Allotments 4 All

The Italians do the same on our site- one tells me it is organic. ???
I guess it must be bordeaux mixture but as I've never used it i am not sure :-\

Bordeaux is blue - brightness varies depending on how strong it is mixed. It leaves a chalky pale blue residue on leaves and fruits - you have to wash this off before eating. I sprayed for the first time this year yesterday - no blight yet but it's been warm/wet enough this week for me not to want to take a chance.

My main problem so far is that my toms this year (grown outside) are rubbish - very weedy plants with not many flowers, and just not growing much. I think this might be down to temperature fluctuations that we have had - very hot in May/June, then very cold then very hot in July, and now pretty cool in Aug so far...they've had lots of feeding and watering but they're just not happy!  :( :( :(

The one they use here is organic , we are not allowed to use others XX Jeannine

I thought bordeaux mixture was allowed under organic principles but only as a sort of last resort, minimal usage being acceptable.  Your comment seems to imply there is an organic and a non organic type Jeannine.

by the way I often worry my questions could sound challenging- that is not my intention- it is just that you have so much knowledge and I love to learn :)

I don't know if there is,, I just know they say we have to use everything organic so I buy one that states that..

XX Jeannine

Quote from: cornykev on August 07, 2011, 16:54:52
The Italians on our site spray with a bright blue copper spray, it almost glows in the dark, I would not eat any of them Tommies, even if I liked them

I couldn't agree more that in a year like this, airy open shelters are a better option, but in a bad year, or if it gets worse (or for people who have their plants scattered about their plot) preventative spraying is the only sensible option.

Copper salts are blue - fact. Sorry to say this but that's almost totally irrelevant - except it means you can see what's been sprayed and what's not.

Copper has been used against blight since the 1840s and a huge amount of information on its safety and effectiveness has built up - by contrast no 'modern' pesticide/fungicide or herbicide based on complex synthesised molecules has yet lasted much more than 25 years without being banned. Most only last 5 years and they weren't any safer before they were banned either (you can believe some were removed for 'commercial reasons' if you like).

Copper salts are bitter to taste - fact, but they don't penetrate the fruit - unlike 'modern' (ie. untested) sprays which taste of rotten cabbage even if washed, scrubbed, scoured.

You can prove this by giving a 'blued' tomato a good polish on your trousers and then tasting it - the bitterness will have disappeared.

Copper salts are poisonous - but only in the kind of quantities that would be guaranteed to make you puke. You'd be more likely to die by choking than poisoning.

Copper salts are essential to the health of all mammals - in the kind of tiny quantities you'd get from polished fruit - that includes badly polished ones that are still detectably bitter.

According to the Potato Council webpage the fungicides available to amateurs do work (as preventatives) but are much of a muchness - that includes both copper and stinky dithane.

It's your choice of course, but for me copper wins hands down and dithane doesn't even merit second place.

Cheers.

Sorry to repeat, I should have posted here.
c
I just got back from our plots and spoke to a man who had been spraying his potaoes and tomatoes with copper spray sine May, he was shocked to find he had blight and has pulled out the lot.

XX Jeannine

That's a shame - I find cutting the tops off and leaving for a couple of weeks before digging up can give a  reasonable crop.

Thanks for replies, interesting that he still got blight. The italians who use copper spray on thier toms seem to get away with it even in the last few bad years.

Well i have to say i never spray becuase I dont want my toms tainted by anything. Its copper sulphate thats blue (other salts are black, white and green) .

I take away every leaf thats infected and this gives me a few weeks longer to ripen up the tomatoes. Some years they all do, some years i use a lot of green ones.

Its late this year so lets hope we get a full crop :)
x sunloving