Re: [gardeners] Chlorine
penny x stamm (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 30 Sep 1999 23:40:09 -0400
.
>Penny in NY
>
>If I remember correctly you stated that you had a lot of chlorine
>in your water. And that for some plants you let it dissapate for
>awhile. Do you do this for the whole garden ?
>Do you have very many fungal infections ?
Hello, Byron -- I always fill both my gallon watering containers
ahead of time, but for two reasons. First it helps to dissipate
the chlorine, as you stated. Secondly, it puts the water at an
ambient or room temperature, so it won't shock the plants.
Of course, I also drop in a dollup of liquid soap, to prevent the
soil surface flying insects from making their home in the pots.
It works fantastically! Outdoors, we use the regular tap water,
including the chlorine.
No, ordinarily I do not get fungal infections on the indoor plants,
or the usual 75 cuttings which I overwinter under lights. One
winter I did, and I learned to use an old fashioned electric fan
in that room, to keep the air circulating. Outdoors we are more
likely to see insect attacks than fungus, except on the roses.
They can catch anything....<g>... and often do! This current summer
we had the most perfect rose foliage in all my years of growing
them, but then we had a terrible drought, so they never got wet
above ground.
>The reason I ask is this. I am sort of confused with some
>recent data, From U Oregon, They claim that for a ??fungicide
>one can use 10 to 50 ppm on plants, ( 1 to 5 drops per gal) chlorine
>Yet municple water supplies can use up to 4 ml of chlorine per gal.
> My thoughts are if plants can handle that much chlorine, why the
>much more minute amounts per Oregons statement.
>
> My reasons for asking, For peppers, the only fungicide listed is
>copper fungicide (that I can find for the homegardener). This is a
>preventative measure. After a couple weeks of rain and high humidity
>then stuff has time to get started. Once it's started, copper doesn't
>help.
>
>I know from the paint industry, the best clean up for mold and mildew
>is chlorine.
>
I grew a few peppers summer of '98. They got watered twice a day
by a black soaker hose lying on the ground, NEVER overhead. They
got 6 hours of sun a day. They never got very large, but they did
taste fine.
Definitely, as with ALL illnesses and diseases, prevention works
much better than cure. If your climate tends to be hot and humid,
with plenty of rain, then I would vote for a preventive copper spray
on your peppers. IPM allows you to weigh the problem before
you decide to use chemicals, but once you understand what will
cause your infection, then IPM does allow you to spray or dust.
The important thing involved here is not to rush off and use
chemicals on everything in sight, without thinking it through.
For the people who prefer never to use chemicals at any time,
it is their choice -- but they would not be able to grow peppers
in your area.
Penny, NY
.
.
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