Allotments 4 All

Clean Potatoes, Carrots & Brassica!

They spray again and again with an arsenal of poisons.

Have read that Irish potato growers are spraying every 10-14 days..

How does that deal with Keel Slugs?

It doesnt.  I didnt deduce slugs from your post.. pls ignore!

QuoteThey spray again and again with an arsenal of poisons.

Very true!!

They spray as a preventative measure i.e. whether the crop is pest/disease ridden or not, whereas we 'amateurs' would only spray (if we want to) when the problem manifests itself.

This is why I am not totally organic, most years I use NO sprays dusts etc at all.

But if my plants do succumb to a pest/disease I will try/use what is ever at my disposal to get rid of it.

I can't see the point of letting a plant die if it can be saved.

I always look at it this way; if I personally need medicine to cure an ailment I take it, particularly if prescribed, so why can't my plants have some medicine when they need it.?

If I know I have treated something during the season I take particular care when preparing it for the table that it is; thoroughly washed/peeled/cooked.

If I know it hasn't been treated I just wash/peel it if required, e.g I like baked potatoes & potatoe skins!

Regarding purchased veg; I am even more wary of this as I am not so sure what it might have been treated with, and this includes so called 'organic' produce!!!

They use metaldehyde slug pellets - between 6000 and 10,000 tonnes of these are used in UK agriculture every year.  It's becoming a problem in water courses. 

Tony was speaking to someone a while ago and they reckon the spuds are sprayed every fortnight with alluminium something or other. We just use the half of the spud that slug has left ;D

We just use the half of the spud that slug has left


ya  so do we !!
;D ;D

Can you imagine the uproar in the press if a slug was found in a spud bought from a supermarket???

One of our plot-holders worked in a market garden while he was at College. Apparently, they sprayed every few days with something or other, purely as a preventative. They were issued with face-masks!

By 'clean' potatoes, Nick , I mean no slugs so that you can bake them.

Yes - of course - we never waste a bit for boiled, fried or mash, but I doubt that we'll get more than a dozen bakers out of 4 rows this year.

One bright spark - PFA are untouched & looking good.

I'm reminded of the days of the rise in popularity of new world wines.  Any French wine grower you spoke to blamed it on the unfair and unethical use of "produits chimiques" by their upstart competitors.  In fact, of course, it was modern methods and good discipline that accounted for 90% of the success.

Commercial growers test and condition their soil before planting.  How many of us even take a pH reading?

Commercial growers till the ground to exacting specifications.  Well, probably most of us make an attempt at that.

Commercial growers use pelleted seed, or else special machines to ensure optimum seed distribution.  For amateurs, pelleted seed is expensive, but some of us use them.  But our plantings are relatively haphazard.

Commercial growers irrigate to a precise calendar.  Saying that you'll pop down to the lottie at the weekend and water the seedlings doesn't hack it. If they need water now, they need it now.

And yes, commercial growers use chemical methods of control for weeds, fungus infections, and insects.  But that is clearly not the whole story.

Cheers for explanation Tim.
Your PFAs look great.  Strangely my spuds are untouched but my cabbages have record breaking numbers of the blighters..

I just bake the potatoes and dig the slugs out later..... ;D

Gross Deb...  ;D

I cut away round the slug hole until I see clean potato and oil and salt in the usual way and bake.  A bit less of the baked skin but still O.K.  Just do an extra potato.

 Isn't every thing, produce sold in the supermarkets  sprayed now.
Here in Ontario  farmers and golf courses are allowed to spray with all kinds of stuff, but the home gardener is not, he can only use stuff that is no one iota of good against bugs and nasties that attack our produce,

The only thing that we hope will help next year is a double go of Dormant spray on fruit trees.

Dandelions in the lawn, no spray allowed, but we are trying a product called Corn Gluten, Organic, a double broadcast of that may help. fingers crossed... qahtan

I grew some spuds in dustbins this year, using clean old pot compost from last years pots at the base on top of a layer of horse muck, and a mix of old pot compost and straw - meant to produce clean baby spuds, left them for a very long time and got loads of lovely bakers! Worth a try, and a good use for old pot compost.

It's very good for carrots too...  :)

luck my spuds are full of wireworm scab and god alone knows what else
1st year on new plot carrots are fine strangely  enough