This is not a noble rot.

Recently I spoke about all the rain and things will be rotting due to mold.

Well, when I meant mold, I didn't mean the powdery mildew kind, I mean the BOTRYTIS kind.  The gray, fuzzy, what you typically see in boxes of badly refrigerated or just old strawberries in the store.  I recognized it in my garden because after taking a wine course, we learned about this mold, except it's called noble rot in viticulture due to its presence needed to make certain sweet wines.

Except I don't make wine with my strawberries, and really it's kind of nasty tasting on strawberries if you haven't had the unfortunate circumstance to eat a moldy strawberry (the light brown rotty part you see on strawberries is also part of the Botrytis cycle) .

My sister in law mentioned using baking sodium (aka sodium bicarbonate) and proceeded to give a scientific explanation as to why this works (she's much more detail oriented than me.  Why can't I be more that way?!)

I have used the baking soda spray solution in the past for powdery mildew on my houseplants, a small and easy undertaking, and I was a little worried about spraying the vast swath of my strawberries with a baking soda solution because I really want something with really good efficacy to take care of this problem and I was a little worried that any residual film that might be left behind could harm the foliage of the strawberries and if sodium build up might be a problem in the soil if I have to spray quite a few times.

Wanting to find a middle ground so I don't over do anything, I went a researching (which I should have done ANYWAYS prior to my first post) to see the efficacy of baking soda on botrytis and whatever helps stop/prevent it other than good practices in general.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Service site had some great information here.

Essentially, while baking soda is helpful, they say that it's most helpful with a surfacant such as soap or a light horticultural oil and that it's true that sodium build up can be a problem and that it could potentially damage leaves if suggested levels are exceeded.  It seems that ammonium and potassium bicarbonates can be more effective than sodium bicarbonate (but who has that in their cupboard?) though it does depend on the situation.

My sister in law mentioned that pH had to do with harming the fungicide and this was mentioned too on the website, as was the thought that it affected the fungus's cell walls, which makes sense, because you're probably pickling/mummifying them.

This makes me wonder too if the diatomaceous earth could have any ability at all to help stop some fungus spreading because it dehydrates so much, that perhaps the spores are unable to survive? Though those things are pretty tough because once you add water, presto! viable again is usually the case for spores.


A Cornell link mentions the use of neem oil and though  I know my neem oil does say fungicide on it, I had to look carefully to see if it mentioned botrytis, and it did, so now I feel more confident in having that in my arsenal too.

I had mentioned looking for a copper-sulfur spray, which is usually the recommended (though unreliable, what isn't though?) method to control fungus, but as I am reluctant to spend money I think I will now go back and forth doing an initial neem oil spraying, then baking soda solution, and so on and so forth until I feel safe. All the while keeping a good eye out for gray fuzziness and discarding those properly, NOT in the compost bin where they are prone to survive.  I could potentially place them in a white plastic bag and let them sit in the sun for 2 weeks to kill spore, but I am feel too strawberry insecure now.

In a way it feels bizarre spraying more liquid on already too wet things, even though I know it should help it, because what's one more drop in the bucket it seems?!


HELPFUL LINKS
(about botrytis/fungus control, some organic, some not, some about strawberries, some not):
 http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html
 http://www.ehow.com/how_3034_detect-prevent-botrytis.html
 http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3070.html
 http://www.umass.edu/umext/floriculture/fact_sheets/pest_management/botrytis.html
http://strawberry.ifas.ufl.edu/plantpathfiles/botrytisfull.htm
 http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1302/
 http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp152
 http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/pdf/HYG_3017_08.pdf
 http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html
 http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/botrytis/botrytis_blight.htm

Pot cleaning, the lazy way

I've been weening myself off of bleach for a while now (other than my toilet tank cleaner, so hard to let go! Anyone know of a good alternative?), in favor of washing soda, borax, baking soda and oxyclean (which I think is like dry hydrogen peroxide, didn't check the chemical formula).

