pollen or caterpillar poop?

[outfished]

Professor, you mentioned BT, I assume your talking about Bacillus thuringiensis? From what I've been reading the past couple of years is that this stuff is a true nightmare in the making. From the way I understand it is that BT works by constipating the insect resulting in no poopies for it and causing it to die. The problem is that the harmful insects that BT targets are part of the food chain. Other critters ingest the treated bugs and experiance the same same results, no poopies. In third world countries where BT is allowed(yes, here in the U.S as well) , the chemical make-up of BT is now beginning to show up in humans and you guessed it, no poopies. Digestive tracts in humans are getting compromised and companies that produce BT(monsanto) are in full denial. Crops that use Bt are crossing over into crops that don't use it and are being contaminated at alarming rates. Insects that help farms are being found dead in huge numbers and the companies are all in denial, and there are still unknowns about BT to yet surface down the road. Not good to mess with mother nature imo.

[ProfessorM]

You are right. You never know what is going to happen long term with any of these preventative measures. Sometimes it takes a long time to finally figure out if it is good or bad. Nothing is perfect. Pretty impossible to grow anything on a large scale without some kind of chemicals involved. One good thing about having a small garden you can pick out the insects and know what is going onto your plate. I have been growing apples,pears, and peaches for years and there is no way you can grow them with out chemicals. I have tried and never pervailed. My best crops were when I did a weekly spray program which is a lot of work. Miss one application and the dam bugs take over and that doesn't take into consideration the disease's that plague fruit trees too. You wouldn't belive how much spraying goes into fruit tree's and veggies too. There are so many insects and disease's that love apples that I am ready to give up. Way too much work for the rewards. Not to mention the crappy,cold springs the last few years. No pollination with the limited wild bees around who hate the cold wet weather and will not work in those conditions. Thank goodness for bumble's because they will work in that kind of weather. You almost need to keep bees if you want to have even a few fruit trees. Insects will rule the earth someday. Man sorry for the rant. My wife is right I am grumpy. Paul

[outfished]

Hey Professor, I hear your ranting and raving and take it to heart. I grow and maintain a small field of vegetables(3.5 acres) and it's a handful to say the least. I haven't sprayed anything this year and hope I don't need to, I'm trying to keep it organic if possible. Last year at another location I had to deal with blight (antracnosis) it it was just total devastation for three years and I finally gave up. Sure I could of saturated the area with chemicals but I was defeating the purpose of going organic and with all the health issues attached to spraying I opted out. I did try the bourdeau mixture(copper sulfate) and that did help the grapes some, but everything else just rotted away. It didn't help that some surrounding properties had the same problem and unless the owners there choose to do fix their problem, I was left on my own and could never rid the problem. I know fruit trees are fairly delicate and require special handling and I've been thinking of starting some, but now I'm not so sure. Best of luck brother!

[ProfessorM]

Don't get me wrong I love to garden and the fruit is my favorite but the work involved with fruit trees is non stop. It is fun the first few years but it soon gets to be constant work. Pruning, fert.,spraying, harvest if yu are lucky. Try a few first before you go hog wild. I suggest blueberries. Alot less work and you can't beat the harvest. Just birds to worry about. Always something. I commend you trying organic. I use it in my little plot. On a grand scale it has to be tuff. Good luck. Paul

[outfished]

Blueberrie's are on my list for next year. I have tons of raspberries and blackberries but those are fairly maintenance free. So far so good at my plot, no bugs to report. Here's a tip that may help with insects. Located around my plot are several sparrow house's I've put up over the years and are all occupied by new families all summer long. I've observed that early in the morning around daybreak that the adult sparrows love to hand out in my plot devouring insects by the buckets. That my be why insects haven't been a concern...yet. I also have erected several bat house's on the edge of the property and watch about a half a dozen bats flying and diving over the plot at night, again eating buckets of bugs. Ahhhh, mother nature at its best!