Topic: Fumigating greenhouses

[tim]

When I say pressure spray, I mean a thing with a long handle -  & a couple of gallon capacity - with which you keep pumping to achieve the necessary pressure.

Not the usual Hozelock (with due respect).

[Barnowl]

None taken - thought that was what you meant - picked one up in the summer for the roses (mildew)

[calendula]

I am with Tim on this one ..My greenhouse's get cleared out completely .They  are then fumigated  with a sulpher candle or fumite etc ...Then all glass,  benches and nooks and crannies are washed down with  Jeyes or  Armatillox..
I have enough to combat in the new season without having to cope with any nasties left over from previous year ... 

without wanting to stir this up too much as folks will do their own thing anyway but.... if you are going to all that trouble to fumigate and still get problems then why bother and if you actually try to sustain the micro climate in a g/h I think there is less likely to be infestations of anything, i.e. keep the balance

also someone mentioned pressure sprays - be careful I've known people take their glass out using pressure spray  :(

[tim]

Indeed - I don't mean a 'car-wash' type thing.

 Why bother? No - you're not 'stirring'! But if I didn't, & use predators, chances are I'd lose the lot. Rather than get a bit of mould in October?

[moonbells]

I would *love* to fumigate my conservatory - but where oh where would I put the plants? The pests concerned are in and on them, so cleaning the building doesn't really help.

I wish to goodness someone would invent something that you could set off which killed the bugs and not the plants... or humans...  ;D

I settle for a twice-yearly scrub of every surface I can see with household Domestos spray :) and then use predators if something does take hold.

moonbells (currently having little bugs fight aphids - I ought to have shares in Defenders...)

[MrsKP]

i actually found a ladybird (my first of the season) in No: 2 g/h last night, probably cos there are loads of greenflies that keep appearing on my Little Gems.

I'm going to leave my fumigating a while longer yet !

 ;D

[moonbells]

You know I thought fumite bombs had been discontinued by the EU regs...

If they're still legal, hoorah!

Though the last time I tried it (about 7 years ago...) the house stank for days as it got in through the not-very-good door between the cons. and the lounge!

moonbells

[saddad]

You really shouldn't be using one in a conservatory Moonbells... the H+S Exec. would have a blue fit!
 :o

[Spruance]

One thing to be aware of when using sulphur candles is if you have plants growing in containers around the outside of the greenhouse. It's best to move these a few feet back as the fumes leak out of even the smallest crack and can still damage plantlife growing in close proximity. As I have previously learned to my cost. :o

[MrsKP]

right, that's it, i got scared and have given my two candles to a bloke in the office, in exchange for some fuschia cuttings next year.

the g/hses are just too close to too much to risk !

 ;D

[Spruance]

I've only ever used sulphur candles twice, once in each GH. They were very effective, but the second time the plants around the 'big' GH were badly scorched. I was a bit wary of going into the GH even after leaving the door open for a while afterwards, and the smell is appalling - really gets up your nose! :o

No damage to wooden (cedar) frame or staging but noticeable staining of concrete slabs despite candle tin being placed on old bricks. On balance I think I would still use them again though. As for environmental concerns, sulphur is a natural product - think volcanoes!

[MrsKP]

if i ever get this allotment and have a greenhouse up there, i might try them, but i've a 10' high hedge within 6" of g/h No.1 as well as the onion bed, strawberry bed, and soon to be garlic bed in between the two g/h.

i'm just going to have to keep my fingers x.

[calendula]

As for environmental concerns, sulphur is a natural product - think volcanoes!

but what folk are planning to do with them is not natural at all

you could substitute sulphur candles with the worst possible nasty bleach or disinfectant and just blast your greenhouse with water - as Tim said with a pump spray - but just as nasty and just as dangerous to health

we are oh so scared of a bit of dirt, fungus, disease, insects and other critters, mould, and anything else because we think it shouldn't be there and we want to have power over it and obliterate it but we are dealing with nature and it should be there -

if you really want to be clean then a damp cloth and nimble fingers will get rid of just as much and believe me sulphur candles or any amount of disinfectant etc won't be a successful prophylactic against 'nature' in your greenhouse - it will happen

it makes me so sad that folk get caught up in the chemical industry - rant over  :'(

[Spruance]

Calendula, it is true that the use of sulphur candles could be described as artificial, but in terms of polluting the environment. Consider this.... Every year Mount Etna vents more than one million tons of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. Etna is just one of over 1500 active volcanoes on Planet Earth.

Consequently, a few thousand or hundreds of thousands of sulphur candles are just a drop in the ocean.

[Barnowl]

I think Calendula's 'rant'  :) was pretty reasonable and I agree to a large extent with her opinions. I actually bought a sulphur candle 2 years ago because of RSM but having read the small print ended up not using it, the sulphur candle is affecting your local environment much more intensely than however many tons volcanoes spew up.

On the other hand, with regard to greenhouses, I think it could be argued that because we are creating artificial environments, not all of nature's reactions are natural. For instance I've never seen RSM outdoors in nature at large.

By the way, I must defend Armillatox: it breaks down completely leaving absolutely no residues - last year the normal garden spiders were back within a couple of weeks - and isn't like a bleach or even washing up liquid (which usually has amniotic surfactants etc).  I don't know about Jeyes which I use to sterilise old pots - will have to research.

[calendula]

my points could be expressed a little differently then

plutonium is 'natural' but what humans tend to do with it, and its effects on the human body is ___________________ (fill in your own descriptions)  :)

volcanoes do what they need to do - sulphur is ancient and a byproduct, the microclimate in a greenhouse is there for a reason benefitting each other in a fragile chain - humans always want power over the chain, humans are intent on killing, if we could we'd cap every volcano as well

volcanoes are dangerous and so are sulphur candles

let's begin with the eyes - burnings, ulcerations, haemorrhages, loss of vision
skin = again ulcers, burnings eruptions, cannot heal and suppurates and festers
lungs = cannot breathe, painful breathing, asthma, pleurisy, pneumonia, tuberculosis
brain/head - throbbing headaches, hair loss, ringworm sets in
anaemia, bright's disease, epilepsy, meningitis, rheumatism, peritonitis and much more caused by the lovely natural sulphur

I actually care about people's health and well being and am just trying to encourage people not to use these and other horrendous products, there's no need and it won't give you a perfect greenhouse anyway but folk will do what they want - enough said from me  :-X

[Spruance]

Calendula. I have obviously offended you so I apologise. :-[

Yes, volcanoes are harmful, but what I was trying to get across is that when compared to the colossal amount of harm done to the environment by Mother Nature, sulphur candles represent an insignificant hazard. That is not to say that I advocate using them willy-nilly.

As mentioned previously I have used sulphur candles only twice before. I tend to think of them as a last resort, and would ordinarily scrub out with a dilute Jeyes fluid solution or Citrox, twice a year.

I care about other people's health too, so I am sorry if I gave the wrong impression. Despite the 'inorganic' sulphur candle use, I do not use any chemicals or weedkiller or inorganic fertiliser in my garden, and have stuck rigorously to this policy for over 20 years. I think that possibly buys me some environmental 'credits' to use in an emergency.

Friends?  :) ;)

[Barnowl]

I was just interested in the discussion without realising I might be upsetting you, Calendula, so sorry from me too.

Like Spruance I try to be environmentally friendly (but admit that I have a bit of thing about RSM).

[calendula]

oh crikes  :-[

it's me who should apologise - if I hadn't of just realised there were replies to this it would have been left hanging (I opt for reply notification but don't always get it)

absolutely no offence taken or meant by me, just passionate and imploring about getting people to opt out of the chemical industry as much as they can and the trouble with forums is that even when you use smileys the messages can be read many ways, so sorry

 :-* ( for spruance)  :-* (for barnowl)  :-* :-* :-* for everyone - whatever we cultivate in times of ease, we gather as strength for times of change

mama nature does ok really, we just have to find our own balance with her, she's a real cool gal  ;D

back to the cricket  ;)

[MrsKP]

being pretty uneducated in the ways of the gardener, it's good to read both sides of the debate and from there make your own decisions.

when i first bought my candles, in higorance, i thought they were a bit like smudge sticks, how dozy is that ?  having read the tin and listened to advice, i am not going to use them.  funny thing was  i got them from the organic gardening catalogue !!!  you'd think they'd put a warning on the page wouldn't you ?

moral of the story, read more threads and understand what you're doing and why.

glad everyone kissed and made up.  i'm positive no-one meant to offend anyone, it's just a sharing of knowledge after all, isn't it.

 ;D