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#17
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
"anton" wrote in news:bfnr1t$7$1
@hercules.btinternet.com: That's not quite making the situation clear, though, is it? He and you think that 'pests are not enough of a problem to put poisons into the environment'. So don't do it yourselves. These measures however, mean _everybody_ is banned from doing so, regardless of whether they agree or not. That's a horse of a different colour. Um. The biggest problems I have ever had gardening organically were when I had a small garden, surrounded by other small gardens where gardeners were enthusiastically using (overusing, in my view) pesticides and herbicides, where the council 'helped out' by going round spraying weedkiller on the verges. The previous occupants of my garden had also used weedkillers and pesticides freely. I believe that I had problems because pest predators could not survive on my tiny patch, whereas pests could :-( I think gardening organically is easier in large areas that support healthy predator numbers, which establish over several years. Where there are many small gardens, and people move house regularly, if some gardeners have the choice of using pesticides, the other gardeners may lose their own right to choose. This isn't to say I support things being banned, necessarily, but it's a point that I think is worth considering (the 'passive pesticide' argument?) Victoria |
#18
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
"Victoria Clare" wrote in message Um. The biggest problems I have ever had gardening organically were when I had a small garden, surrounded by other small gardens where gardeners were enthusiastically using (overusing, in my view) pesticides and herbicides, where the council 'helped out' by going round spraying weedkiller on the verges. The previous occupants of my garden had also used weedkillers and pesticides freely. I believe that I had problems because pest predators could not survive on my tiny patch, whereas pests could :-( I think gardening organically is easier in large areas that support healthy predator numbers, which establish over several years. Where there are many small gardens, and people move house regularly, if some gardeners have the choice of using pesticides, the other gardeners may lose their own right to choose. This isn't to say I support things being banned, necessarily, but it's a point that I think is worth considering (the 'passive pesticide' argument?) I think there's something in this. Try growing top fruit organically in Kent ferinstance. Even here in N Wales on my quite big patch (25acres) well away from other gardens and miles away from any significant commercial horticulture, it took a few years to establish our almost organic veg and fruit production. Rod |
#19
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
Xref: kermit uk.rec.gardening:155808
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 17:57:42 +0000 (UTC), "Paul Segynowycz" wrote: I was listening to You & Yours this lunchtime and caught a bit of an article about EU banning certain Pesticides & hebicides from Today. Does anyone know what the list is? As for that Monty Don - he has gone well down in my estimation, positively enthusing about the demise of chemicals. He may have the time to hand pick weeds and insects and go organic, but I'm sure that i have not. ________________________________________________ I can see what Monty means, and would like to agree with his sentiments were it not for the fact that my garden suffers from Leaf Tree Miner ( I don't know which type) which disfigures my fruit trees, and my ornamentals. I'm now unable to purchase anything which gets rid of them. Likewise Armitillox, which I've used for years in cleaning nasties from specialised soil beds. These Eurocrats are a ruddy nuisance. ______________________________________ |
#20
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
Victoria Clare wrote in message ... "anton" wrote in news:bfnr1t$7$1 : That's not quite making the situation clear, though, is it? He and you think that 'pests are not enough of a problem to put poisons into the environment'. So don't do it yourselves. These measures however, mean _everybody_ is banned from doing so, regardless of whether they agree or not. That's a horse of a different colour. Um. The biggest problems I have ever had gardening organically were when I had a small garden, surrounded by other small gardens where gardeners were enthusiastically using (overusing, in my view) pesticides and herbicides, where the council 'helped out' by going round spraying weedkiller on the verges. The previous occupants of my garden had also used weedkillers and pesticides freely. I believe that I had problems because pest predators could not survive on my tiny patch, whereas pests could :-( I think gardening organically is easier in large areas that support healthy predator numbers, which establish over several years. Where there are many small gardens, and people move house regularly, if some gardeners have the choice of using pesticides, the other gardeners may lose their own right to choose. To choose- what other people use in their gardens? I understand the point you're making, but similar considerations apply to trees blowing leaves into other's gardens; people owning cats; other people's hedges creating shade or dryness. Our population densities mean that we all have effects on the lives of many others, but trying to justify legislation on the basis that you have the 'right to choose' that my garden is managed in such a way as to maximise the predator count in your garden seems pretty far-fetched to me. This isn't to say I support things being banned, necessarily, but it's a point that I think is worth considering (the 'passive pesticide' argument?) Along with the 'passive pollen' argument, or the 'passive lack of wind shelter' argument? How dare my neighbour allow cold winds from the North & East to blow unobstructed across his garden onto mine? There ought to be a law against it! -- Anton |