I'm trying not to use bleach because of its effects on my lungs, the environment and its potentially carcinogenic nature (I know, I know, what isn't carcinogenic nowadays...) But as many good gardeners are supposed to wash their pots out with a dilute bleach solution to rid hem of disease I've been in a bit of a quandary.

My solution thus far, part in due to laziness/timeliness is to place my pots outside, in the sun and ESPECIALLY the rain where the rain can naturally clean all the dirt and grime off of them and let the good ol' UV rays of the sun kill whatever is on them.  Like bleaching your clothes in the sun is my theory.

No chemically water to dispose of and really, no work at all! It's great!  Anyone have any brilliant ways to wash their pots (children not included)?

UPDATE: OK, I clean vinegar with everything... and after a couple of "what about vinegar?" comments (from my sister included) I feel like an idiot.  Where was my brain (as usual?) when I wrote this???  Ooops, too busy noshing on morning glories.  JUST KIDDING.

Gardening, gardening, diddly dee. So much to learn....

I admittedly have been sort of lazy around the garden these past couple of weeks lately, not wanting to fuddle around there because of all the rain, bugs and having gotten myself caught up in a million things. Which is a pity as I like how productive I feel getting up early, walking the dog and then nearly first thing I do is check out the garden and make sure all is right in it at the morning and finding that it's still well before noon is when I feel it's a good start to the day.

I hadn't felt like that until today morning when I severely pruned back some hedges (hate 'em but they're part of the "bones" of the property and then I don't have to plant other things there). Massive prunage occurred as some branches were way out and wonky, preventing light from getting to the branches below and I also noticed that the bushes were afflicted by soft pink scale, also called strawberry scale, which took out one of the otto luyken's in my backyard last year. So, neem spraying will probably have to occur.

(thanks, www.yale.com)

I have a problem of neglecting the inedible plants at the house (unless their the groundcover ones that prevent me from having to mulch):
(love it! strawberry begonia, golden turkey vine, shade sedum and creeping jenny mix)

because I figure if they can't make it, they weren't meant to be there and if I have to put forth all this effort for something I can't eat or isn't that cool then I sort of don't care for the plant.

Example, I think my irises in the front are being affected by iris rot either the bacterial or fungal kind. The bacterial one, Erwinia carotovora, can be caused by iris borers that attach the base of the rhizome and the bacteria enter into it causing a soft nasty smell rot. This is a bacteria that is common to decomposition as compared to the fungal rot which is major problem apparently and is a dry rot officially called Sclerotium crown rot (so rotten it has 'rot' in its Latin name!), caused by Sclerotium rolfsii. The dry rot is actually brown and crumbly looking in the rhizomes and I don't think I've been messing with that because if it is there supposedly I need to do some major quarantining. (http://hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/pastpest/200507b.html)

More things I learned! How to identify ragweed:
http://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/

I planted a lot of marigolds last year and scattered their seeds around too, so if you were to see this plant, without say, the flowers in this picture... you would think it was a marigold too right???? Other than the fact too that these plants get giant, about as tall as 4 feet, which tips me off that no, it's not a marigold. Wheee... This may explain some sneezing here.

And the fun doesn't stop here!!!! Because of the rain (I've been saying that phrase so much lately) I tossed around baking soda on my damp plants, versus making a baking soda solution to spray on the plants to prevent/treat fungus because I figured it would become a solution when the baking soda landed on the damp plants, why make them more wet?

Yeah, I totally burned my tomato and bean plants... but I think the tomatoes will make it. The beans could go for a second sowing anyways I noticed, so no huge loss. So, if you ever are tempted as I was to do something incredibly stupid like that, don't.

On a happier note, I has a harvest!

The butternut squash vine was showing signs of kicking it from borer damage, so I put it out of its misery and pulled it and kept the small squash fruits. ah well. I plan to make that area a flower garden of sorts to attract pollinators as I will be moving some black eyed susans there in the fall once they have gone to seed as well as some clearance gallon salvia's from Lowe's (about a buck apiece! Go get!)

I figure at this point, the vegetable garden is mostly established, and now I need to work on making it look goooood. Other than this guy:
(Ugly siamese Brandywine tomato says hi)