Here’s Thursday’s harvest. I’m picking at least a half colander of green beans daily. We’re eating them, and I’ve already frozen quite a bit.
I have melons!
As far as our bug spray saga goes…
I called the County extension office and the woman that answered the phone told me to call the Maryland Dept of Agriculture and gave me that number. So I did, and the man I talked to said the product is called "Biomist" (something else is mixed with the permethrin) and that it stays aloft for about an hour, after which point it either "evaporates" (his word) or settles on a surface. My research indicates that it'll stay in the soil up to 30 days, is detectable in foliage for up to 10, that it is not absorbable by human skin, and that it is fairly easy to wash off, as it degrades quickly in water and sunlight. The man at the MDA told me "it won't hurt my garden", not to "eat anything fresh and unwashed out of the garden", but that if I wash everything it'll be fine. This seems like common sense to me and not really the answer I'm looking for, as I don't want it to be on the produce at all, but that was the response I got when I was asking about whether or not covering the garden would keep it from getting on the garden. All of my research thus far suggests to me that covering the garden should keep it off the plants and out of the soil where the plants roots are for the most part. So we’ll be diligently covering again this Monday. I will also need to cover a new plot with black plastic in the not too distant future to keep the permethrin out of the soil where I’m going to dig up the fall garden. I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone, keep the pesticide off and kill the grass all in one go.
If anyone is interested, I also found out after last week's hysterical panic that permethrin is a main ingredient (37%) in the flea and tick product I have been putting on my dogs. Hmmn. Apparently you can also buy permethrin at places that sell camping equipment and people soak their clothes and camping gear in it. Yuck. I know from the Internet that many states use this stuff in their public mosquito control programs. They crop dusted the gulf coast with it after Hurricane Katrina. All of which is to say that the stuff seems to be ubiquitous; and I don't find that comforting so much as extremely disturbing. If you're interested, of all the websites I found about permethrin, this (link below) seems to be the most balanced - that is, it considers the possibility that this could be harmful (it’s an endocrine disruptor…anyone see The Colbert Report this week????) in addition to repeating all of the "this is basically safe" information that is out there.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Home\TEDX ? Pesticides Permethrin Citizen's Guide.htm
As far as our bug spray saga goes…
I called the County extension office and the woman that answered the phone told me to call the Maryland Dept of Agriculture and gave me that number. So I did, and the man I talked to said the product is called "Biomist" (something else is mixed with the permethrin) and that it stays aloft for about an hour, after which point it either "evaporates" (his word) or settles on a surface. My research indicates that it'll stay in the soil up to 30 days, is detectable in foliage for up to 10, that it is not absorbable by human skin, and that it is fairly easy to wash off, as it degrades quickly in water and sunlight. The man at the MDA told me "it won't hurt my garden", not to "eat anything fresh and unwashed out of the garden", but that if I wash everything it'll be fine. This seems like common sense to me and not really the answer I'm looking for, as I don't want it to be on the produce at all, but that was the response I got when I was asking about whether or not covering the garden would keep it from getting on the garden. All of my research thus far suggests to me that covering the garden should keep it off the plants and out of the soil where the plants roots are for the most part. So we’ll be diligently covering again this Monday. I will also need to cover a new plot with black plastic in the not too distant future to keep the permethrin out of the soil where I’m going to dig up the fall garden. I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone, keep the pesticide off and kill the grass all in one go.
If anyone is interested, I also found out after last week's hysterical panic that permethrin is a main ingredient (37%) in the flea and tick product I have been putting on my dogs. Hmmn. Apparently you can also buy permethrin at places that sell camping equipment and people soak their clothes and camping gear in it. Yuck. I know from the Internet that many states use this stuff in their public mosquito control programs. They crop dusted the gulf coast with it after Hurricane Katrina. All of which is to say that the stuff seems to be ubiquitous; and I don't find that comforting so much as extremely disturbing. If you're interested, of all the websites I found about permethrin, this (link below) seems to be the most balanced - that is, it considers the possibility that this could be harmful (it’s an endocrine disruptor…anyone see The Colbert Report this week????) in addition to repeating all of the "this is basically safe" information that is out there.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Home\TEDX ? Pesticides Permethrin Citizen's Guide.htm
I'm with you. Pesticides are really disturbing. Your potatoes sound heavenly. I think I figured out how to grow them here in AZ so I'm going to try them again next year. Not much success in previous years due to watering the entire area with no means of letting the dry out occur.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that Permethrin is a synthetic version of pyrethrin which comes from Chrysanthemums. It is really the least toxic stuff out there that actually kills bugs. There are many types of deterrents (Spearmint oil and such) that don't kill anything and it is questionable if they work at all. Pyrethrin does kill bugs but it is safe if washed off your veggies and shouldn't settle into the soil at all. It is safe to use up to the day of harvest.
ReplyDeletePermethrin is a synthetic but is way better than malathion which is what they used to use to kill mosquitos. I wouldn't worry about residual in the new garden bed beyond about 7-10 days. It is pretty ridiculous that you can have your property sprayed once a week without anyone asking you, but they are concerned about diseases which are spread by mosquitos (think Yellow Fever and West Nile that is particularly nasty).