Chemical Gardening

alan refail · Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:32 am

I'll start a new thread with this one, rather than confusing the creosote debate even further.

Last night I was browsing through an old gardening book (Richard Sudell, Practical Gardening and Food Production, Odhams Press, 1942). Among the remedies suggested for various pests and diseases of vegetables were:

Nicotine
Paris Green
Naphthalene
Mercuric Chloride
Creosote (on onions!)
Lead Arsenate
White lead paint
Formalin
Quicklime

I haven't checked the availability, legality or toxicity of any of the above. I just offer the list as a spur for comment, as these were suggested as remedies amateurs should use.

Alan

oldherbaceous · Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:19 am

You just can't beat the old ways of doing things. :shock:

Mr Potato Head · Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:06 am

Never did me any harm... :wink:

lizzie · Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:17 am

I'm fine too..... :shock:

tea-shot · Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:07 pm

Grew up with most of those added...

Mr Potato Head · Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:12 pm

Actually, I have a great recipe for onion and creosote gravy... and everyone knows the fortifying effect of quick naphthalene sandwich.

I try to stay away from Paris Green, but she seems to be on telly endlessly! :roll:

Johnboy · Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:31 pm

Oh how droll!
Of all the chemicals mentioned by Alan only Nicotine is still legally available to ANY grower.
JB.

Mr Potato Head · Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:02 pm

Sadly, the propagation of nicotine, in one of its natural forms is still a big money spinner (indirectly) for the government/s. I wonder why they haven't banned it? :roll:

oldherbaceous · Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:24 pm

I know i'm going off the original subject, as i normally do, but when i was reading the exceptionally good issue of the Kithchen Garden magazine, i saw in next months issue Bob Flowerdew is doing a bit on cultivating tabacco for your own cigarettes. :evil:

Whats that all about Captain Carrot. :?:

alan refail · Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:29 pm

Well, it's banned here in Wales from 1st April :!:

But my neighbour's still using creosote and most of the local drivers are still speeding on narrow country lanes while using their mobile phones ... ond dyna fo :!:

that's life

Cider Boys · Tue Feb 20, 2007 6:20 pm

Well it may surprise you but I thought that the fitness and health of the conscripted population according to the armed services was at a much higher level in the 1940s than it is today.
Perhaps they knew something the modern Nanny State doesn’t.

Barney

alan refail · Tue Feb 20, 2007 6:28 pm

No, Barney, it doesn't surprise me. Are you suggesting this was due to the full list of chemicals, or just nicotine (yes, I am a smoker still).
They were smaller and thinner. I just have to think back to my family. Those of us born and/or raised in the forties ended up bigger (and fitter :?:

) on a healthy diet of orange juice, cod-liver oil, rose-hip syrup and dig-your-own vegetables. And the wartime government was far, far more a "Nanny State" than now.

Alan

Jenny Green · Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:09 pm

Is that right Barney? Not doubting you but just wondering if you know more about it. I remember hearing something about the health of 1st World War soldiers, that it was quite bad - I think the average chest measurement was something like 30 inches. :shock:

Monika · Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:52 pm

I spent my war-time summer holidays on a farm in Czechoslovakia stringing tobacco leaves with large needles. They were then hung up to dry in the barn! I remember the smell as being very pleasant, but, luckily, I never took to the taste and didn't start smoking or snorting!

Cider Boys · Tue Feb 20, 2007 8:00 pm

Hi Jenny

I don’t know about the First World War Jenny but I had heard that modern recruits were not in such good condition as the Second WW ones.

All I can think is that perhaps the First WW recruits were deprived of the benefits of eating all those 1940s’ chemical foods!!! (But then I would wouldn’t I?)

Barney

Chemical Gardening

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