I'd never harvest anything any year had it not been for sprays (organic or synthetic) 
seriously, how did they do it?how did people even harvest anything prior to sprays?
seriously. Every year I get nearly every disease imaginable. I'd never harvest anything any year had it not been for sprays (organic or synthetic) seriously, how did they do it?
I'd never harvest anything any year had it not been for sprays (organic or synthetic) seriously, how did they do it?-
DoubleDogFarm
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I guess it depends on who they are.
One practice is to slash and burn and plant crops. After the soil is depleted or diseases set in they moved and did it again. Large scale crop rotation.
I have sprayed no organic or petroleum based sprays this year or the last several years. I did spray algae water from my duck pond twice this year. Compost tea and aerated compost tea may have been proven ineffective against diseases, but I'm pretty sure it works on soil health. Soil health = Plant health. Practice crop rotation also.
Eric
One practice is to slash and burn and plant crops. After the soil is depleted or diseases set in they moved and did it again. Large scale crop rotation.
I have sprayed no organic or petroleum based sprays this year or the last several years. I did spray algae water from my duck pond twice this year. Compost tea and aerated compost tea may have been proven ineffective against diseases, but I'm pretty sure it works on soil health. Soil health = Plant health. Practice crop rotation also.
Eric
Last edited by DoubleDogFarm on Sun Aug 21, 2011 1:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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!potatoes!
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I haven't sprayed a thing in at least a year and a half - and that last time it was just water on cuttings.
I do lean towards crops that take care of themselves to some extent, though. not much monocroppin', nothin' too thirsty, and things that tend to get sick in several plantings, separated by time and distance.
been harvesting lots of beans, cowpeas, other legumes, root crops, tomatoes, ground cherries, cukes, greens...will have many other crops coming as the seasons progresses - popping sorghum, squash, more roots, various perennial tubers....
and like DDF said, healthy soils = healthy plants = less susceptibility to disease.
also, location's gotta count for something. if you're in a neighborhood where everyone's growing tomatoes, you should expect blight. if you're a half-mile up a mountain in the boondocks like me, you should just...anticipate it.
I do lean towards crops that take care of themselves to some extent, though. not much monocroppin', nothin' too thirsty, and things that tend to get sick in several plantings, separated by time and distance.
been harvesting lots of beans, cowpeas, other legumes, root crops, tomatoes, ground cherries, cukes, greens...will have many other crops coming as the seasons progresses - popping sorghum, squash, more roots, various perennial tubers....
and like DDF said, healthy soils = healthy plants = less susceptibility to disease.
also, location's gotta count for something. if you're in a neighborhood where everyone's growing tomatoes, you should expect blight. if you're a half-mile up a mountain in the boondocks like me, you should just...anticipate it.
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Gary350
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I have not sprayed anything on my garden in over 20 years. I have 25 bird houses mostly for Wrens. Wrens eat their body weight in bugs every day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8wjCGQhhRI
Leave a very low watt light bulb on all night nothing larger than 40 watts. 25 watts works great. Bugs are attracted to the light after dark. Bats come and eat the bugs. Bats eat twice their body weight in bugs every night. Bats to not like the heat from the light bulb a 25 watt light works good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8wjCGQhhRI
Leave a very low watt light bulb on all night nothing larger than 40 watts. 25 watts works great. Bugs are attracted to the light after dark. Bats come and eat the bugs. Bats eat twice their body weight in bugs every night. Bats to not like the heat from the light bulb a 25 watt light works good.
Interesting about the birds and the bugs . . .
Famine from plant diseases certainly wasn't unknown 100 years ago. But, famine, it has been pointed out, often has a lot to do with economics and sometimes, policies more sinister.
Slash and burn (crop rotation) agriculture wasn't confined just to tropical regions in the distant past. It was common in Western Europe and in North America as well.
Insects are often a cause of the spread of plant diseases. One way that I encourage some help from nature is by planting sunflowers. The various finches visit the flowers often, even before there are any seeds forming. It is almost as tho' they are staking a claim to the territory.
Having a full sun location and providing for good air circulation is important for avoiding some diseases. Probably all gardeners have a tendency to crowd plants. Thinning, transplanting, and on-time harvesting are all important to the health of our garden plants.
Some vegetables are really unsuited for some locations and parts of the world. Variable weather patterns may also deal a blow to some things one year and not another. It is good to have a great variety of crops to rely on.
Here, summer squash can be devastated by mildew about half the time. One can be prepared to pull the plants in late August while having fresh transplants that are set out about the 1st of July. This schedule provides me with young plants that can resist the mildew for weeks later in the season.
Rust in beans along with spider mites makes keeping bush beans for a 2nd crop very problematic. And yet, bean seed germinates easily during the early summer and the plants grow rapidly to produce a crop. For me, it is: why keep the old plants for a 2nd crop? I can clear that area and plant something like fall greens.
Diseases, like septoria in the tomatoes, I tolerate unless the plant is really going downhill. Then, it is pulled. I can't remember spraying my vegetables for disease. Perhaps, I have never done that.
Steve
Famine from plant diseases certainly wasn't unknown 100 years ago. But, famine, it has been pointed out, often has a lot to do with economics and sometimes, policies more sinister.
Slash and burn (crop rotation) agriculture wasn't confined just to tropical regions in the distant past. It was common in Western Europe and in North America as well.
Insects are often a cause of the spread of plant diseases. One way that I encourage some help from nature is by planting sunflowers. The various finches visit the flowers often, even before there are any seeds forming. It is almost as tho' they are staking a claim to the territory.
Having a full sun location and providing for good air circulation is important for avoiding some diseases. Probably all gardeners have a tendency to crowd plants. Thinning, transplanting, and on-time harvesting are all important to the health of our garden plants.
