[Hazel]

I do try to be organic wherever possible,I think we need to try and get our plant back.as a child I remember all my dad's veggies had a Taste to them I think is lost now adays. Hazel

[Treehugger]

Hi everyone,

Interesting results!

My allotment site in Ludlow is 100% organic so no choice there. Obviously a Good Thing. In my garden however I do use the occasional dose of artificial tomato fertiliser and I have to say the toms grown at home are ever-so-slightly tastier than the same variety on the allotment...oops.

I know that isn't the point of course.

[daveylamp]

cant seem to get the voting slip to work so i will vote this way vote=  
       I avoid using herbicides and pesticides unless I have to.

[pete]

To be honest, I use herbicides when I have to. I have had two badly overgrown allotments and it was one of the way to tame the beast as I am still in full time work and juggling having day release and a pregnant wife (Due monday.)

Used appropriately they can help. Truely organic - i would say imho is if you are experienced or if you walk into an established site, where you take over from someone else, alot of the hard graft is already done. If you take a plot on 6 foot high in brambles, where is the organic principle going to get you besides depressed. Sorry been there thought organic, no dig etc got dishartened, chopped down brambles and sprayed the lot. Now that was satisfying and it blooming worked. Used one of those sprays that goes into the roots (Allegedly.)

Sorry long day and letting off steam.

[John]

I'm finding the results really interesting - I think we can say the vast majority tend towards organic methods but a sizeable minority are  100% organic.

Myself I'm in the middle and I'd rather see a plot spray cleared and working than demoralised idealists giving it up as a bad job.  

Sorry you had a bad day, Pete - I know how you feel having spent the afternoon at the hospital. Nothing too serious, Val broke her ankle ages ago and it needed plastering. Now I keep telling her to hop to it!

[alanb]

I do try to be organic,Seaweed from the beach and rotted farmyard compost. However I do resort to slug pellets as they are a serious peston my plot.
 "wildlife friendly" pellets,try telling the Slugs that!!

Alan B.

[silver8]

Very encouraging poll.
A bit off topic but a couple of questions about the dreaded slug. I have a number of crops overwintering. Do slugs become inactive in the winter or will I still need to protect these (likewise with caterpillars). Secondly, are the slug pellets that contain ferrramol,and which claim not to do any damage to other wildlife, organic. I seen some references that they are but the product ive seen (Advanced Slug Killer) does not claim to be.

[John]

My understanding of slugs is that they go quiet in the winter - at least they aren't such a problem. Caterpillars aren't a problem in winter.

On the pellets - the problem with the conventional ones is that they are poisonous to wildlife although the colour is supposed to put off birds etc and they have something that stops them being tasty to widlife.  I think the dead / dying slug becomes poisonous though.

The wildlife friendly types are not as effective, IMHO, but at least you do not kill off your helpful friends in the garden.  You can buy those from the organic catalogue so I think they count as organic.

[silver8]

Many thanls John.

Out of interest, a naive question to the non organic gardeners. My leeks are looking in a bad way and look like they have been attacked by onion fly. With so many pests around from slugs to carrot fly and catterpillers how do you protect all your crops. Is there one product you use or different ones for different pests. Doesnot this work out expensive.

[John]

There was a massive change to the legislation whereby manufacturers were required to re-test their pesticides and set usuage levels etc for specific crops.

All very good but the costs involved resulted in many products coming off the market - not because they were unsafe but because it was too expensive to test them

So the products avaiable to the amateur have been reduced drastically and often things are being used inappropriately.

Although I am not a strict organic grower, I avoid the use of pesticides and just accept a level of damage to the crops. My theory is that a bit of visible damage is better than invisible pesticide contamination residues.

A good healthy soil will produce tough crops that resist  or recover from most pests. Too much nitrogen is really bad for encouraging sappy growth that pests love, by the way.

Fleece is a good barrier for many things and I believe Derris is approved as an insecticide even under organic standards.

[shaun]

i have been given some bio clubroot control ,it has been took of the market for some reason unknown .has any one used it?
you mix the sachet with a pint of water and dip your young plant roots in the solution and water the remainder into the soil around the plant.

[John]

I know a  few people who stocked up before things were taken off the shelf.  As I said - removed from sale as the cost of the new tests made it uneconomical to sell it.

[pete]

"Sorry you had a bad day, Pete " - Thanks John. I had a day of dealing with flooding. I work for my local authority dealing with drainage and it was a day from hell.

Hey a lovely weekend though. Spent most of it in families gardens. Just waiting for the baby to come now.  

[trapper]

organics or what ,the vote failed but I do ocasionally resort to . GLYPHOSATE, JUST GIVES ME THE EDGE WHEN THINGS GO WRONG!!!

[Alec Powell]

Extremely difficult one for me.

a)Predators? (i.e. anthing that wants to eat MY vegetables)
BLAST THEM with whatever is available :!:)

b)Soil additives?
Cursed nitrates? :!:  Being an angler I have seen in my lifetime what they have done to our precious rivers :!: No way :!:  :!:
If your soil needs enriching COMPOST COMPOST COMPOST COMPOST :!:

And just when you think you are 100% organic....Joe Bloggs on the next allotment sprays his crops with something that you have NO control over :!:
There is no such thing as a 100% organic allotment gardener
Oh, and by the way,just up the road from me is one of the biggest  genetic farms in the country so does it all make much difference to me?
I'm still smiling though