Is spraying your food necessary ?

[align=left]I have never sprayed my apple tree with anything, it's just had water and sunshine.

Every year the apples taste good and are fresh, a few spots here and there but I'm eating them not modeling them lol.



Is spraying pesticides and whatnot really necessary for trees and plants?

Same applies with my spinach, didn't put anything on the plants but they were great?


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You've already answered your question... No, it's not necessary to spray anything. I would only ever spray if you have a specific problem, which is detrimentel to the crop, and only then as little as possible and only if there isn't a viable, more natural treatment.

 

The supermarkets buy in stuff that has been sprayed to within an inch of its life, and then, in the case of fruit, sprayed in wax. The point of all this is to create superficially perfect unnatural produce. I know much of the fruit we get nowadays was cultivated by man, but as its based on wild species that managed for millenia without being sprayed, I suspect it is unnecessary in most cases.

 

I agree with Makka.

To me the benefit of growing my own edible crops is I know what I have sprayed them with, I don't spray vegetables a lot but I do spray. Same with fruit trees, always a tar oil wash, and usually a couple of sprays for aphids with savona (soft soap) a spray of Bordeaux mix on plums.

IMO cauliflowers and cabbages are best grown under enviromesh, no need to spray and they grow farr
better.

With non edibles I spray as needed, as an example phlox, Roses and hollyhocks get sprayed fortnightly with systhane to prevent rust.

 

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We had the manager from a local "wholesale" nursery give the talk at our gardening club meeting on Friday night.

He has given the talk some times before in the past,but was complaining on this occasion,that the EC had banned some of the chemicals that they used,as being too dangerous (his words), and this was making their task of growing plants more difficult.

Theirs is "an organic" nursery only,they grow flower and vegetable plugs to sell on to garden centres etc.

But they do grow vegetables to sell in their farm shop,and naturally they were sprayed with permitted insecticides and fungicides!

When questioned about spraying, he said it was nearly impossible to grow saleable vegetables without some spraying.
I was under the impression that organic meant, no chemicals, not so said he!

He said that vegetables were grown "organically" there was no such thing as "organic" vegetables.

He certainly opened my eyes about the organic movement.

 

Not sure which way to go on this issue. As I am a complete novice to gardening and just as new to growing my own veg, I am not sure I can offer a valid opinion.

My thoughts at teh moment are that I do not like the idea of spraying food with chemicals, that I am trying to grow myself. If I want food that has been chemically enhanced or protected then I may just as well buy the same old stuff from the supermarket.

One of the most important things to me is I have a chance to grow something as it should be allowed to grow. I read the book "The Vegatable Expert" Every chapter has instructions about what to spray and when. It really put me off.

What did gardeners do before all these chemicals came about? There must be some way of either controlling or detering pests without using half of ICI.

I know I may get some flak for my comments, however, I want my veg to be as natural as possible. Keeping weeds down and watching out for pests is surely part of gardening.

Chopper.

 

I'm happy just to know what has gone onto my crops and garden. I take a view when I use a chemical; the chemicals available to amateur gardeners are usually much less noxious than those available to professional growers, but nonetheless if it says "Don't eat for 2 days after spraying" I wait a week

 

I understand what you are saying Kirsten, but I still don't like the idea of using chemicals in the garden. For this year at least, I am going to keep chemicals use to just slug pellets. I want to see how well I can manage the garden without any artificial additives.

I live in a tiny village of 37 houses. No shop, post office or pub. Nearest town is 4 miles away. The local farmers are all very helpful and will often give away huge piles of manure, just go along and help yourself. The farm next door also provides the village with a place to dispose of garden rubbish/waste. So all the weeds we do not want in the compost we can just dump. He burns it all every couple of weeks.

I asked him about the chemicals he uses. His name is Edward. He told me that he doesn't like to use any nmore than he absolutely has to and that what he does use is way too strong for a domestic garden or allotment. This chap has been farming all his life and his family have owned the farm for four generations. I reckon he must have a pretty good idea of what he is doing. His wife has a kitchen garden and it always looks fantastic. She never buys any fruit or veg, just grows what the family need.

