Blight Control

[Arnie]

Hi Everyone

Can I ask what is available to the allotment / home gardener for blight control for next year !!!

Regards

Arnie

[Kleftiwallah]

Short answer is "Not a lot". Now is the time to try things like spraying diluted whole milk! Sounds daft but you never know. . . .Cheers, Tony.

[farmer jon]

bordeaux is still available,also bayers new veg disease control which is supposed to replace dithane 945 but the main ingredient is copper oxychloride which has been used for many years to treat cane spot on blackberries etc. neither are as good as the dithane but better than nothing.
yet again brussels has played a blinder leaving us with virtually no control for potato blight. sooty & sweep would make a better job than these faceless eurocrats.

[peter]

I thought Bordeaux was being withdrawn very soon?

[Arnie]

Hi All,

I went looking for some Bordeaux mixture today and found that Vitax do it in a powder form (a small puffer tube) now this is going to be far to costly, need a liquid type any idea's


Regards

Arnie

[Geoff]

If you read the Vitax tube it says:
Bordeaux Mixture should be pre-mixed with a small quantity of water in a plastic bucket or other suitable container. When thoroughly mixed, make up to the final volume with more water, stirring continuously. Use at the rate of 35 g product per 1.5 litres of spray. Apply immediately by sprayer ensuring that all foliage is evenly wetted without drenching. NOTE: Do not allow diluted material to stand.
Well it does on my old tube anyway.
I have collected the information somewhere in the past that Bordeaux Mixture is:
10g copper sulphate, 10g hydrated lime and 1kg water; mix each powder with 500g of water then combine the result - do not mix the powders.
But I have never tried the diy approach.
The Vitax tube contains 30% tetracopper tricalcium sulphate by the way.

[Gerry]

Hi Arnie,

You can make your own Bordeaux Mixture.

Dissolve 40g copper sulphate in 4 litres of water (1.5 oz in 1 gallon).
Slake 40g quicklime (beware - caustic to skin) slowly with water, then make up to 1 litre (1.5 oz made up to 2 pints).
Add the latter solution to the former, stirring, and use immediately.

My reference book also says that " Burgundy Mixture is a similar fungicide to Bordeaux Mixture and is easier to make since it uses washing soda instead of quicklime. However, it is stronger and may scorch tender foliage".

"Make in same way as Bordeaux Mixture, using 50g copper sulphate in 4 litres water (2 oz in 1 gallon) and 60g washing soda in 1 litre water (2.5 oz in 2 pints)".

I don't know if the Burgundy Mixture can be substituted for Bordeaux Mixture. Perhaps Johnboy or Alan can advise on this.

Regards, Gerry.

[Arnie]

Hi everyone

found this on the RHS web site

Note: Bordeaux Mixture will be withdrawn from sale on 28 February 2013 but any person can use and store existing
stocks until 28 February 2015.

And what happens after that

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Media/PDFs/Advice/Fungicides


Regards

Arnie

[Primrose]

I've still got some Dithane left, which presumably I can still use even though the sale of it has now been withdrawn. I shall use it anyway. It seems crazy to me withdrawing products which are vital to food production/disease control when no suitable alternative has yet been developed. But I suppose that's what we're supporting all these EU bureaucrats to do on our behalf at vast taxpayer expense.

[peter]

Hi Arnie,

You can make your own Bordeaux Mixture.

Dissolve 40g copper sulphate
Slake 40g quicklime .

But Gerry where do you get the two ingredients from?
I imagine with access to chalk or limestone and somethong to cook it with one could homebrew the quicklime,if a builders merchant is unable to supply.
But where does Joe Public get copper sulphate from?

Remember citric acid from Boots to make lemonade etc. Unavailable now as used in the taking or production of illegal drugs

[farmer jon]

I've still got some Dithane left, which presumably I can still use even though the sale of it has now been withdrawn. I shall use it anyway. It seems crazy to me withdrawing products which are vital to food production/disease control when no suitable alternative has yet been developed. But I suppose that's what we're supporting all these EU bureaucrats to do on our behalf at vast taxpayer expense.

I couldn't agree more primrose, the worrying thing is that it is not just the amateur market that is being affected but the professional market is getting shorn of dozens of pesticides/fungicides & herbicides too. this is putting our food production at great risk & in the case of fungicides , handing great advantage to spanish growers who have a drier climate & don't rely on fungicides as much as we do here in our damper climate.
as you say, no replacement products are in place prior to withdrawal. the biggest own-goal here was in the case of peat free composts. the government panicked, instead of researching new products that are as good as peat compost & taking time to perfect this,it rushed through the peat reduction , leaving us with the totally useless mix of bark,wood ,glass & other ingredients that I would not even put in the cats litter tray, let alone grow stuff in .

[Primrose]

Perhaps the answer here is not to allow anybody to stand for elected public office anywhere until they have passed a rigorous high level examination in logics. Maybe then we'd avoid some of the silly situations.

[Johnboy]

Hi FJ

the government panicked, instead of researching new products that are as good as peat compost & taking time to perfect this,it rushed through the peat reduction , leaving us with the totally useless mix of bark,wood ,glass & other ingredients that I would not even put in the cats litter tray, let alone grow stuff in .

In another posting I have suggested that DEFRA are not fit for purpose because all these anomalies are a direct result of DEFRA inaction.
I suspect that there is too high a proportion of staff with "green credentials" and we all know that "green" is another word for throwing common sense out of the window!
The "green lobby" are responsible for directly lobbying of the European Parliament where all these rules come from.
Where home production is a government so called priority they are proving that they say one thing and mean something entirely different.
The trouble is that Public Schoolboys simply have no idea how to grow anything because they are too well breached to get their hands dirty until it comes to expenses!
JB.

[Gerry]

Hi Peter,
Sorry but I missed your post. Hence the late reply.

I have never tried to make it as I still have the best part of 1kg of Dithane left. However a quick google came up with mistrani.co.uk selling copper sulphate, although their delivery charges are a bit steep.

Regards, Gerry.