Bordeaux Mixture - A Reminder

http://chemistry.about.com/od/makechemicalsyourself/a/make-copper-sulfate.htm

Hmm, the yanks can't spell Sulphate

 

No, but they can put a man on the moon!:WINK1:

 

I suppose making your BD using http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280529004599?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 + lime + surfactant and using the DIY recipes on the internet would be just as 'illegal' as using stuff bought from the shops after it's been banned.

 

Has it been withdrawn? or just no one has paid for the new licensing (and tests)?

I don't want to be using something that has been withdrawn because it has been found to be harmful ...

 

Err have you noticed YOUR AVATAR

Jack McH

 

I'm aware of that Scrunge, I just think its time we said enough is enough & that the EU should get the hell out of our face.

 

It is getting difficult to keep up with the 'withdrawn' garden chemicals.
Rose Clear for rose blackspot etc has been reformulated and relaunched 3 times in the last few years due to various ingredients being proscribed.
Fortunately the current version - called Ultra - seems to work just as well - if not better - than the previous versions - so one gets the urge to stock up with a few years supply before it is inevitably banned.

Vigorously growing roses will usually become somewhat resistant to fungus attack with some varieties becoming very resistant. Trouble is that if one lives where the climate is damp and mild - roses that are initially and repeatedly defoliated by black spot attacks never get the chance to become strong and vigorous in the first place - unless one does a bit of judicious spraying.
However, in some quarters, the organic vs inorganic debate has become so fundamentalist in tone that stating that one gives one's roses an odd squirt of fungicide is almost on a par with admitting that one occasionally overflew the neighbourhood in a B52 and soused it in Agent Orange.

 

You are quite correct about the importance of genes when it comes to disease resistance. Some roses will require regular spraying no matter how strongly they are growing.

Kevin

 

Extract from Wiki on how BD was discovered - now one stroke of a bureaucrats pen and its gone , because it does not conform to their lovely little laws edicts and procedures
In the 19th century, several outbreaks of vine diseases occurred among the Vitis vinifera vines of the classicial European wine regions. These outbreaks were caused by pests to which these vines lacked resistance, carried on vines brought to Europe as botanical specimens of American origin. These pests included not only the Great French Wine Blight caused by the aphid Phylloxera vastatrix, but also mildew and other diseases caused by fungi.[2]
After the downy mildew had struck, botany professor Pierre-Marie-Alexis Millardet of the University of Bordeaux studied the disease in vineyards of the Bordeaux region. Millardet then noted that vines closest to the roads did not show mildew, while all other vines were affected. After inquiries, he found out those vines had been sprayed with a mixture of CuSO4 and lime to deter passersby from eating the grapes, since this treatment was both visible and bitter-tasting. This led Millardet to conduct trials with this treatment. The trials primarily took place in the vineyards of Château Dauzac, where he was assisted by Ernest David, Dauzac's technical director. Millardet published his findings in 1885, and recommended the mixture to combat downy mildew.

 

So do the French still use Bordeaux Mixture in their vinyards, and if so what are they going to use after it's banned?