Re: CAT: Wish lists Re: Cult - chemicals

From: James Brooks <hirundo@tricon.net>

At 12:18 PM 3/22/99 -0600, you wrote:
>From: S&C Rust <srust@fidnet.com>
>And, I still cannot bring myself to use chemicals for weed control.  11
>years ago when I first began gardening, the feed store recommended Sevin
>to kill some insects I had on several plants.  I dusted it on like it
>was flour and returned the next morning.  The "bad" bugs were still
>there, but underneath the plants were eight dead earthworms.  

There seems to be some confusion here between insecticides and herbicides.
I agree with you on the insecticides. I read recently on spiders that a
typical field in the United States has about 250,000 spiders per acre,
whereas in the UK one million spiders per acre is more typical. Reason
being our heavier dependence on insecticides. When you consider that
spiders eat nothing but insects and other spiders, killing your natural
controls is simply not logical. I know of no insect problem on iris that
cannot be handled with a little dishwasher soap in a sprayer (or a spritz
bottle for small spreads), or by good dead leaf sanitation - which I say
self-righteously because I just finished this project and burnt off all the
dead leaves yesterday. 
It gets to you. I was at a house auction Saturday and found myself pulling
dead leaves out of the iris!
Herbicides are another matter, and I do use Surflan pre-emergent and a
variant of Poast for grasses. If I had less than acres of iris I would join
you in total commitment to hand-weeding, however. 

I felt so
>bad and so guilty, I've never used it since.  I do use a product on
>arils and arilbreds to control aphids.  

Try dishwasher soap - I like Dawn, because it's also the most effective for
cleaning birds after oil spills, which earned my business. About the same
mix you'd use for the dishes. Did all my iris with it three weeks ago and
found only 3 aphids when I did leaf sanitation this weekend. I refrained
from spraying one fan which already had a ladybug on it. Go to it, honey!


James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN
hirundo@tricon.net
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