in it are out of the plan now.

Not entirely. Spray it with dilute glyphosate (use the low end of
the recommendations), wait a week, and then plant them. Couch is
very sensitive to glyphosate.

I agree. Grass is exquisitely sensitive to glyphosate and this is by far
the simplest and most environmentally friendly way to quickly stop it from
regrowing. But it is against some people's religion.


It is not "against my religion" but I am trying to avoid it if I can for
this first year as nary a weedkiller has touched this ground for more than
20 years.
If it doesn't work, I will reconsider.

On 11/05/2012 22:13, wrote:
Martin wrote:
That is more or less correct. But in Japan young bracken shoots are
cooked and eaten as the delicacy "mountain greens". They don't taste
particularly good to eat and I avoided them after working out the
translation. Some details on the active ingredient - nasty stuff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptaquiloside

Forms a powerful alkylating agent and seriously damages DNA.

Which is odd, since Japanese cuisine and longevity are always lauded
about (tending to people pointing fingers at how healthy eating fish
is).

I think they do wash it copiously to prepare it, but IMO it was
absolutely not worth the effort. An explanation of why was "being in
touch with nature" which seemed odd in a concrete jungle like Tokyo.

And compared with Fugu fish where a bad dissection can be immediately
fatal due to neurotoxins this is just a minor long term risk.

A fair number smoke like chimneys too, but their national health system
is extremely good and cancers are picked up quickly. There is a high
rate of cancers of the lungs, mouth and digestive tract in Japan, but
nothing compared to the much higher health risks of obesity in the West.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown