Topic: handy web page

[norfolklass]

just googled "Sclerotinia cepivorum" after reading jock_edin's post about white rot and found this page about pests and diseases in veg, with helpful pics (apologies if it's been posted before):

http://mtvernon.wsu.edu/path_team/diseasegallery.htm

[tim]

Why DO we bother??

[djbrenton]

An alien looking at all the diseases we humans can catch might well ask God the same question.

[calendula]

I think we have to ask ourselves why and how these conditions take hold and just as in human health disease tends to take hold when immune systems are down or when messed up with drugs and the like so I would question the chemical use on land that consistently allows these conditions to thrive - it means that the land has no immunity due to excess chemical invasion

these are my opinions anyway

live more healthily and the land will respond accordingly - takes time and effort though but has to be worth it in the long term  :)

[redimp]

There is evidence that proper rotation and the periodic application of compost (in line with the rotation) controls white rot.  If brassicas are grown before alliums, chemicals released by the brassicas are thought to have a positive effect.  Compost that contains healthy composted allium matter seems to wake up the fungus but gives it nothing to feast on so it dies of starvation.  The garlic extracts that are being trialled have the same effect and if applied the year before planting, have been shown to reduce incidence by 70%.  If used for two years before planting, it has been shown to reduce incidence by 95%.  Throwing armatillox at it is the nuclear solution and will poison everything else including anything beneficial in the soil.