Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 09:50

Title: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 09:50
Hello all

I'm a first time poster and in need of some advice.  Have been reading that others seem to have early blight ( :tongue2: ) and I'm pretty sure that I have it on my pink fir apples growing in containers (actually, my first lot of bush tomatoes ended up being destroyed as they came down with some very mysterious brown spots that no-one in the local garden centre seemed to be able to diagnose - so got rid of them just in case!).  So off I trotted to Wilko's yesterday to buy myself a sprayer and some dithane.....but having read the instructions, I'm a bit scared of it  :( !

Once its mixed up in the container, how long can you keep it?  If it's not supposed to get into the water table, what do you do with the excess?  And if you are mixing it in a bucket (for example) do you then have to get rid of the bucket or just clean it out thoroughly.  Can the sprayer be used for anything else after cleaning, or is it best to keep one just for Dithane.....

This is the problem with being a 'home' grower - too many questions that even the best books don't seem to have answers to!!

Looking forward to your advice  :) !
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: oldbean on June 11, 2009, 10:19
You could use google to search for information, there is a lot there. Mancozeb is the active ingredient if that helps. It's a systemic fungicide, so many would not apply it to food crops.

I have some sunflowers, dahlias, and tomatoes all in the same bed which have black leaf damage, and the dahlias have significantly curled leaves but no black damage. It is interesting that the lower leaves on the sunflowers are clear.

I have another bed a few feet away with tomatoes in which show little damage. This could mean that whatever is causing the problem is in the soil.

This could mean that what you have is not blight.

Cleaning containers is not difficult, fill and empty three times with clean water will reduce the chemical to negligible quantities, but where to empty it?

Getting rid of excess mix is difficult if done the proper way which via a licensed waste route. I imagine fungicides are particularly difficult to dispose of because they interfere with some of the fundamental decomposing organisms which are needed to produce compost.
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: JWK on June 11, 2009, 10:35
Theres no need to empty out the sprayer if you have left overs. I used it last year on my tomatoes. I mixed up a sprayer full and kept applying it every fortnight. It did stop the blight getting any worse, so I'm sure the active ingedient didn't deterioate.

PS: if its early blight I think that isn't much of a problem, its completely different to late blight which is nasty.
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 11:17
Thanks for the advice - will steel myself to mix some up and have a go with it tonight and might use some of the excess on the rust on my hollyhocks (blooming things!).
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Nobbie on June 11, 2009, 12:00
I'm surprised there wasn't any instruction on the box about disposal/storage. I know for some other chemicals they say not to stored once diluted and excess can be sprayed onto bare soil. Just make up small quantities at a time to see what the coverage is like.
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 13:41
Well, the box didn't say anything about storage and just to take the container to your local council run amenity for disposal.  It didn't say anything about whether mixing containers could be cleaned out and re-used and the toxicity warnings worried me as I have animals and children around the garden.

Spraying excess onto bare soil a good idea, but as the pre measured packets make up a set quantity, I don't want to mess around with the amounts I make up - especially as I'm not experienced with this stuff!

This kind of good advice from all you experienced gardeners is what is missing when you don't have an allotment - I'm a member of our local Allotment and Garden society and get their newsletter, but its never going to be the same as having a gardener on the next plot with years of experience to share!  Might have to write a letter to go in the newsletter along those lines, how forums like this are the twenty first century way of sharing the knowlege - but I bet its been done before!
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: gillie on June 11, 2009, 14:44
The sachets of dithane are far too big!  I tip the contents onto a sheet of paper, divide it into four, use one quarter and store the other three quarters in folded up pieces of paper until I need them.

I keep one small sprayer for dithane and rinse it out after use.  Dithane does not actually dissolve, it remains as a powder suspended in water so you have to give the sprayer a good shake every now and then.  I would sling any spare onto my bonfire heap and start again fresh with the next quarter.

Cheers,

Gillie
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Aunt Sally on June 11, 2009, 14:50
Hi cathy81walking, welcome to the forums. 

