Garlic/onion frost damage

[R M Watkin]

Hi All.

I do not think I will grow Garlic any more as it seems far to complicated.

Richard M. Watkin.

[Omelet]

I do hope you are pulling our leg...

[Bob Hobden]

Elephant Garlic is actually related to Leeks and isn't a true Garlic, the taste is not that of true Garlic either IMO. Mind you some years ago whilst in Cyprus we came across enormous true Garlic being sold in the market, wish I'd bought some to try here in the UK but it probably wouldn't have done well.

We use Bordeaux Mixture sprayed on our plants to ward off the Blight, works well provided you keep it topped up if it rains hard for a few days and is easily washed off the fruit before use. Most of our Tomatoes are used for cooking so are skinned anyway. We picked our last outdoor Tomatoes on Sunday, amazingly late, after the plants were killed by a frost.

[Steve Young]

"kate" wrote

[...]

*amen!* [...]

Kate, something I've experimented with on the tomato blight, with great success, is spraying the foliage/plant with ionic silver. A human friendly, and very potent fungicide. I believe if I'm consistent with applications, I might be able to get it knocked down almost entirely. Though before you think, *oh my*, 30$ a gallon spraying 30 plants at about 2 gallons an application, check this out for ionic silver, (at about a dollar a gallon). It's the Collgen2 I use to make a 6 PPM solution.

Fred Peschel has really designed an impressive little unit that works a treat and is not unreasonably expensive. I also use the silver to treat a well and it is 100% effective at eliminating bacteria in the water system. Ionic silver is a real cure.

Steve Young

[kate]

Thanks fr the idea, Steve. Maybe I'll get the starter bottle for next season and see how it does before I make the bigger investment. I was planning on letting the tomato crop rest a year but maybe...have you tried treating the soil itself so would that be basicly polluting the soil?

Kate

[Steve Young]

"kate" wrote

Basically Kate, I wanted to throw out the idea because tomato blight is a real heart breaker when you have a really nice crop coming along and you see the fungus beginning to consume the plants. I know there are several chemical treatments, but I and others here are trying to minimize chemical use, if not eliminate it all together. I've noted you subscribe to this interest as well. You might have noticed that the site I linked also discusses ionic silver and health. That's actually how I came to learn of this product, and then discovered its benefits in agriculture and as a well water disinfectant. ... course I began dabbling with it.

For many years we had a stinkin ole well that only reacted to chlorine shocks and then only for a short time before the the bacteria would return. Each time it would be worse than it was before. I guess it was because the well had been neglected many years before I moved here. After about 2 years of silver treatment, our water is some of the freshest smelling and tasting mineral water around. I feel silver got right down to the root of the problem and knocked it out. I do continue a regular maintenance amount.

The sad thing about the blight is that the disease will live in the soil for many years before it finally dies. I think I've read 7 or 8. So yes, you're right that killing it in the soil, where it lives, would be advantageous. However, it's hard to imagine even 1 or 2 years without tomatoes, let alone

7 or 8. Moving the planting around to different parts of the garden will help, but I don't have 8 separated spaces large enough :(

No, ionic silver at 6 PPM would not effect the soil with any harmful contamination, ... *except* that it may kill soil microbes as well as the funguses. Soil microbes are efficient microbes (EM) when it comes to delivering minerals to the plants. Composting generates many of these microbes naturally from a varied feedstock. I wonder if one could, in the fall, spray a couple gallons on an infected area and till it in. Then in the early spring work in a good load of compost. Here's an EM jump start if one desired :

you'd like to try ionic silver, I'd be happy to make up a few gallons for you and several requesters, for the cost of shipping from NE Ohio. Anyone interested, un-munge my email and send me a hey. I'll do a dozen or 2 gallons.

Steve Young

[R M Watkin]

Hi Om,

Garlic is dead easy to grow, I do not see what all the fuss was about. After all this is a garden forum not for english lessons.

Richard M. Watkin.

[Omelet]

I don't believe I participated in the spelling and punctuation flames this time. ;-) I ignored it.

[CanopyCo]

It's because they are all those dam humans. I got the same problem on this side of the pond. More dam humans.

Any time you deal with those varmints, it is going to be trouble.

Now you know why I like my garden and live stock. They mess with me, I eat them or plow them under. ;-)

[Sheldon]

Plenty damn help keeping the water on your side of the pond... ya oughta try some beaver... ahahahaha. . . .

Yup, never enough of those after dinner varmints to go around.

[Omelet]

I like that concept.

[kate]

Thanks, Steve - that's mighty generous of you!

Kate

[Steve Young]

"kate" wrote

well, *thanks!*

silver is a potent killer of nasty things

imagine, for only the cost of the device, one can turn a 60 cent gallon of distilled water into a human friendly green terminator. What a helper around the house / garden, in the battle against bacteria and disease :)

Steve Young