The first signs of summer disease are making themselves known – potential is high after our mild, wet spring. Cool your heels before rushing out to buy a big hitting fungicide and have a read about the bio-fungicide advantage.
Bio-fungicides are a gentle, natural solution to disease – they do no harm. Traditional fungicides (copper, sulfur et all) however, do a clean sweep and wipe out the beneficial insects and soil microbiology as well as the pathogens. Without its community of life, soil cannot function. Without competition for pathogens – they rule the roost. Soil looses structure and so it cascades – into our waterways, our air and onto our dinner plates. A downward spiral of health wouldn’t you say.
Using bio-fungicides heads in the opposite direction, and up we go. The addition of yet another useful organism to the soil family, improves the network, and we start to see what life above ground looks like when soil is strengthened, not weakened. The benefits spread wide – to healthier water, air, animals + humans, moisture and carbon are retained, plants are well fed and protected, pests and disease slow down, and best of all, crops are residue free (as they jolly well should be).
A win win that farmers and horticulturalists the world over are embracing as crops become fungicide resistant. They stand at a cross roads – on one side is ever increasing strengths of yet more -icides, on the other an integrated, living ecosystem. Its a beautiful thing to watch one farmer after another embrace biology! Regenerative, biodynamic, organic – as long as it is soil health focussed + does no harm, you’re on the upward spiral. And every living being on earth, wins.
Begin with holistic thinking
Though bio-fungicides stand alongside fungicides in efficacy, they are not direct swap outs. Shift your mind from reacting to the problem when it arises, to preventing it in the first place by acknowledging that the key to best health lies in living soils! This where the holistic gardener puts all their efforts, leaning on ingredients that contribute to and build life. Bio-fungicides are part of this transition, managing fungal disease and supporting healthy crops as year on year the garden strengthens. An engaging and exciting way to garden!
Depending on what gardening habits you currently have, this can be a huge paradigm shift. Give yourself a grace period if you are used to spraying weeds and using artificial fert. Let go a habit + adopt another – one by one. In this way you’ll segue, as the power and vitality of a living system becomes obvious.
Gardening this way is heaps more fun! No more angsting over every curly leaf or gooey substance. The pressure comes off as you start to relate to disease as a temporary step on the way to glory. Balance (ie the glory) comes along in time and disease pressure ebbs away. It wont ever disappear – the weather plays a big part!. And besides, bits here and there are par for the course.
Give your garden time
The more -cides and artificial fertilisers that your garden has soaked up, the weaker your soil life and overall system will be. Bio-fungicides are at their best when integrated into gardens that teem with life, so if good results aren’t immediately obvious, side step the habit to declare a failure. Just because you cannot see it, doesn’t mean nothing is happening! Much is. A big part of this shift is learning to trust life and allow the process – as you dismantle one way and rebuild another. Like a solid house foundation, it takes time, but therein lies its strength. It will serve you, those of who come after you and the environment entire – long and well.
Be in to win! (This competition is done + dusted)
Botryzen are offering up 10 of their small garden bio-fungicide packs. Enter to win one, by scrolling to the bottom of this post, and in “Speak your mind”, tell me the one new practice you are taking on or giving up, in order to improve the biology in your garden. Bonne chance! Competition closes on December 8th.
How to use Botryzen bio-fungicides
Spray early, at the first stirrings of foliage or disease, in warmer temperatures of 15°C and above. As per all other sprays – a calm, dry day with a few dry days ahead is optimal.
Armour Zen
Spray at the first sign of infection and repeat after rain, once foliage has dried.
- For black spot on apples, spray after fruit set
- For downy mildew on cucurbits or lettuces, spray at the first signs of infection.
Midi Zen
- For powdery mildew on cucurbits, grapes, strawberries, peas – spray when black spots appear on the underside of leaves, before the icing sugar look. If this is a repeat problem in your garden, keep your eyes open for the early signs.
Botryzen
- For leaf curl, spray after leaf drop in Autumn and then again prior to buds opening
- For garlic rust, spray on the garlic shoots as they first appear. This colonises the crop and rapidly spreads to outcompete the rust. We’ve missed this window, but grab a bottle for next spring if garlic rust is an issue for you.
My garden is organic but I live in a really hot humid but dry spot in black sand. This year I’ve let everything self sow and am trying not to tidy up too much under the trees etc as I’ve noticed a number of different grasses etc coming through. Unfortunately I had a bad fungal infection on some new nectarine trees last year. I pruned them hard and have tried to keep the areas under the trees a bit less planted out than I usually do to allow more airflow etc. If the fungal infection is still really prevalent I think I’ll take out the trees rather than having to resort to spraying. I’ve not had this problem until I bought these trees so they must be quite susceptible to it. In the meantime I’ll keep working on building soil health with mulches, chook poo, seaweed, comfrey etc.
