Organic Gardening

[MickJ]

very carefully

 

[ 17. June 2004, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: MickJ ]

[MickJ]

Aim for an Goblet shape with an open centre by removing downward pointing and crossing branches.

Best done after fruiting, late July or August.

 

This makes picking easier and safer (less scraches and thorns in the fingers) and should improve air circulation,

thus preventing mildew.

 

I got it this year because of the calm weather allowing the spores to settle.

 

Prunings can be planted in slit drenches for propogation, with a bit of sharp sand in the bottom.

 

[ 17. June 2004, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: MickJ ]

[Leon Roskilly]

For mildew, try spraying with a little potassium permangenate mixed with water.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[MickJ]

Thanks Leon

 

Will give it a try.

Have a commercial Copper based fungicide in the shed, but wasn't sure if it was organic.

[Newt]

One problem with saying if a thing is 'organic' or not is the wide range of meanings for the word.

 

In chemistry, a molecule or compound of carbon bound to hydrogen is organic.

 

But as you can see Here there are other generally accepted meanings but I don't think copper is part of any of them.

 

[ 17. June 2004, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[Leon Roskilly]

Newt:

One problem with saying if a thing is 'organic' or not is the wide range of meanings for the word.

This is the definition (applicable to 'organic gardening') written by the late Lawrence D. Hills:

 

The difference between' organic' and inorganic fertilizers is defined by the way in which plants feed, and this cuts across the generally accepted idea of what is 'natural'; for instance, plants insist that wood ashes are a mixture of chemicals, but basic slag, which is ground-up blast-furnace linings, is considered by roots to be 'organic', like the thousands of tons of plant food minerals in every acre of fertile soil. If we are to begin with a definition of this difference, we must start with some plant biology.

 

A plant needs food, exactly as human beings do, though plant food is quite different. The method of feeding adopted by the entire plant is two-fold, partly by way of the roots, and partly by way of the leaves. The food taken in by the roots consists of particles of mineral nutrients, which must be in solution, otherwise they cannot be absorbed by the root-hair cells.

 

Plants have three ways of feeding through their roots. First, along every root there are constantly produced, minute, transparent hairs which live for only about three days. As they die they release proteins and carbohydrates on which friendly bacteria feed, and in the process make plant food minerals available for absorption by the living rootlets_ This they do with the help of root secretions, just as our digestive juices do with those human equivalents of feeding roots called 'villi' which line our intestines.

 

Second, there are a number of helpful fungi that live with one end of their 'bodies' reaching in through the bark of the larger roots, extracting sap and energy-providing food, and the other gathering phosphates from the soil which they pass on to the plant that feeds them.

 

The third way is up the mighty transpiration stream that can take 90 gallons of water to the top of a 40-ft tree in the coUrse of one sunny day and one warm still summer night. In this case, the roots absorb moisture containing mineral nutrients directly from the soil, without the interaction of bacteria or fungi. The nutrients are then extracted as required and the remaining moisture moved up the plant to be transpired through the leaves.

 

When we feed our crops with soluble chemical fertilizers (in organics), like nitrate of soda, superphosphate or sulphate of potash, - we use only the third method, the transpiration stream, which supplies plant food minerals fast but wastefully, for most of themI wash quickly out of reach. If we use organic fertilizers such as bonemeal, these are broken down only slowly in the soil and stay within range of the fungi and root hairs; they are of such a nature that bacteria and fungi can use them in their own life process, whereas the inorganic nutrients cannot be so easily used.

 

So, organically grown crops are fed slowly with compost, manures and organic fertilizers, also with ground minerals such as rock phosphate which duplicate the normal mineral fragments in the soil.

 

These materials, unlike inorganic fertilizers, can be absorbed by all three systems of feeding, and this is the crucial difference between the two methods of cultivation.

 

More definitions here:

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang...arch&lr=lang_en

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

[ 17. June 2004, 10:21 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]