Brandon : Trees, and I, thank you for bumping this topic up again. I am sorry to admit, I have gotten a bit discouraged by the lack of response to this little discovery of mine. Maybe a brief update. It was 1986 when I first applied this to some really large cuts on various trees at my timberland, including white pines, a large red oak, and a large white ash, among others. Most of the cuts are now covered by callus growth, but not all. Those not covered have the wood in the cut perfectly unaffected by any kind of rot, even after all these years. This winter a moderately large golden weeping willow near my house here in Winchester, VA, was split, almost in half. 40% of the tree was lost. But, I discovered that the split didn't compromise the main trunk, and I could make a cut leaving a nice firm surface. But it is very large, about 12 by 18 inches. Callus growth on this kind of willow is rather fast, but it would take long enough for the callus to cover the wound to allow rot to enter, and that would seriously weaken the tree, and shorten its life. But I am completely confident that my treatment with the original copper fungicide formulation I have been using (by Dragon, made before about 2004 or thereabouts) will prevent any problem. And, golden weeping willows restore lost crown with incredible speed. My tree, which in any other yard would be lost, will be just fine. The new product, the so called "copper soap" may also work, but since I have bottles of the old, which I bought when I saw it would be discontinued, I have not begun to use and experiment with it. I have been frustrated, because I have called universities suggesting research, talked to people at Arboretums, and distributed papers explaining everything, and no response. I even called two of the companies that produced the older product, and suggested that they advertise this new use. All this has been to no avail. So now I am quietly continuing to use my old Dragon product. The last time I checked, the Camelot product was still available, but that may be two or three years ago. And, at that time, it was available, I think, only in gallon sizes or larger. The new "copper soap" may work. If anyone wants to try it, I would recommend not diluting it. Elemental copper is a fungicide, so if it will stick to the wood as well as the old "copper salts of fatty rosin acids," then it may be a good bet. It just seems insane to me that no one will take up this fungal, and bacterial, rot preventer, and save valuable ornamental trees. Maybe the revered Dr. Shigo, who insisted (he is gone now, bless his heart) that rot is not a problem with trees, so no treatment is needed, still holds sway. His idea that trees can "wall off" fungal infections has some truth to it, but in the end most trees eventually get serious fungal infections that spread beyond any "walling off" the tree can accomplish. As a logger, who has cut a lot of timber, and bucked the logs into the best saleable sections, I have seen first hand how rot progresses through the trunks of trees, starting not only with scrapes caused by prior logging, but also by the entrance of fungi into broken stubs of dead branches, etc. It is such a shame to see special ornamental trees destroyed by something so easily preventable. I have even used this fungicide to prevent rot in some of my forest trees. Anyway, thanks again, Brandon--you are a true friend of trees. Maybe your keeping this topic alive will lead to someone, seeing it who might be interested in a very neat little "official" research project. I am absolutely 100% sure of the efficacy of this treatment, if done as I have explained, and done in the kind of situations I have described. --Spruce

We had a pretty serious midge problem the previous two years here in the cutting fields, but this year we went totally organic and I've seen very little midge. I don't know if there's something we have that actually kills the little buggers or what that we'd been killing off and now they've come back, but it's been great not seeing those burned tips so often! We change a few months back from organic sprays to only using Actively Aerated Compost Tea, and roses we've not been able to get for cut in a couple years suddenly started producing good roses (Elina/Peaudouce, Geoff Hamilton, and others), plus it seems to have eliminated botrytis on our white roses. Powdery Mildew (our worst summer disease here) has been eliminated on the vast majority of roses, and has been losing hold on the roses that did have it, it's actually been curative in some cases (where foliage that had PM cleaned up). In reading that book "Teaming with Microbes" it said that the AACT using fungally based compost can actually kill nematodes because the good fungus in the soil around the roots will strangle the nematodes (they had an actual photo of that occurring). We don't have the bad nematodes that I've ever seen, but I'm wondering if maybe that same fungus kills the midge larvae, or something like it does. All these good fungus and bacteria are eliminated by chemical sprays, particularly the good ones right at the roots. They are also killed by strong chemical fertilizers. I don't really know for sure if this has been the cause for a much better rose year for us, but it does make sense, and it's a heckuva lot cheaper to do for us, even including the cost of the Compost Tea maker we bought. Plus, the crew doesn't fuss about spraying, and in fact are fairly enthusiastic about it (for our crew, LOL). Our rose production has increased about 44% over last year, some of this is due to newly planted roses getting big enough to cut, and stopping some excessive pruning practices in the past (we stopped that 2 years ago). --Ron

Shelf life of herbicides varies from product to product, but if they are kept in good storage conditions (above freezing, not too hot, dry etc.) they generally last for years. An inquiry to the manufacturer will give specific advice. Fertilizers are generally very stable as long as they are kept dry, tightly sealed, and are not allowed to absorb moisture from the air.

I would not mix more than you would use at one time. A couple years ago I accidently left some mixed BT in my sprayer in my cool basement overnight and the next day when I opened the sprayer to dump it, it stunk to high heaven!!!! I don't measure how much I put in my 40 oz. spray bottle but I would guess about 1 tsp. Peter - use a few drops of dish soap as a surfactant and it should stick to the leaves better or buy a bottle of Sticker Spreader. My last bottle lasted at least 10 years.