I’m letting go of stressing over problems in my garden! We bought our place last year and it came with three beautiful fruit trees – one of which has rust and leaf curl abound. I have to keep reminding myself that the year we’ve been nurturing this tree isn’t that long in the grand scheme of this trees life, and we’ll just keep persevering to have awesome peaches for years to come!
I’m doing more with thinning out fruit to reduce pressure on the tree and increase airflow (completely removing all fruit off a tree that has been struggling) in combination with growing a greater diversity of plants to support the good guys both above and below ground, and we are now almost 100% glyphosate and chemical free
Hi Kath, I have by necessity ( fall in garden and injuring my hand )started to apply a no dig and a more wild /relaxed style of gardening. We have been organic since the beginning here ,12 years ago. I am now just layering on my home made compost /seaweed and comfrey and just dig a hole where planting . So will see if it helps with soil structure and drought .I am keen to try cider vinegar as a spray but generally I don’t spray at all relying on healthy soil /plant theory . Not always a win but Its as good as it gets , So these sprays sound interesting being organic.
I spend most of my beloved garden time feeding the soil. Mulching, regular sprays with em-1 and fish hydroslate or seaweed. A little neem here and there where needed, flowers everywhere amongst my vegetables.
Noticed curly leaf on a baby self sown peach. Wanting this to survive, grow healthy and produce, being that it chose to live at my place, I picked off the curly leaf and sprayed with a vinegar solution as well as giving it a feed with seaweed and em-1. It has continued to grow and looks healthier. Long term I wish to keep it that way. Found another peach stone sprouted in the garden and have potted that up. Peaches mmmm….
However dismal is the only way to describe my attempts to grow garlic. I used to be able to grow enough to last the year but since the dreaded ‘rust year’ a few back, I have to pull out the garlic before it’s hardly got going (a couple of months after planting.) Tried all the tricks., except botryzen..
I used to remove all the self-sown seedlings from the garden, but now I leave them for the bees.
I’ve had wrist surgery so my fruit trees need some love. I am going to get more companion plants around my trees. buckwhest and phacelia ill.direct sow now.. divide my co.frey too. I read about EM from you and spray once a.week. my white fly problem is hardly there now and hardly any leaf curly either
I’m going to stop freaking out at the first sign of fungal disease, take some deep breathes and reach for some bio- fungicide instead of copper (my go to this year)🤦♀️- there’s been plenty of freaking out already this spring!
Something I gave up this last year was having the garden beds empty over winter… I was pregnant and not well, so didn’t get anywhere near the crops planted that I would have liked to, but I remember you saying once that even weed roots are creating a better community than having bare soil…. so I left some weeds, and let go my perfectionism. Come spring, the soil is full of life – worms, roots, air… probably would’ve been a puggy airless disaster if I’d insisted on bare soil over winter! We live and learn!
I am so intrigued by all these products
Definitely I am keen to integrate into the garden but I would also like to trial them in the commercial grape nursery and even my neglected/ organic pears that get black spot every year 🥲
this year i did plant alyssum in the pears understory altho would also like to add comfrey if I can find a source
In my vege garden I am mixing more beneficial flowering plants into the vege beds rather than in separate beds
I am also letting things go to seed now that I have enough space
I didn’t plant garlic this year as had too much rust last year , but if you think these products work …wow what a game changer !
I also have a seaweed and fish frames- watering drum to fertilise my veges with – but so far been too wet to use !
I used a fallow crop of oat straw ( which grew) and broad beans ! So much goodness even if no one wants to eat them 🤣
I have had great success wth plastic and carpet as my weed killers this year – all grest Kath ideas 😇😀
awesome opportunity, thanks Kath! my recent change after reading your book has been to start to develop guilds around my fruit trees – flowers, tap roots (including moving some rhubarb), broad beans, etc. Have noticed a positive change in the health of my fruit trees, including my Luisa plum which has got SO many fruit on it this year!
All the best for your move and saying goodbye to your lovely garden and house – great to hear a new family are moving in though 🙂
I’m working on covering my soil with life! taking your advice and mixing seeds to scatter.
Started weekly foliar spray on vege’s and orchard trees of Nitrosol (soluble Blood & Bone) plus EM at a ratio of 1 part solution to 100 parts water plus a pinch of seaweed concentrate. Also, I soak seeds in the same strength solution for a few hours to help give a kick-start to germination.