#21
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
Alan Gould wrote in message ... In article , anton writes snip The recent 'ban' on some chemicals popularly used in gardening is not being introduced out of any support for organic methods, but on safety grounds. Mmm. Safety may be the claimed reason. However, the effect of this and many other bits of EU legislation is to raise the costs of entry into certain markets, and price out less usual or specialist products. The effect is to ensure that only a few large companies supply the market- in this case for garden chemicals. In the past, many chemicals have been similarly banned e.g. aldrin and dieldrin to name but two, but the effect was to encourage the introduction of other chemicals in their place. There is an ongoing demand for such products by gardeners who choose that style of gardening, and commercial interests see that the demand is met. I think it's nonsense to describe use of all the various types of garden chemicals as 'that style of gardening'. Somebody may use a fungicide on his roses, or feed his tomatoes, or do as I do and use glyphosate twice a year around the base of fruit trees. Each person has their own style of gardening. A lifetime of organic gardening without using manufactured chemicals proves to me that they are not necessary. Agreed- they probably aren't necessary. However, they can be very useful, imho. We currently garden two acres at age 75+70 and we could not cope with all the problems brought about by chemical gardening. Problems caused by chemical gardening? I haven't had any, unless you count the temporary defoliation of a young fruit tree when I got impatient with painting alcohol on each little cluster of woolly aphis. That's not much in ten years. Admittedly, I'm only a very small user of garden chemicals, but I think that demonstrates the error of trying to put the non-organic world into a single 'chemical' camp. On the other hand, weedkilling at the base of trees avoids a lot of strimming or laying down of unsightly carpet squares; weedkilling the gravel drive has stopped weeds colonising and destroying it; painting alcohol on woolly aphis has kept the problem under control on some young fruit trees, sodium chlorate has allowed me to go back to bare earth in order to clear some areas around greenhouses that were covered with broken glass. I could not have done what I've done here is so few hours without the use of chemicals. -- Anton |
#22
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
It was the banning of aldrin that has lead to the explosion of the problems
with Vine weevil -- David Hill Abacus nurseries www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk |
#23
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
In article , anton
writes Problems caused by chemical gardening? I haven't had any, unless you count the temporary defoliation of a young fruit tree when I got impatient with painting alcohol on each little cluster of woolly aphis. That's not much in ten years. Admittedly, I'm only a very small user of garden chemicals, but I think that demonstrates the error of trying to put the non-organic world into a single 'chemical' camp. I used the expression chemical to describe non-organic practices. I agree that it is a loose term, but then so is organic, both styles having many variations. I don't see any camps in recreational gardening. Each of us choose our own ways and take on some of other people's ideas as we see appropriate. In urg discussions, both chemical and organic have recognised gardening contexts which can be assumed to be in use unless otherwise stated. They both have several other dictionary definitions of course, used for differing purposes. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
#24
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
In article , David Hill david@abacus
nurseries.freeserve.co.uk writes It was the banning of aldrin that has lead to the explosion of the problems with Vine weevil I didn't know that David. Do you have any reliable info on it? -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
#25
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
In ,
Alan Gould typed: In article , David Hill david@abacus nurseries.freeserve.co.uk writes It was the banning of aldrin that has lead to the explosion of the problems with Vine weevil I didn't know that David. Do you have any reliable info on it? http://www.cyclamen.org/vineweev.htm gives some good info http://www.weevil.co.uk/info/history.htm show a plot of qureies to rhs re Vine evil pk |
#26
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
".........It was the banning of organochlorine pesticides such as aldrin