My hope is that I will be able to learn enough to become as capable a gardener as Edwards wife. Like I said, I am a complete novice and have a hell of a lot to learn. I may have to change my opinion and what I do to make my garden productive.

Thanks for your reply. Interesting.

Chopper.

 

" I still don't like the idea of using chemicals in the garden"

Good for you; I ain't going to argue with that! Not something I can achieve with the time I have available though. But having said that I don't know whether my chemical usage is "a lot" or "a little" compared to the average.

 

Hi Chopper,

You say you are a complete novice gardener , but you have a pre concived idea that you are not going to spray your vegetables!

You may plant vegetables, but I doubt if you will harvest much that is eatable, if you do not deal with the pests, before they eat and destroy most of your plantings!

Most people would not spray if it were not absolutely necessary, especially me!
The so called "organic" movement in all its guises have a lot to answer for, leadiing the unwary up the garden path, and mostly in the wrong direction.

If you read my previous posting, you will see that "organic" growers do use chemicals, but keep quiet about it!

Me I grow the vunerable veggies under fleece, polythene, glass window frames and plastic cloches to keep the pests and diseases at bay.

But I still have to spray occasionally.

Anyone who says they grow perfect crops without doing so, is a very special person, or else an imposter!

Cheers

 

Hi folks. Last year I was fortunate enough to only need minimal intervention. As I recall the only problems I had were with blackfly and caterpillars. The blackfly I controlled using soapy water but the caterpillars totally ruined my sprouts. For my vulnerable crops I used netting (Enviromesh) which worked perfectly. I DID have it over my sprouts, but they got so big I had to remove the netting. This year I'm using a smaller variety so they can remain covered. For some reason we don't seem to have many slugs, but I always put pellets down with young plants, a habit I guess. I think if my crops were at risk, then I would use a spray/chemical. Cheers...freddy.

 

Hi Makka

I am interested in your comments, but have to disagree with you to some extent.

Yes I do have a preconceived idea about using chemicals in my garden. I have to use some pretty unpleasant liquids, compunds etc etc, when I am building custom motorbikes. I have to be careful using some of them as they can cause dermatitis. Having only seriously taken up gardening recently, I do not want to bring anything like that into my garden.

This year is a big experiment for me. I need to see what I can achieve without artificial products being brought in. If I lose some plants due to pests then I may have to think again.

However, I have read in several places that there are ways of protecting plants from pests, by using things like netting. I acquired a large roll of white netting. I have some wood that I can use to make a frame to drape the net over. The materials have cost me nothing except a bit of time and work to put it together. I have dug in lots of compost and started all my plants from seed or plug.

I don't claim to be an "Organic gardener", I just want my garden to be as natural as possible. I am busy trying to tidy things up, get rid of all the bike parts that were lying around. Make use of materials I already have.

I asked this question before. How did gardeners manage before all these chemicals came about? 100 years ago there was no such thing as weedkiller unless you went and bought arsenic from a chemist and signed the poison register.

I am using slug pellets, BUT I am also going to try using sharp sand, broken eggshells. I have to at least try to do things the way I want to do them.

By the way, there is an old boy lives a couple of miles from me. Has a huge garden with a big veg plot. His garden is an inspiration to any garden novice. He does NOT use any chemicals, but always has strong healthy plants. His garden is so neat it is a work of art. That is what I am aiming for.

I may be wrong about the way I am trying to do my garden, but I would rather try and fail than not try at all.

Regards

Chopper.

 

I thought I'd have an organic garden. 2 years on and the green & black fly and slugs are such a problem, I'm using chemicals. As and when needed (about 4 sprays a summer). It seems to work well and I can already see the difference in my plants!!

 

"How did gardeners manage before all these chemicals came about?"

The Chinese have been using Pyrethrum (naturally occurring insecticide) since the first century. Dunno what they did before then! I'm pretty sure that there are still products on the market that are based on Pyrethrum - augmented by some synthetic compounds that make them faster acting.

Many of the things that were used are now deemed to be more toxic than some of the man-made things, although it does seem that "safe" man-made chemicals are found to be unsafe after a couple of decades :( Or perhaps things that are more safe are found, and the older chemicals can then be viewed as being less safe.