Hi Sharon: You benefit me & others with your intelligent questions, which enable me to see what I did wrong with my past experiments. How did I cause rust by throwing POWDER GYPSUM on top? I repost the info: There's a U. of Nebraska research on rust, with the title, "Medium pH and Leaf Nutrient Concentration Influence Rust Pustule diameter on leaves of dry beans." Their conclusion: Plants grown in pH 5.8 medium show significantly larger rust pustules than plants grown in pH 6.5 or pH 7.9. Concentrations of Cl (chloride) and Mn (manganese) were more in high rust. In contrast, concentration of K (potassium) were less in high rust." From Straw: Alabama Agriculture Cotton Research also recommended potassium fertilizer to reduce rust. Info. about gypsum from USAgypsum.com: Elemental Calcium......21.0% Elemental Sulfur (S)....17.0% pH...................................6.8 Kelp4Less sells 5 lbs. of GRANULAR GYPSUM at 18% sulfur for $12.50 .... more than my local feed store, or Menards at $4.49 for 25 lb. bag. There's a quarry nearby that manufactures gypsum, so cheap here in my Chicagoland. I WOULD NOT use Pennington gypsum plus lawn fertilizer, if it's chemical nitrogen (high in salt). What I did wrong was to throw 1 cup of POWDER-gypsum on top ... it's acidic, plus fast release of calcium, which drove down potassium, necessary for rust-prevention. Previous times with 1/8 cup of GRANULAR gypsum, along with sulfate of potash ... no problems whatsoever. I would use even less GRANULAR gypsum, like 1 teaspoon, along with 1 teaspoon sulfate of potash, plus 0.2 cup of Milorganite. The best ratio for veggies is 1 part nitrogen, 1 part potassium, and 1/2 part calcium. Roses have a higher need for calcium, so I use equal amount to potassium. Sulfate of potash NPK is 0-0-50, and Milorganite NPK is 5-2-0. Take 50 divide by 5, you'll get 10. Ten teaspoons of Milorganite is equivalent to 0.2 cup, best with 1 teas. of sulfate of potash, and 1 teas. of gypsum. I would use more sulfate of potash & gypsum with pale own-root like Jude which needs more potassium for blooming, plus more sulfur for leaves to be darker-green. PALE own-root like Duchess de Rohan, W.S. 2000, Jude, Eglantyne, Honey Bouquet, Comte de Chambord can take more gypsum at 17% sulfur, and more sulfate of potash at 23% sulfur. DARK green roses grafted on Dr. Huey, and French roses dislike acidic sulfates. Bone meal has high sulfate at 2000 ppm, and 400 iron & 300 sodium, with the dark-green roses break out in diseases. I put too much bone meal in Gruss an Teplitz hole ... he's the parent of Dr. Huey, it became a BS-fest, and I had to fix the hole. Pennington fish pellets NPK 4-6-6, high phosphorus with fish bone meal. The pale & lighter-green roses LOVE that tea, today tiny Jude broke out in 2nd flush, 3 more buds with that tea, very fast repeat. Austin roses, bred in an acidic & high rain England like that ratio ... The ratio in David Austin Rose food has NPK 9.5 - 7.5 -10 ... a bit higher nitrogen due to high-rain England, which leaches out nitrogen. Acidic sulfates help pale-own-root to bloom better, but sulfates also burns if in direct-contact with roots, best as SOLUBLE. Pennington pellets is best as SOLUBLE tea under hot sun, to spoon-feed wimpy own-roots which can't acid-phosphatase as band-size. Bone meal is OK for pale own-root the planting hole, if mixed-thoroughly and buffered by plenty of soil. Bone meal burns if applied on top. Concentrated amount of sulfates near the stem burn. One person killed his tomato plant by topping with Jobe's Organic tomato fertilizer NPK 2-7-4, high in bone meal. When I mixed that stuff THOROUGHLY in the planting hole, I got bumper-crop tomato. Same with gypsum, at 17% sulfur, and sulfate of potash, at 23% sulfur. Both burns my finger, and burns any root, best used as soluble. If I sprinkle some on top, I flood the basin immediately with water, to dilute that, along with milorganite for nitrogen. Tomato Tone has NPK 3-4-6, neutral pH & less phosphorus ... it didn't burn my tomato plant, so that can be applied at 1/4 cup before a rain. It's finer particle & tend to float, best to let rain work that in. Milorganite is best 0.2 cup with 1 teas. sulfate of potash and 1 teas. of granular gypsum .... spread that on top before a rain, if you are lazy like me. Safe approach would be Milorganite on top, then make soluble out of potassium & calcium per gallon of water. Roses are all different from each other, the pale ones require more sulfates, potassium, and phosphorus via SOLUBLE to bloom. The darker-green leaves like Dr. Huey can secret acids to utilize nutrients from soil, thus breaking out in diseases when too much acid is supplied, like rain-water (pH 5.6 in East coast), or sulfates in bone meal, gypsum, and sulfate of potash .. which are components of Pennington Pellets. Sharon, best wishes with your roses. They all are different from each other ... such as pale Graham Thomas which required an ungodly amount of potassium & phosphorus as soluble to bloom for a Texan. It took me 3 years, and countless failed experiments to learn the above. This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sun, Jul 20, 14 at 11:19