I see our resident anti-chemical warrior oldbean has already advised you.  I hope you manage to beat the blight, it can be devastating  >:(

Can you post any pictures of affected plants so that we can better advise you if we think it's blight or not ?
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 15:18
I will have a go this evening - don't have camera with me (at work, naughty naughty :nowink:!).

I did remove the worst affected leaves last night (as it was raining and I didn't want whatever it was all 'splashing' around everything else), but I'll have a look later.... Hope it doesn't rain again!

Thanks goodness I have a resistant maincrop variety in the ground (although one plant has curlyish leaves so I'm eyeing that with a certain amount of suspicion!) - I'll still give it a squirt - and I like the idea of dividing the dithane up like that - a very good idea!
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: oldbean on June 11, 2009, 16:06
  Dithane does not actually dissolve, it remains as a powder suspended in water so you have to give the sprayer a good shake every now and then.  I would sling any spare onto my bonfire heap


Gives off fumes in a fire.
 http://actrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/osh/ic/8010017.htm
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Ice on June 11, 2009, 16:14


Gives off fumes in a fire.
 
Most things do. :lol:
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Aunt Sally on June 11, 2009, 16:18
I think they probably mean a warehouse fire rather than small bit of waste in a bonfire on a breezy day  ::)
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: oldbean on June 11, 2009, 16:30
It won't matter soon, Mancozeb is on the list of chemicals to be "restricted" under EU legislation in 2009.
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Ice on June 11, 2009, 16:32
Time to order in a big supply then. ;)
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Aunt Sally on June 11, 2009, 16:34
That'll be potatoes off the menu then  :lol:
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Ice on June 11, 2009, 16:35
Not if you stock up now Aunty. :lol:
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Aunt Sally on June 11, 2009, 16:35
 ;)
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 19:21
Rats, can't get my picture to upload - any tips?
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Ice on June 11, 2009, 19:24
Have a read of this.
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=19476.msg420911#new
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 20:35
ok - lets see if this pic works.....
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 20:37
Woo hoo - it worked!  Thanks Ice! 

There was a lot more yellowing on the leaves I removed the other day - this is what's left... I've also noticed that the flower buds tucked into the growing tip are yellowing and dropping off....
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Aunt Sally on June 11, 2009, 20:37
Not sure what it is but it doesn't look like early blight to me.
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Aunt Sally on June 11, 2009, 20:40
Although it could be  :wacko:

(http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/plant_images/Potato_Early_Blight_&_Late_Blight.jpg)
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 20:41
oh!  Now you've got me thinking...... :(

Those young tomato plants I destroyed were very similarly marked - no-one seemed to be able to identify what it could be on them.....
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Yorkie on June 11, 2009, 20:42
IainJBA has said there's a lot around which looks like early blight but isn't necessarily so when tested.  he suggested trying epsom salts spray before being drastic and ripping plants out for fear of blight
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Aunt Sally on June 11, 2009, 20:44
That's right Yorkie - Magnesium deficiency
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: cathy81walking on June 11, 2009, 20:49
I did wonder about that after I had got rid of the tomatoes - and they were bought on in the same compost that the potatoes are in - which was just  a garden centre special....

All my other seeds and young plants have done well in it, is magnesium deficiency something common to spuds and toms then (I s'pose they are cousins after all!)?
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: richyrich7 on June 11, 2009, 20:49
Anyone tried baking soda as a treatment for blight ?
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art22735.asp
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: Paul Plots on June 11, 2009, 22:35
oldbean said...."It won't matter soon, Mancozeb is on the list of chemicals to be "restricted" under EU legislation in 2009."

Soon using soil will be restricted and need specialist training due to high level of virus / fungus and other nasty things!!  :tongue2:

We could all be gardening in breathing-masks and fully zippable outfits...  :(

Could catch on  ::)
Title: Re: Using Dithane
Post by: peapod on June 11, 2009, 22:39
Theyll be formally linking toms and spuds with the risk of deadly nightshade and we'll need a license to grow those too  :D