Stopped using herbicides. Never used Insecticides or fungicides
Trying to collect more seaweed to put around the vegetables as well as adding to the compost heap This seems to keep the plants healthier and bug free
I am building a guild of plants under my fruit trees which had roses & herbs but now I’m starting to add comfrey calendulas phacelia. Plus I’m adding other flowers new herbs some veges as from reading Edible Backyard I’m no longer limiting my Vege garden to the 9 raised gardens I have. Treating tree issues hasn’t happened with fungicide but nothing so far so I need to learn more!!!
please enter me to win a botryzen pack. thanks
Hi Kathy
In Nelson I have grown perfectly beautiful garlic for 20+ years til the dreaded rust appeared 5yrs ago.. Your post today and one from KoruKai (whose garlic looks truly impressive) is telling me plainly – a new practice is urgently needed!!
Last year I had a great crop sowing early into pockets of compost on a really thick bed of straw plus most of your interventions listed but this year the rains started in May and didn’t stop!! Soggy straw = rotting bulbs and a humid warm September = perfect for rust.
My new practice for a new year is building biology thru fungal rich compost teas for all of our garden
The bio-fungicides would buy me time to implement this new discipline;. Botryzen for the garlic rust, Armour Zen for the apples/pears and roses, MidiZen for the powdery mildew on my grapes (also never previously an issue until about 3 years ago).
I love your books and they are most well used!
We are using more high-quality insect netting to reduce the need to spray plants to get rid of pests – cabbage white butterflies are the biggest nuisance, along with aphids. We had a problem with brown rot on peaches and apples last year and these products sound like a great way to tackle this problem.
This year has been so challenging, its been wetter and colder/warmer by contradictions. And just have not been able to get on my knees to garden, so chop and drop has become my mantra. We are very behind with putting our basics in but I am hoping that using Environmental Fertilizers-Natures Garden Fertilizer -this last year was a game changer and adding chop and drop compost will be the first level in improving feeding our soil. If my vegies look as robust as my weeds then we will be ok.
After yet another year of leaf curl on my young peach and nectarine trees, I’m giving the apple cider vinegar trick a go. I’d much prefer to try that than blast them with copper all through winter (I have read you need to do it every two weeks to have any real impact, yikes!!!). I’m hoping it works or at least means their leaf curl isn’t so bad – it’s sad to see them looking so unhappy!
I am planting flowers and herbs to attract beneficial insects
Hi Kath, the new practice I have taken on is looking out for predator insects in my garden, learning to recognise aphid mummies on my brassicas for what they are – not a new variety of pest but the answer to the problem!
Yes!!!
Last year Leaf Curl on my stone fruit was very bad even though I had sprayed with Lime Sulphur and Copper. So this year I have been regularly spraying with apple cider vinegar and using the watered down liquid from my bokashi system as a spray and watering in around the base of the trees. Am pleased with the results with just a small amount of Leaf Curl, even though we have had a wet spring. Unfortunately there is not much fruit this year as due to the spring been so wet, cold and very windy. Even though using the apple cider vinegar and Bokashi sprays was a lot more labour intensive I think the trees will eventually build up a better natural resilience.
Indeed they will Jayne – great attitude, try stuff and then watch what unfolds, these observations teamed with your gut show you the next step. Keep on….
Hi Kath
I moved to my first house in February I was eager to get planting but to my dismay the soil was lifeless, heavy clay and contaminated with rubbish. With poor soil came all the bad bugs and nothing much grew. Slowly in sections I’ve taken time to start to transform the soil into one more healthy and beneficial. It’s going to be a long process but already I can see it’s very rewarding!
Step by step Claire, it wont take as long as you think, especially if you arent disrupting the biology. Ka rawe!
thanks Kath. I am taking that it is about soil health and if we are in balance we won’t need fungicide. we were late getting our Garlic in and are struggling now. especially this winter there is fungus overgrowth everywhere as it’s been so wet!!
Exactly Matt – biofungicides are a transitional aide – not the answer. Take the learnings from the season and start thinking about how you’ll do it differently next.
This year, to improve the biology in the soil I am adding more carbon. I’m doing this in four ways:
A) layers of “forest floor” mulch around the fruit trees and bigger plants, which creates some fantastic mycelium activity.
B) making my own mulch for the first time via investing in an excellent (secondhand) lawnmower that can mulch all our trimmings;
C) investing in pea straw as a mulch in the vege garden (but gosh it’s expensive!); and
D) by adding more carbon to the compost. I’m an avid composter and love everything about it, but I tend to go green heavy. Although the compost I produce is gorgeous, I want to add more cardboard / browns etc, as I think this will really add to create an excellent ongoing backbone for the biology of my garden soil.
Thank you!
Oh yes it will Claire, good job on your own compost! It gets better and better as you go. Take care that the pea straw isn’t sprayed with fungicides my friend… they really do get into your entire system.
My newly planted peach and nectarine have curly leaf which I’m treating with apple cider vinegar. I’ve just purchased Edible Garden and will get your pruning book next.
Thank you for sharing the love
Kia Ora Kath,
Firstly thankuo for the guidance and inspiration, and all the best on your next adventure. My adventure in the garden lately has been to mulch with weeds , using not removing everything on the property. wind blown Wellington clay needs all the help it can get. Now I have access to a community shared mulcher, the possibilities are as endless as my tree pruning enthusiasm. All for the good.
Rock n roll you guys – a community mulcher – very smart! One of the best garden tools I reckon.
Our new practice is to give seedlings to those who want to try gardening but fear failure. In mid suburbia, our small piece is a rampant mini wilderness packed with life, food and little creatures. No sprays plus three compost bins and home mulch have given us a haven in these unsettling times. Thank you and best wishes for your new adventure.
I’ve given up on arranging the garden to just look pretty, all in neat tidy rows, to understand that the real beauty is in the diversity; feeding the bees, allowing plants to go to seed, the health of the soil, companion planting etc. Grateful my kids can learn this from an early age & admire the true beauty in our slowly developing vege garden. Many thanks Kath.
New book is great. Mulch from anything I can lay my hands on including buttercup once it’s been dried a bit to kill it. A grape needs serious help with powdery mildew.. Happy travels.
We had a disastrous year with guava moth in particular affecting most of the orchard last year,
Even some citrus was affected!!
This year my husband has made wooden hanging traps which are sized to fit the pheromone trap refills and we love inspecting them to see how many moths have been caught.
We have a coddly moth problem too and have tried home-made devices many times in the past with little success.
I love your blog Cath and have a signed copy of your excellent book which my husband gave me for Christmas last year.
All the very best with your next step in life.
Thanks for your kind wishes Jennifer – good job with the trapping! Its a trial and error game in the garden finding the solutions that work. One issue at a time, you get there.
I’m a veggie gardener rather than growing flowers but am realising the benefits of mixing them up and also planting for bees. We have marigolds, lavender, strawflowers, zinnias, heucheras and pansies everywhere and I’m learning about flowers. The garden is much more colourful and interesting and what’s more, the bees are buzzing!
So beautiful Lee – enjoy the journey
K x
Thanks to your advice Kath I’ve become a EM convert. We moved into a new place and the black boy peach had leaf curl last year and fungus spots on the fruit. I’ve been diligently applying EM and so far just a few curled leaves that I’ve plucked off. No such luck on my garlic rust though, tried all your tips and resorted to copper spray in frustration. Harvesting my early garlic now and disheartened with most of my bulbs. I think I’m a season away from giving up on garlic together…. would love to try some of this!
Sometimes a rest is powerful – take a break – frustration is certainly a great cue to step out and try something new. I’ve had a few garlic breaks myself and instead bought from an organic garlic grower online. Never say never Danielle!
I’ve changed to a no-dig garden, composting everything I can. Trialling ACV spray on everything & planted a heap of comfrey to use for compost, fertiliser tea. Haven’t used weedsprays for about 3-4 years with having Lambs on the property in springtime
Wohoo! Awesome Kylie to segue into natural gardening!
I’m following your advice of a daily walk around and pest-squash/weed pull Kath, to keep on top of things. I haven’t managed to beat the fungal diseases on my apricot and peach tree this year (no fruit, again!) but fingers crossed for next year.
I’m going to use seaweed foliar sprays in my orchard to try and keep it healthier to avoid diseases.
Following your guide, Kate I have taken up planting a guild under my new fruit trees this spring . I have planted/sown , red clover , crimson clover , oats, mustard ,sage , fennel , chicory, poppies, calendula , coriander, scabiosa, buckwheat, phacelia , a bit of a pack of native bird seed, spring onion , plantain , thyme ( bush ) creeping thyme , lupin , lavender, parsley,
golden rod, and of course the comfrey planted last year is now growing strongly under the fruit trees ( 3 ) , I have seedlings inside to plant out:- magenta spreen, yarrow , chamomile ( 2 sorts ) agastache, borage and mint
Hi Kath,
I am fairly new to your website and have been inspired enough to finally start a food forest in our small orchard. Pretty scary at first but after 6 weeks of not mowing I have begun to realise that things are beginning to look very interesting down there. and not too wild. We now have got some great looking plantain and comfrey. Have started digging the odd hole and planting some taller herbs, a gooseberry and a tamarillo. Have made one compromise and mowed a track through to the woodpile for he who chops!!. Wish me luck and thanks for all your great work.
