Bordeaux Mixture - A Reminder

I'm no Chemist, but it doesn't look hard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_mixture#Preparation

 

I vote Kristen makes a big vat full of the stuff next spring , then distributes it via GC.

For free.



Only joking.

 

Kristen is thinking PRO£££IT

 

Just edited my post

 

Not hard, but I would strongly recommend using the hydrated lime rather than calcium oxide, which is also known as Quicklime and should be treated with care.
Copper sulphate is relatively safe to people and animals although very toxic to moss, algae etc. These days I'm not sure were you would get it EBay probably.
Nigel

 

I wonder if anyone has told the French that they'll no longer be able to spray their entire gardens bright blue? There'll be another revolution!
No sign of it being withdrawn over here, so if anyone is desperate for BM, let me know and I'll post some over......

 

I'm assuming if France belongs to the EU they will have to ban it also.

Ah but then I forgot.
They only help make the EU rules, for others.
They dont necessarily apply to France, as well.

 

Spot on, Pete. At the last count there were at least eleven laws formulated in Brussels which France declined to apply Sometimes, though, that's good news
Everything but everything is treated with BM here. Got an ingrowing toenail? Give it a squib of BM, that'll sort it!

 

Has it been banned? or just not relicensed? because no one wants to pay to have it tested for approval as there is no patent to give monopoly protection?

Lots of useful chemicals gone missing down that route such as Sulphur as a fungicide and Ammonium sulphamate to kill horsetail ...

 

I've been looking at the cost of chemicals on ebay for some time, but have held back because it would cost about £20 (for potentially many years supply), but I'm nervous about buying the right stuff to avoid blocking expensive sprayers, getting the pH right to avoid leaf burn, and immediately putting all my trust in DIY stuff before I've carried out a small scale comparison. I think the shop bought mixture also contains a surfactant.

P.S. Got yet another alert for a Full Smith Period today.

 

Bought yet another 5 bottles of Bordeaux Mixture today @ £3.59 (not £.68 as I previous thought) for 175g/7.5L bottles of Vitax, so I've now got enough for the next few years whilst I experiment on perfecting DIY stuff.

 

I've had a bottle of this last me for about 5yrs.
I've got one in reserve so maybe if I just get one more it should do me till I'm not bothering anymore, ie brown bread.

 

I have 5 packs in reserve. I'm hoping I'll run out

 

2 years ago I planted enough spuds to get a harvest of 10 x 25Kg sacks (and that excluded the earlies) and several hundred tomato plants (same amount of toms this year, but cut back on spuds), so I use a bit more than that.

I think I've got about 13 bottles. in reserve.


P.S. I think it was on one of the recent BBC2 Harvest programmes I saw commercial potatoes being sprayed for blight - no carefully spraying every leaf including undersides there!

 

Scrungee, you are not a gardener, you are a farmer, 250kg of spuds and several hundred toms ?