Bad & good products for homes & yards

[bixaorellana]

Wasn't quite sure where to put this. Saving the World was one thought, but I'm thinking maybe we need a dedicated thread to warn each other about purportedly innocent products we need to ban from our lives.

And if anyone has recommendations for good products or homemade solutions to replace the baddies, please post them here.

There's also a discussion in the Troubleshooting thread about Roundup. That thread is an excellent resource for specific problems, besides.

Scotts Miracle-Gro pleads guilty to selling poisoned bird seed <-- click

[onlymark]

Well for a start, can't you replace more or less all your cleaning products and weed killers with vinegar and washing up liquid?

[bixaorellana]

Can anyone comment on these tips, please? They're from a horticulturist, so presumably sound. Here's the source: www.garden-trends.com/2013/04/5-uses-for-baking-soda-in-garden.html

5 USES FOR BAKING SODA TO BENEFIT THE GARDEN

1. Use as a herbicide to kill crabgrass: Make a paste with baking soda and water and apply directly to the target crabgrass using a paint brush. You can also wet the crabgrass down and then dust it with the baking soda powder.

2. Use as a pesticide to control cabbage worms: Create a mixture of 50/50 flour and baking soda and dust on infected cabbage plants. You can also use it to control caterpillars on broccoli and kale plants. Repeat the process as often as necessary.

3. Use as a foliage rejuvenator for black spot: Mix 1 gallon of water, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of white summer oil in a pump sprayer and shake well. Remove and discard yellowing and infected leaves from the plant and then spray with the mixture. Repeat process as new growth begins to appear.

4. Use as a fungicide for powdery mildew: Mix together 1 gallon of water, 1 tablespoon of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of dish soap into a pump sprayer. Shake well and spray a generous amount onto infected plants. Lilacs, roses, zinnias and squash plants are all particularly susceptible to powdery mildew.

5. Use as a soil amendment for tomatoes: Sprinkle baking soda around tomato plants once a week throughout the growing season prior to watering. The baking soda lowers the acidity level in the soil, giving you sweeter tomatoes.

[rikita]

i recently read that the common balcony and potted plant dirt, containing turf (peat?), that i also usually buy, is really bad for the environment. apparently dirt without turf is not that much more expensive so i am planning to buy that from now on. it just isn't sold at the shop i usually go to, so i have to go to a different, bigger shop.

[Deleted]

The EU bans so many chemical products (often made by Monsanto) that I am not really aware of what should be used instead, although I do weirdly listen to a gardening programme on the radio every Saturday morning around 7am (I will try to report what tomorrow's programme says).

I did see the other day that 'green' Americans very much approve of the EU ban of some Monsanto product that is killing most of the bees in North America.

[bixaorellana]

Rikita, as I understand it, some of the commercial potting mixes use Canadian peat and some are made from stripping the topsoil off of lots. Either way, bad for the environment plus who knows if the stripped topsoil is free of heavy metals, toxins, etc.

My theory is we're better off using no commercial products except for stuff like fish emulsion that wasn't made in a way harmful to the environment, plus it works by making plants healthy enough to deflect bugs and disease. Of course, I'm in the same situation as you -- I have to buy potting soil. I try to get the kind with a base of composted bark, but all too often it's forest duff. That makes lovely potting soil but rips out an essential part of the forest's natural cycle.

Any plant that can't be fixed with home remedies in my garden gets 86ed.

You'd think the US would want to ban Monsanto -- would want to have been in the vanguard of killing the devil, but no.

[rikita]

well i bought some without peat now, and the package says it is recommended by the NABU, which is an environmentalist organisation, so i hope that one is alright. has a strong smell to it though, hope that gets better once it is in the pots and thus exposed to more air...

what does 86ed mean?

[bixaorellana]

Is it a strong dirt smell, Rikita, or something else? Composted stuff can be kind of stinky when enclosed in a bag, but should be okay once you use it for planting.

86 is American slang for throwing something or someone out, banning it/them.

[rikita]

yeah kind of a composted smell... don't really know how to describe it...