Garden Help Requested

[BattleOfBennington]

Greetings -

First, thanks to Ami and so many others who have helped me make the transition to organic gardening.

I have been using products like Garden Tone, Actinovate (and sometimes with Iron), and MyChor based on suggestions and I am pleased with their outcome.

This year I am getting killed with blight, powdery mildew, etc - I am sure all the unusual humidity we have had is a major factor.

I have been trying to see what else i should add to my regimine. I have been reading the posts for days about compost tea, molassas, and so much more.

I am open to all of the advise of such wise folks on here. If you could give me what other products I need to add to the three listed above, with some background on it and sources, etc it would be helpful.

There is just so much to read through and process my head will need a few truck loads of duct tape to keep the brains in place.

C

[beeman]

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

This year I am getting killed with blight, powdery mildew, etc - I am sure all the unusual humidity we have had is a major factor.
I have been trying to see what else i should add to my regimine. I have been reading the posts for days about compost tea, molassas, and so much more.

Then stop reading about it, just do it. Compost tea is renowned to prevent and cure the mildews, plus a host of other problems.
Now if I could find a cure for blasted birds pecking all the ripe fruit, then I'd be laughing.

[Timmah!]

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

Greetings -

First, thanks to Ami and so many others who have helped me make the transition to organic gardening.

I have been using products like Garden Tone, Actinovate (and sometimes with Iron), and MyChor based on suggestions and I am pleased with their outcome.

This year I am getting killed with blight, powdery mildew, etc - I am sure all the unusual humidity we have had is a major factor.

I have been trying to see what else i should add to my regimine. I have been reading the posts for days about compost tea, molassas, and so much more.

I am open to all of the advise of such wise folks on here. If you could give me what other products I need to add to the three listed above, with some background on it and sources, etc it would be helpful.

There is just so much to read through and process my head will need a few truck loads of duct tape to keep the brains in place.

C

Try Exel-lg; in the interim, finely crush an aspirin in a gallon of water & spray that on your plants every couple weeks. Spraying your plants with a bleach solution at a concentration of 8 ounces/gallon of water should knock down the foliage diseases, except the systemic ones.

[Timmah!]

Hey Beeman, have you tried providing a bird feeder filled with Black Oil Sunflower Seeds & a nice birdbath in an area away from your garden; it helped divert the traffic & attention away from my garden. Lots of birds I'd never before noticed frequenting the feeder. Most amusing is the sizeable Woodpecker that precariously perches to grab a seed, flies to an adjacent tree to deposit the seed in a crevice & pop it open.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by beeman

...Now if I could find a cure for blasted birds pecking all the ripe fruit, then I'd be laughing.

Spider webs! Birds hate flying into spider webs and will avoid them because the webbing is so hard to get off their feathers. If you get that fake spiderweb stuff that's sold for halloween and place it around your plants, the birds may go elsewhere.

Recordings of hawk calls. Or learn to do them yourself.

I also keep a saucer of water in the garden, assuming that some critters peck at tomatoes because they're thirsty.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by Timmah!

Hey Beeman, have you tried providing a bird feeder filled with Black Oil Sunflower Seeds & a nice birdbath in an area away from your garden; it helped divert the traffic & attention away from my garden. Lots of birds I'd never before noticed frequenting the feeder. Most amusing is the sizeable Woodpecker that precariously perches to grab a seed, flies to an adjacent tree to deposit the seed in a crevice & pop it open.

We have always fed the bids, without causing any damage, apart from stealing raspberries and blue berries.
These bids are strangers! Starlings, hundreds of them, squawking and droppings all over the place. Put the nets out last night.