permaculture

[Claude Genest <genest@together.net>]

Title: Re: [permaculture] Silicon as fungal spray

Geez Louise Steve, Look at you go ! Way to dig up the references my man ! Great work.. Thanks !

Claude
> From: Steve Diver <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>
> Reply-To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 21:31:09 -0600
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Silicon as fungal spray

> Silica/Silicate as a material to control diseases in greenhouse 
> crops can be found the ag journals. In Canada, I'm pretty sure 
> it has become a regular greenhouse industry practice to 
> use something like potassium silicate.  It is good for pythium 
> and mildews on crops like greenhouse cucumbers. 
>
> Quarles, W.  1995.  The truth about horsetails or natural plant 
> disease protection from Silica.  Common Sense Pest Control 
> Quarterly. Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring).   p. 18. 
>
> Cherif, M. ; Benhamou, N. ; Menzies, J.G. ; Belanger, R.R. 
> 1992.  Silicon induced resistance in cucumber plants against 
> Pythium ultimum.  Physiological and molecular plant pathology. 
> 41, no. 6 (Dec 1992): p. 411-425. 
>
> Menzies,-J.; Bowen,-P.; Ehret,-D.; Glass,-A.D.M. 
> Foliar applications of potassium silicate reduce severity of powdery 
> mildew on cucumber, muskmelon, and zucchini squash. 
> J-Am-Soc-Hortic-Sci. Alexandria, Va. :. Nov 1992. v. 
> 117 (6).  p. 902-905.. 
>
> Cherif,-M.; Belanger,-R.R. 
> Use of potassium silicate amendments in recirculating nutrient 
> solutions to suppress Pythium ultimum on long English cucumber. 
> Plant-Dis. St. Paul, Minn. : American Phytopathological Society. 
> Oct 1992. v. 76 (10) p. 1008-1011. 
>
> For mildew, a well established control is baking soda; 
> it apparently works even better mixed with horticultural oil. 
>
> Use of Baking Soda as a Fungicide 
> http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html 
> http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/bakingsoda.pdf 
>
> Mildews are one of the principle diseases that compost teas 
> are know to control well.  Compost teas are becoming a regular 
> practice in vineyards, for example. 
>
> Notes on Compost Teas 
> http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html 
> http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/compost-tea-notes.pdf 
>
> Allan already mentioned BD 501, Horn Silica.  The other 
> BD practice that is largely a silica effect, is horsetail tea. 
> Equisetum leaves are soaked in water and foliar applied, 
> largely as a prophylactic to prevent disease but also for 
> its total contribution of bioactive components that function 
> as a biostimulant. 
>
> I'd be comfortable recommending horsetail tea, baking soda, 
> or compost tea to a commercial nursery for the control of 
> many diseases.  Of course, it ultimately is a trial and error 
> deal until the grower knows what works and confidence is 
> there to junk the fungicides and swith to a biological program. 
>
> For the green industry, biologicals are becoming more 
> available and becoming more widely accepted. 
>
> Plant Health Care has a comprehensive program of 
> biologicals that support greenhouse, nursery, turf, etc. 
> The web site contains award-winning educational materials 
> that explain soil biology etc really well. 
>
> Plant Health Care 
> http://www.planthealthcare.com 
>
> I'm not familar with ironwood.  But just about everywhere 
> one lives local plants exist which can be made into herbal 
> teas to control foliar diseases and boost plant health. 
>
> Finally, Serenade is a biological fungicide from AgraQuest 
> that is approved for organic production.  It comes in a 
> package like most fungicides, with a label, with instructions 
> to mix, etc..  So it is probably the easiest sell to commercial 
> growers because this approach is like substituting organic 
> brand for chemical brand; it is familiar, and it has assurance. 
> The biological control organism, Bacillus subtilis, competes 
> with pathogens and more or less just takes over the leaf 
> surface and prevents disease. 
>
> AgraQuest:: Serenade 
> http://www.agraquest.com 
>
> Interestingly, that is the same thing compost teas do.  Only 
> compost teas are working with dozens or hundreds of species 
> of beneficial microbes that offer an enormous diversity  
>
> Regards, 
> Steve Diver 
>  
>
> Elijah Smith wrote: 
> >  I'm sorta working with a nursery in the area (Hawaii) that is staffed by a pretty traditional crowd but is owned and run by a guy who's willing to try new things.  So far, I'm turning the cuttings, etc into compost, trying to phase out vermiculite for the (locally available) cinder, brewing compost tea, etc. I've heard, mostly through anecdotes and biodynamics texts, that silica is an effective remedy for mildew & fungus diseases.  Currently, the nursery is using some sorta biocide spray for this (we're on the wet side of the island). When the ironwood discussion came up, Robyn posted a quick and simply ironwood tea recipe for fungal spray.  This would be cool, cheap, local, etc but I need some sorta reference to back up these claims.  Does anyone know of any studies, reports, books, etc to that effect? 
> >