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RE: [compost_tea] Deer Repellants and dormant or hort oils - do they mix with compost tea?



Dear Chris:

I grow roses.  Blackspot is a real problem for a lot of people.  It's 
imperative that you practice excellent garden sanitation.  During the 
winter when you prune, remove all cuttings to the trash -- not the compost 
pile.  Strip and remove all remaining leaves to the trash.  Rake up all 
dropped rose leaves and take to the trash.  Use a dormant oil.  Lime sulfur 
is good but may not be necessary.  Try dormant oil first.  This is the IPM 
approach.

Lime sulfur is usually applied in the winter as a dormant spray.  It will 
burn and could kill a plant if used during a hot summer day.  SunSpray 
brand horticultural oil can be applied year-around.

Anything you use to kill BS will kill the AACT critters.  This includes 
lime sulfur, fixed copper, neem, and all horticultural oils.  Horticultural 
oils would probably have the least effect on your critters because they 
work by smothering the pest.  When you apply horticultural oil to the 
leaves and stems, it will smother ALL the critters -- good and bad.  If you 
don't apply horticultural oil to the soil, and you shouldn't, it won't 
bother the soil critters.

When you prune, be sure to open the centers of the plants.  Good air 
circulation can help prevent the spread of BS spores.  Don't plant your 
roses too close together, either.

During the growing season, you can strip infected leaves and take to the 
trash.  Be sure to wash hands and tools well to help prevent the spread 
from one plant to another.

If you are going to apply AACT during the growing season when weather 
conditions favor BS, do so in the a.m. so the rose bush has time to dry 
off.  The BS fungus needs 7 hours of free water in order to set up shop.

As for deer, have you tried the Spray Away Motion Activated Water 
Repellent?  It's a sprinkler device that is activated by motion.  Supposed 
to work pretty good.  It screws onto your garden hose.  Here is a Web site 
that might be of help:  http://www.mydeergarden.com/Newsletter/index.htm

Paulette


-----Original Message-----
From:	chris reid [SMTP:reidchris@earthlink.net]
Sent:	Saturday, June 07, 2003 5:34 AM
To:	compost_tea@yahoogroups.com
Subject:	[compost_tea] Deer Repellants and dormant or hort oils - do they 
mix with compost tea?


Just got my brewer -- came in big boxes and significant other got all huffy
about "where are we going to put it?"  Had to patiently explain that it is
part of my/our efforts at changing the world, and he will just have to get
with it (grin).

Questions for veteran users -- how does compost tea mix with the following
other "stuff"?

1.  Lots of deer pressure in this region where I want to use my teas.
Generally, people spray on Deer Off or other repellant every two weeks. 
 How
does this mix with compost tea?  (roses, again)

2.  What is your experience with the use of interaction of compost teas
(foliar apps) with dormant sprays?  I am thinking of lime sulfur oil, used
to kill black spot in cankers on rose canes.  Said to be effective for 
about
60 days.  Doesn't seem like it would be too good for the buggies in the
compost tea.  What I am realizing is that I cannot necessarily apply what I
think I know about rose culture, and then just plug in compost tea instead
of whatever else I was using to prevent or kill pests.

It's like a little crop I'm growing on the leaf and in the soil.  I have to
keep the little crop happy, so that they keep the plants happy.  When the
little crop isn't happy, ain't nobody (or no plant, at least) gonna be
happy.  I have to do all I can to enable the buggies to do the job, instead
of bypassing them and trying to do the job myself (and maybe losing them as
helpers in the process).

In my efforts to do the right thing for my ROSES, I could do the wrong 
thing
for my crop of little buggies.

3.  Neem oil is another one that people who want to avoid using petroleum
based hort oils like to use. And what about horticultural oil?  Will it 
also
smother my beneficial bacteria and fungi?

These are examples and some may be questions we still have to explore, but 
I
want to make sure that I keep on confronting what I think I know and
figuring out what is appropriate using compost teas.

Thanks for any input on what, if anything, one can mix or use in 
conjunction
with teas.

Chris Reid




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