Some vegetables are really unsuited for some locations and parts of the world. Variable weather patterns may also deal a blow to some things one year and not another. It is good to have a great variety of crops to rely on.
Here, summer squash can be devastated by mildew about half the time. One can be prepared to pull the plants in late August while having fresh transplants that are set out about the 1st of July. This schedule provides me with young plants that can resist the mildew for weeks later in the season.
Rust in beans along with spider mites makes keeping bush beans for a 2nd crop very problematic. And yet, bean seed germinates easily during the early summer and the plants grow rapidly to produce a crop. For me, it is: why keep the old plants for a 2nd crop? I can clear that area and plant something like fall greens.
Diseases, like septoria in the tomatoes, I tolerate unless the plant is really going downhill. Then, it is pulled. I can't remember spraying my vegetables for disease. Perhaps, I have never done that.
Steve
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rainbowgardener
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Agree with soil re working with nature instead of against it.
For bugs and diseases, I think one piece of that is diversity of planting. If you have (for example) a tomato patch, it is going to be more attractive to all the pests and pathogens that like tomatoes and easily spread from one plant to the next.
If your tomato plants are spread around your garden, each one surrounded by a variety of other (non-nightshade) plants, including onions, garlic, herbs, flowers, etc, it will be much harder for the pests to find them and they won't spread from plant to plant.
Then all the stuff that has been mentioned - healthy soil, mulch to suppress weeds and soil borne diseases, good air circulation, lots of birds, beneficial insects, etc. What you are aiming for is a little mini-ecosystem that is in balance and therefore pretty self-sustaining.
For bugs and diseases, I think one piece of that is diversity of planting. If you have (for example) a tomato patch, it is going to be more attractive to all the pests and pathogens that like tomatoes and easily spread from one plant to the next.
If your tomato plants are spread around your garden, each one surrounded by a variety of other (non-nightshade) plants, including onions, garlic, herbs, flowers, etc, it will be much harder for the pests to find them and they won't spread from plant to plant.
Then all the stuff that has been mentioned - healthy soil, mulch to suppress weeds and soil borne diseases, good air circulation, lots of birds, beneficial insects, etc. What you are aiming for is a little mini-ecosystem that is in balance and therefore pretty self-sustaining.
Yep, the only "spray" that I have used in several years is a liitle Bt to help keep the cabbage worms out of the Broccoli.
I don't even own any other pesticides, whether they be chemical or organic.
The garden does just fine, and I always have more produce than we can eat, and plenty to share with friends.
Gardening "naturally" just suits my style.
I don't even own any other pesticides, whether they be chemical or organic.
The garden does just fine, and I always have more produce than we can eat, and plenty to share with friends.
Gardening "naturally" just suits my style.
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DoubleDogFarm
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I remember people soaking cigarette and cigar butts in water and spraying it on plants to kill bugs. That was back when smoking was thought to be benign, so the spray was considered okay.
I also remember my grandmother's yard being full of wren houses. She was especially fond of wrens, but she also had little toad houses (upturned broken flower pots) placed around in the garden, and she refused to allow my grandfather to get rid of the bats in the outbuildings.
I also remember my grandmother's yard being full of wren houses. She was especially fond of wrens, but she also had little toad houses (upturned broken flower pots) placed around in the garden, and she refused to allow my grandfather to get rid of the bats in the outbuildings.
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rainbowgardener
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Wow, in Washington State you don't get powdery mildew? I know you get lots of rain, but when it isn't raining is the air very humid? I think for me it isn't the rain, but the general humidity that is so conducive to the PM.
The only thing I can think about the under watering thing is that if you studied it you would certainly find a correlation between under watering and PM. Anything that stresses the plant, which under watering does, will make it more vulnerable to whatever disease or pest is around. Plants have immune systems just as we do and just like us, they get diseases more if their immune systems are weakened. That doesn't mean that under watering causes PM.
The only thing I can think about the under watering thing is that if you studied it you would certainly find a correlation between under watering and PM. Anything that stresses the plant, which under watering does, will make it more vulnerable to whatever disease or pest is around. Plants have immune systems just as we do and just like us, they get diseases more if their immune systems are weakened. That doesn't mean that under watering causes PM.
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DoubleDogFarm
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In the past I've had Powdery mildew, but it's been many years. seldomWow, in Washington State you don't get powdery mildew? I know you get lots of rain, but when it isn't raining is the air very humid? I think for me it isn't the rain, but the general humidity that is so conducive to the PM.
We do get "lots of rain" in the winter. We get very little rain in the summer. Nothing like the 8" of rain parts of Ohio received in July. .68 June, .84 July. We did get .22 yesterday and it felt good.
https://www.fridayharbor.org/Utilities/rainfall.htm
If I'm reading it correctly, today 86% humidity
Eric
Talking today to neighbor who grew up on farm where she now lives, and the conversation tuned to 'the olden days'. Up until she was about 9 they farmed with horses. The kids (10 of them) hoed the fields of corn by hand. I asked if they worked all day, she said no, they came in for lunch!
She said they basically worked year-round due to all the hand labor.
Mowed hay, didn't bale it. Came home from school and did all the chores with the animals while their parents were working out in the fields so everything would be done by supper.
She did say that modern farming with GPS and autosteer has caught up with farming by horses....the horses evidentally knew exactly where to walk, where to turn, and what to do.
She said they basically worked year-round due to all the hand labor.
Mowed hay, didn't bale it. Came home from school and did all the chores with the animals while their parents were working out in the fields so everything would be done by supper.
She did say that modern farming with GPS and autosteer has caught up with farming by horses....the horses evidentally knew exactly where to walk, where to turn, and what to do.