Sterilising ground

 Organic growers and those of a nervous disposition read no further. :-)
On of our allotment holders who has a number of allotments sterilises his
soil every few years with some powder which he incorporates into the top
layer of soil, waters well, covers with plastic sheeting and leaves for a
couple of weeks. He says the gas kills everything and has rid one of his
plots of Club Root and White Rot as well as killing any weed seeds so they
never build up. Sounds both a miracle and the work of the Devil to me.
Anyone know what he is using?

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK
 

 On 08/10/2010 14:13, Bob Hobden wrote:

 From your description I would hazard a guess at Basamid or dazomet -
but it should be as granules rather than a powder. Not sure if it is
licensed for amateur use. I suspect that it is not...

http://www.hortweek.com/news/rss/Search:+pests-diseases/1023969/Grower-improves-lettuce-crop-sterilising-soil-against-diseases-weeds/

MSDS http://hazard.com/msds/mf/cards/file/0786.html

Regards,
Martin Brown

 

"Martin Brown"  wrote

http://www.hortweek.com/news/rss/Search:+pests-diseases/1023969/Grower-improves-lettuce-crop-sterilising-soil-against-diseases-weeds/

He has so many allotments he can rightfully class himself as a smallholder.
Indeed he is already allowed to abstract water from our local stream as the
area he has under cultivation is in sufficient.
Interesting though for those of us with White Rot and Club Root.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

 
Yes, it's almost certainly Basamid or Dazomet. It's neither a powder
or granules btw, it's a prill - that is very tiny lumps of the
material of uniform size - like a powder but nothing small enough to
get airborne and too small to be called granules so it's very easy to
distribute evenly.
 I used it in the greenhouses at work for sterilising the beds used
for early veg and salads. Also for replant problems in the rose
garden. I've heard of it's potential use for white rot but never tried
it. We tried it for rose replant disease on a 5 acre field on the
nursery where I worked in the '60s - it worked but it made growing
roses on that field a very expensive proposition. In the rose garden
here we felt it wasn't quite as effective as replacing the topsoil -
but in either case the treatment only lasts as long as it takes for
the rose roots to get down into the untreated soil below but the hope
is that by then the plants will be sufficiently well established to
withstand whatever it is that's causing the problem (and we still
don't know)

Rod

 

"Rod"  wrote
- but

So with White Rot it should work as the onions are shallow rooted and even
cabbages roots don't go down too deep.
Interesting.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK