Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Gardening

Today I used Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) on my broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage, in my garden. It comes as a spray or powder. I bought the powder under the name Dipel. I poured it into the cut-off leg of an old pair of pantyhose and shook the pantyhose over each plant. It worked beautifully and was easy to use! It is supposed to kill the cabbageworms that emerge later on in the season en masse. I'll have to do it about once every 10 days from now on, but it is worth it to keep those worms out of the cabbage. The BT is totally organic and non-toxic and you can use it on crops right up to the day of harvest. The way it works is that it releases spores which the worms ingest and then die within a couple of hours because they get sick and can't digest food. I only use non-toxic substances on the garden.

2 comments:

  1. this is good to know,I always learn something from you,phylliso

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  2. I am learning a lot from that book I got. Also, my brother-in-law said to put salt around the asparagus to kill the weeds because it won't hurt the asparagus.

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