All the best for your future
regards Pat L
ps looking forward to receiving your book for xmas
My newest thing is fermenting sawdust to use as a mulch. I tried it last year with amazing results.
I’ve always enjoyed using sawdust as a mulch, (usually it’s free and it also stops the snails!) but as we know it can also rob the soil if not done correctly.
So what I do…. Is over winter I fill up old tubs and buckets with sawdust. I add water and then some mucky liquids…. Worm juice…. Some compost mixed with water….and add in a few handfuls of any other goodies ie manure, nettles. Then finish filling it with water until the sawdust is completely covered in liquid, and then put a lid on it or cover the container so it can’t overflow if it rains.
Then, just relax and leave it to brew and ferment!
Come end of Winter or Spring, you’ll have amazing rotted sawdust to use as a mulch for your vege garden. It won’t rob the soil, it’ll feed the plants and it won’t repel water.
Give it a try!
Give it a go!
sounds epic Claire! Thanks for sharing and love your thinking!
I am making extra efforts to cover the soil with mulch – lots of trips to the beach to get seagrass and gathering up all the dried mown grass on our property. Finally made a “proper” hot compost heap which is now ready to spread – it was difficult to find a good spot for it as we have rampant kikuyu – ended up being made in the orchard where the trees shade the kikuyu out a bit. The lambs had a lot of fun playing “king of the castle” on my heap – often all 10 on there at once…. Yesterday I started some compost heaps directly on garden beds.
I have recently started a heritage seedling business, and as the temperatures have been warming, I have experienced the wrath of leaf minor munching through them. I thought I would give neem oil a go, and quickly realized how potent it can be! I have put that on the back burner, and haven’t come across a solution yet, except by moving them to a different area, but am loving observing the affects of applications and forever learning the do’s and dont’s of how to reduce pests and disease while supporting the beneficial biology. Many thanks for your tips!
thanks for this post Kath. I’d love to try these products. I was going to give up on growing garlic because of the rust but I think I’ll have another go next season growing in clumps about the section and using bio fungicides
Hi Kath, I am learning a new. We are just in the process of moving onto a property with more land. We have started planting fruit trees, berry bushes and a few vegetables (more will follow next year once we are there full time) and everything has taken so far, I have noticed some brown spots developing on the leaves of one of the apples and one of the grape vines, however at this stage it is a wait and see what happens as hey are so new. I only ever garden organically and am looking at all the ways to help nature do her job. Any and all organic “helpers” will be welcome in our house.
We have been letting things go a bit wild and wanted plants go to seed. Less weeding, plus a huge amount of self-seeded lettuce, coriander and parsley early in spring that has done better than anything planted. We had a good amount of new potatoes that had sprung up, and earlier than any I have tried to plant. Next on our list is a mulcher.
Thanks Kath. I’m going to pick all the not-so-good strawberries off the plants as well as the perfect ones, so the plants have their best chance of growing healthily.
The chooks are already tired of strawberries so I’ll put most of them in the compost.
Hi Kath, I love your work! your newsletter and I’m looking forward to hearing of your new adventures. I’m at the beach and having to build up as its straight sand. I combine woodchips, and a chil/compos mix with lots of mulch, but as I’m starting from scratch I’m trying to get microbes and worms in there as well. I notice the quality of compost/bark mix is varied, so I’m looking to enrich it as much as I can, additional compost, worm tea, seaweed mixture, garden weeds etc and so I’m wanting to expand my knowledge of how to keep the garden healthy and as self sufficient as possible
I have been using EM ocean organics and naturally been which have all been recommended by you and have been great for the fruit trees and even the dahlias and roses. I will add botryzen to help prevent leaf curl on my peach tree, and wondering if it would help with bladder plum on my plum tree. I have guilds around my fruit trees which are re seeding and doing the work for me. It’s so amazing seeing the beneficial insects that are attracted to all the flowers
Hi Kath!
To improve the biology in my garden I’m trying to make all my own compost and mulch using the resources that are available to me
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on your wonderful website and in your books
-Vanessa
I had given up on ever growing garlic again after so many pathetic crops due to dreaded rust despite trying all the tricks year after yearI shall certainly try again next season with this Botryzen. Yay for garlic. I love it!