Kiwi Phil
Commander
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2003
- Messages
- 2,182
The biggest problem the home gardener has is all the info he sees on the TV about bad chemicals and their use in the food chain.<br />If chemicals are used correctly, then there is no problem. Chemicals have effectively <br />1.) increased the output of food many times over,<br />2.) have reduced the cost of food <br />3.) have improved the quality and goodness of our food.<br /><br />First up, for the home gardener, I believe they need to understand the following as it would apply to their home garden<br /><br />Chemicals fall in to 3 types for you<br /><br />1.) Pesticide or Insecticide <br />this group of chemicals kills pest or insects.<br />2.) Fungicides <br />This group kill fungi/fungus <br />3.) Herbicides <br />This group kills plants, and are used to kill weeds.<br /><br />This is probably all you need to understand at this point.<br /><br />When you use chemicals READ THE BLXXDY LABEL .<br />I say this because the male of our specie has a built in attitude that you only read the label/instructions at the very last moment, after disaster has struck.<br /><br />The label will tell you what the chemical is to be used for, how to mix it, at what rates, what precautions to take and a lot of other things. follow it to the letter!!!!!<br /> <br />Now there is a thing called an off label use and this occurs when the seller tells you it can be used for not only what is written on the label, but for another type of Insect too. If you run in to this, then write the name of the pest the chemical can be used for "off label" on the blxxdy label, So in a years time, when you come back to use it again, you don't have to use your fishermans memory of what you were told....GOT IT??????<br />This is serious stuff, and if you do everything correctly, you will never have a problem.<br /><br />Now to deal with Pests and Insects <br />As a home gardener you will run in to the mighty Caterpillar. You will recognise the damage he does long before you see him.<br />The damage will appear as a chewed leaf, <br />or some of them leave what we call "shot holes" (which are a lot of little holes on a leaf), where they have chewed. <br />Another type strip all the goodness out of a leaf and all you will see is the viens of the leaf, which sort of resembles the comic drawing of a fish frame.<br />Now the good thing about caterpillars is that they are chewing insects: because they chew, that makes them easy to send to Caterpillar heaven. <br />You use an Insecticide for them and that can come in basically 3 versions.<br />1.) Contact. When the spray of the Insecticide hits them, then that's it....all over.<br />2.) Systemic. The pray of the Insecticide is absorbed or remains of the leaf, and when Caterpillar has a bite...hey presto...he's gone..<br />3.) Biological (that's what we will call it here) when the spray contains an organism which is activated when you mix it with water; it remains on the leaf and when chewed, caterpillar absorbes these little fellows in to their gut, and once again....goodnight mr Caterpillar.<br /><br />So my advice to you is, go to your gardening centre and tell them what you have a problem with, even take a leaf, better still a caterpillar, and they should be able to give you a spray to combat the ssituation<br /><br />Here we get grasshoppers, and they can be a problem. I know they breed up in the dry dust, and when I see little small things jumping as I walk around, I know to go and spray the area. This is a contact spray. As there are thousands of them, I can easily decimate the population quickly, and the few that survive and grow to eat my crop are negligible. Once they are grown, they are highly mobile and difficult to control. We grab the big ones and pull their heads of and let them go....good fun....then a bird swoops out of the sun...and gone..<br /><br />Now to deal with Fungis<br />This will appear on leaves as a sort of mold. It can be white (on mint) through to gray and black, depending on the variety.<br />One easy way to control it is to<br />1.) pull the effective leaf off and put it in the rubbish bin.<br />2.) ensure you have good air circulation between your plants.<br />3.) I seldom use fungicides, as by the time I have it, it is too late to do anything constructive, as my crop is a quick growing one.<br />Fungicides can be best used as a preventative, in other words, use it before the problem occurs.<br />In Roses, after prunning, they tend to get scale which I have always sprayed with white oil to smother it. I do this spray immediately I have pruned, and that reduces the future outbreak by 90%, then if/when it does appear, spray white oil again.<br />Gardenias can get black soot. The 1st sign of it, spray white oil to smother it.<br />Once again, if you are having problems, so seek advice from your Garden Centre, and take a sample.<br /><br />Herbicides.<br />These are used for killing weeds, and the most common is Glyphosate (round up was a label name). They are brilliant for killing weeds, in fact they will kill a wide range of plants, so be careful what you spray when you use it.<br /> DO NOT EXCEED THE MIX RATIO INSTRUCTIONS on the label, as once you apply the correct rate, putting in twice as much will not give you twice the kill , so save your money, double the dose does not have double the effect. <br /><br />I am going to mention Spreaders here. These are sort of like liquid soap that you add to the mix along with the chemical.<br />Remember in school when you did the experiment of a drop of water in a dish, and when you added a little soap, the liquid spread and climbed the wall of the dish. Well, the saop altered the surface tension.<br />When you appry it to a chemical spray, when the dropplets hit the leaf, they spred out and join up, giving you a brilliant but very quick complete coverage of the leaf.<br /> Never apply it to Roundup herbicide. It already has it in the chemical.(done so for the idiots....)<br /><br />Now for specifics:<br />I don't know what grubs/caterpillars etc you get where you are, but your local Garden Centre certainly does, so go seek their advice.<br /><br />Expense.<br />There is a cost involved, but if you stick to the instructions for mix rates etc, then you will find you will use very little, meaning the cost in reality is neglibible.<br />For a Home Gardener, you may not need to make up your 1 Gal or 5 Gal sprayer (and look like Rambo) to tackle a job that a little hand sprayer with 8 oz in it will do the 6 tomatoes, 6 lettuce and 6 cabbage you have. <br /><br />Learning.<br />In this family we have an interest in plants. We watch all the Nature programs. The other night David Attenborough covered moths (which lead to the mighty Caterpillar). We all learnt what their life cycle is. Now when Hayden sees a pretty moth, he asks, where is it going to land and lay it eggs.<br />Just remember, what goes on in what you think is "the wild" is actually happening in your back yard, ans most of you don't know it.<br /><br />I wish to stress that this is a very general outline for you to follow. You could write a book on this subject, so I have tried to condence it down so you have an understanding.<br /><br />Seek advice from your Garden Centre.<br /><br />Cheers<br />Phillip