that arrested the catastrophic population declines of assorted birds of prey and otters, amongst others ......." Believe it or not I would agree with you to a very large extent, though like so many things it was ignorance that was the real problem. We were told that it was best to spray alternate weeks one week insecticide, next fungicide through the life of almost all food crops, so that is what we did.......because there was no way that "Mrs Public" wanted to find any sort of pest or blemish on her fruit or veg (Not so different today, but now more is sprayed by growers in 3rd world countries that we import from so our conscience is clear). It seems that in our culture it is all or nothing. Several chemicals could have been kept as chemicals of last resort. With today's knowledge of the effects most growers are much more responsible, and the cost is now a good limiting factor. In those days we had Ministry Advisors visiting on a regular basis who would advise on most things including pest control. Now they are a distant memory. Yes we do have more birds, such as Peregrines but now they are being shot and poisoned by "Bird fanciers, mostly those who race Pigeons.... we have lost at least 6 in the last 3 years where I am. Now if I could find something to spray my cabbage to get rid of pigeons...................... -- David Hill Abacus nurseries www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk |
#27
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 09:46:24 +0100, David Hill wrote:
It was the banning of aldrin that has lead to the explosion of the problems with Vine weevil David, I'm quite sure that that's a gross oversimplification. In chronological terms, I won't argue with you, but in terms of cause and effect, I have to raise an eyebrow or three at this analysis. There are all sorts of possible causes for the Vine Weevil Explosion, and I'd put my money on the idea that all of these causes have played significant roles. Aldrin only came on the scene after the second world war, probably in the mid-1950's. What was the vine weevil situation like before aldrin was available? I've read that the real culprit in the Vine Weevil Explosion was the widespread adoption of peat-based composts instead of real soil for potting, though I can't assess the validity of this observation. Another possibility is that overuse of petrochemical-derived pesticides (not necessarily aldrin itself) eradicated the natural predators of vine weevils, allowing their population to explode when aldrin was taken off the market. Yet another possibility: there has been no Vine Weevil Explosion; it's just that we grow many more plants susceptible to them than we used to. Cyclamen species, for example, are far more widely grown now than they were just twenty years ago. Footnote: has anyone else noticed that "weevil" is a conflation of "we evil"? -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
#28
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 16:11:00 GMT,
(Rodger Whitlock) wrote: Footnote: has anyone else noticed that "weevil" is a conflation of "we evil"? and Liv Ewe? sheepish grin -- martin |
#29
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
"..... I've read that the real culprit in the Vine Weevil Explosion was the
widespread adoption of peat-based composts instead of real soil for potting, though I can't assess the validity of this observation. ...." Once again you hit the nail on the head. Vine weevil have been around for the last 100 years and more, but in those days plants from nurseries were sold in natural soil, sometimes in John Innes compost where the soil was sterilised by heating or in the case of trees, shrubs and many perennial plants, bare rooted in the Autumn and Winter, so it wasn't very easy to spread the pest around, and the bulk of sales were "local". With the advent of peat based compost (In the early days referred to as U.C. compost after the University of California who formulated the first peat compost) this was followed by Fisons Levington compost and then everyone had their own brands. This was the time when container plants started to boom, so any infestation was shifter all round the UK easily and quickly. At this time Aldrin was banned so there was nothing to dose the consignments with to kill weevil, and it was not really till the introduction of Suscon Green that anything effective was available to the trade, a gap of nearly 30 years in which time our favourite pest had a population explosion. We have always grown plants that weevil love, Strawberries, Polyanthus (When I worked on the parks in the early 60's we used thousands of them in winter bedding, but propagated our own, mostly by division. The plants being lifted after flowering and being divided and planted out into holding beds for the summer) Hosta and many more, cyclamen were grown by the thousand but in soil based compost and in those days were grown cool and took 15 months to produce a finished plant. Also in those days we used to have a lot more Primula varieties used as house plants, Obconica, Malacoides, Senensis etc all of which can be hit by weevil -- David Hill Abacus nurseries www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk |
#30
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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
In ,
David Hill typed: "..... I've read that the real culprit in the Vine Weevil Explosion was the widespread adoption of peat-based composts instead of real soil for potting, though I can't assess the validity of this observation. ...." Once again you hit the nail on the head. Not quite..... in my understanding it was more the switch to pot growing rather then og that protected the beastie form its natural predators (ground beetles) Probable in fact a combination of the two pk |
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