Gardening with Wally Richards: Plant diseases

There are only a few plant diseases that many gardeners worry about because they make their plants look unsightly or blemish their food crop’s appearance.

These diseases have common names such as rust, black spot, powdery mildew and curly leaf.

These are normally mild diseases which do damage, but seldom threaten the life of the host plant. They are maddening diseases to a gardener that likes perfect flowers and foliage with unblemished produce.

I am of the organic opinion that states; healthy soil, healthy plants, minimal pests or diseases.

A problem arises when we use chemical sprays (commonly called fungicides) to control diseases of plants, the chemicals not only affect the disease that it is reputed to control, but it also effects the beneficial fungi and micro organisms that live in the plant and soil.

This weakens the immune system of the plant leaving it more vulnerable to further attacks and other diseases. This means more spraying and still a disease ridden plant. (Similar example in humans/animals is the over use of antibiotics).

I never spray any chemical fungicides in my garden. I use only natural or organic type sprays such as Wallys Liquid copper, Wallys Copper Nutrient, sulphur and Perkfection for diseases and have found since stopping the chemical sprays, that it is seldom that I even have any need to use them.

I still get some diseases such as rust or black spot at times but usually when I have neglected to spray on the first sign of a disease.

Plant diseases go through a cycle and for some diseases, that cycle involves a dormant period in the litter or soil under the host plant. Hard frosts in winter does reduce the amount of disease spores left to affect plants.

We can assist in winter clean up by removing litter from under plants, mummified fruit off fruit trees and spraying with Lime Sulphur over the deciduous plants such as roses and some fruit trees.

Some years ago an elderly gardener told me of a control for Brown Rot in stone fruit and that was to sprinkling Sodium Carbonate under the tree.

Sodium Carbonate is known as Wallys Soda Ash Dense. I tried it and it certainly reduced the problem greatly without any other spraying.

I wrote about this, and later on had another gardener contact me and said it worked on their curly leaf problem as well. Another told me it helped with keeping their rose foliage better from black spot.

Being a fine powder it is easier to spread and get a good coverage and it breaks down quicker having a pH of 11 when added to water which is weakly alkaline.

I then talked to a few knowledgeable chemists and scientists who concurred it would likely have an effect on some disease spores in the soil and litter.

Sprinkle under the plant/tree from the trunk outwards to beyond the drip line. Then lightly watered to start the break down most of the fine powders.

In an ideal situation, one would kill all the disease spores in the vicinity of the plant and thus any future contamination would have to be blown in or carried by moisture from a more distant area.

When to treat? Many of these diseases have been active and some still are, so now would be a good time. Then any time you like to help protect such as early in Spring.

Wallys Soda Ash Dense is available on www.0800466464.co.nz in the disease control section.

Another suggestion for use would be for those that have mature camellias that suffer from the disease that causes buds and flowers to brown and drop.

The disease does lay dormant under the Camellia till the buds are formed then affects the buds and flowers, rising on moisture evaporation to reach its host. If the Soda Ash Dense kills most of the spores under the tree then less flowers would suffer.

One aspect would be the pH of the Soda Ash Dense having an effect of the Camellia which likes a more acid soil.

This could be corrected by applying some Sulphate of Iron or Alum if any signs of stress on the camellia appeared or even applying these acid products a week or two after the Soda Ash treatment. A very interesting and safe way of possibly reducing disease problems in your garden and if so, a great reduction in the need of sprays. I would not look at stopping sprays such as copper and sulphur initially, but if found that the plants are free of problems then you have won. I would like to hear about how you get on if you try it.

I saw recently a interesting way to do grafting on a tree. It was using a spark plug socket tool which is placed over a small growth bud on the trunk of a tree and hit with a hammer to make a hexagon cut into the tree and lift the bud and foliage.

Then on another same type tree the tool is used to make a hexagon shape hole through the bark into which you place the bud. Being a perfect fit then wrapped taped to hold into place as the union is completed over time.

If successful then the bud foliage will grow and you have a new branch on the way. Maybe another variety of apple on your existing tree? So simple to do.

Major news in English newspapers this week was that the English Government is officially commencing ‘Dimming the Skies’ using aeroplanes to spread a range of chemicals and particles over the skies to reduce sunlight and global warming.

(Called Chem Trials and touted as conspiracy theory by Governments and News Media).

This has changed the ‘Conspiracy’ aspect and the past denials into an official notification.

That’s worse than the pot calling the kettle black… So now they are going to do what they have been denying doing for many years?

It has being obvious to anyone that had stopped looking down at their gadgets and looked up into the sky and see trails of chemicals not vapour trials as was used as an excuse for what was happening.

All living life forms need sunlight and that includes our garden plants, food crops and our health..

Reduce sunlight as has happened in the past with volcanic eruptions and ash pollution in the atmosphere causing famines and poor health.

Another problem is that sunlight itself has little heating effect, it is the infra red that does most of the heating and with either cloud cover or pollution in the skies the heat is trapped.

Like in winter if when there is cloud cover you will not normally have a frost as the heat of the day is trapped. If a clear sky and no wind then when the temperatures are low we have a frost as the heat escapes out into the atmosphere.

Thus there are going to increase global warming by trapping heat with sprayed pollution in atmosphere.

So obviously they are either stupid or else it has nothing to do with global warming but all to do with food growing potentials. Past studies have shown that the chemicals and particles used to dim the skies are toxic to all life forms as well.

Sulphur and aluminum particles are two of several others considered or being used. Meanwhile Trump & RFK Jnr are working to ban chem trails world wide, apparently because of the unusual weather patterns they help to create and the health of people breathing in or drinking the chemicals sprayed when they return to ground.

It has become a funny old world that’s for sure.

Image credit: Jovana Askrabic

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