Lucy wrote:
> Several years ago I got into a very long drawn out flame war with a
> conventional onion grower [snip]
> I grow onions commercial on a small scale using organic methods and
> rarely have any fungus problems but have been hit badly by onion maggots=
in
> the past.
I just re-read the section on onions in William Woys Weaver's book, _
Heirloom Vegetable Gardening_. Have you read it? He describes how the
onion farmers in Connecticut, starting in 1788, raised onions in the same=
fields for 80 years. He doesn't say what *they* might have done for the
onion maggot but says (blithely?), "This problem can be dealt with by mak=
ing
a strong tea of burdock leaves and applying it when it is at room
termperature around the base of the plants."
Do you have any experience with this remedy?
Pat
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Pat Ruggiero wrote:
We have used row cover to prevent maggots in the past but the last few
years have done nothing and don't get a lot of maggot damage. We do
rotate the onions around the farm. w3e also plant from seed and very
rarely sets. the only time we use sets is if we get a crop of small
yellow or red onions.
never have used the burdock remedy
lucy
onion maggot but says (blithely?), "This problem can be dealt with by making
a strong tea of burdock leaves and applying it when it is at room
termperature around the base of the plants."
Do you have any experience with this remedy?
Pat
I for one can well believe that. While burdock roots are quite nicely
edible, the leaves are extremely bitter (though very useful against varicose
veins for instance).
john
