Quote:
Originally Posted by habitat_gardener
But so far I've seen only "shoulds" and arm waving, debates about who's drunk the coolaid and who hasn't, and vague statements about trying some unidentified substance and seeing overnight results -- which does indeed sound questionable.
So I'm interested in specifics. What did you use on what plant, what were you attempting to fix, what results did you observe?
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As I'm, the one who threw the mucky at the fan, perhaps I should kick it off.
My garden has suffered with a slow decline over the past few years so I decided this year to adopt a different approach, going green. Well the chemicals didn't improve matters one bit.
I have been making quality compost over a few years, I also started a worm farm to handle all the kitchen waste, so had the necessary to make ACT which I started earlier this year.
Things I have noticed after spraying this over everything a number of times during the growing season.
Much better root crops. Carrots and parsnips have never been as good.
Brassicas are good, first real sized brussel sprouts from top to bottom of the stalk. Broccoli were good, but the Cauilflower not so.
Interesting, I didn't suffer with Cabbage white butterflies this year, they just ignored the plants..
My fruit trees haven't suffered with Leaf roller caterpillars, if they hatched they quickly stopped feeding and dried up. I believe I have cured Apple scab on my Macintosh. My indoor plants and greenhouse suffered with Fungus gnats, no more after a couple of sprays.
My raspberries canes are huge, over 7 feet tall, and the fruit were super, even the blueberries had a good crop.
Tomatoes were a bit hit and miss, early blight was a problem and I lost some plants to bacterial wilt, but a couple of early girls were over 6 feet and had huge crops.
I would like to improve the overall quality of my soil, it's mainly sand with low OM, so this fall I've added tons of well rotted sawdust over the whole garden, plus two loads on Municipal Compost. I would like to use BIM/EM to ensure I have the correct type of bacteria.
I have had a soil test done. Thought I was short of calcium. but in fact it was short Magnesium, which I understand both of these go hand in hand. I also have Ph 7.7 which needs pronto treatment.
I would suggest a soil test to all, I was way off base with my suspicions.
Comments anyone?