Here's another advantage of whole-grain corn meal: ants and insects can't digest that stuff, thus decline. I buy 10 lbs. bag of cracked corn for $2.69 from the feed store, and grind them with a Nutri-mill flour-grinder. Awesome as a fertilizer, buds everywhere, fast result like alfalfa tea, but with more buds. NPK of whole-grain corn meal is 1.65/ 0.65 / 0.4 ... that's much better than horse manure with bedding, at NPK of 0.7 / 0.3 / 0.6, plus salt. pH of cracked corn is VERY ACIDIC at 3.5, thus neutralize my alkaline tap water at 8.3. I checked on fish bone meal, that stuff is so stinky that a person reported the neighbor couldn't sleep with its application. Both fish meal and fish bone meal attract huge black flies. I tested the refined corn-meal from Walmart ... it was worthless, no nutritious fatty germ layer, just junk-food that attracted flies, and didn't work as fertilizer nor fungicide. Some feed store grind the cracked corn into meal for a surcharge. Grubs are the larvae that hatch into Japanese Beetles. Here's an excerpt from Soil Forum â¢Posted by digdirt 6 -7 AR on Sat, Mar 15, 08 at 13:18 Corn meal also an effective control for grubs and cutworms - they love it but can't digest it, so they eat and die. I'd add it straight to the garden as well assuming we aren't talking a tiny little garden for that 25 lbs. ;) Dave This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Mon, Jul 21, 14 at 14:50

Some vital points made about how location can affect the need to spray fungicides. As can weather and it is our weather that led me to spraying this year. While we normally suffer from high temps and high humidity both, it is normally dry (as in minimal rainfall) and chronic diseases like septoria and early blight are normally found at tolerable levels here. But the past 2 years,and this one so far, have been markedly different here with almost constant daily rain - enough to rapidly bring the lakes up to maximum flood pool - and little sun. Plus it has been inordinately cool. Those conditions are ripe for the common diseases. So I am electing to spray this year - not out of any fear of late blight, but just in the hopes of controlling the fungal and bacterial diseases to a degree. You see it doesn't have to be and either/or issue - spray or don't spray. Just as many of us here are compromise organic gardeners, many more than get credit for it since we aren't organic purists, one can compromise on this issue too. If you feel that fungicides are dangerous, even the organic-approved ones, then you can always consider applying them only early in the season when the weather is its most risky and before fruit has set. Or only apply it during a period of severe weather change, or only after signs of disease to control if not prevent. There is gray, not just black and white on any issue. So, Big Daddy, after reading your message I would feel horrible spraying anything on my tomatoes. Joy I'm sorry you feel that way - "horrible" - since it reflects on those of us who choose to use fungicides. It is your choice of course. But I am curious as to how you can come to that conclusion about fungicides yet justify to yourself the use of Sevin in your garden? I am always amazed at the number of gardeners who accept highly toxic chemicals to kill bugs, any bugs, yet find disease controls unacceptable. Is it just because we find bugs ugly? Or because they are alive? Makes little sense to me since diseases pose a much greater threat to the garden than do the bugs. And it is especially difficult to understand when the disease controls, in general, are rated as much less toxic than the pest controls. But to each his own. ;) Dave

You can also use Bonide Fung-Onil. Both the Ortho and the Bonide have the same concentration of Daconil. Some stores carry the Bonide but not the Ortho. ****** YES!!! bcday knows that I'm growing quite a few tomato varieties that are new to all or most b'c I send her the seeds for same and she does most of the seed production for SSE listings, etc. So like a jerk I called my local Agway Saturday not remembering it was a Holiday and also called the local hardware store; they weren't home either. This AM I called Agway and at first mentioned Ortho Garden Disease Control, they had none, Steve called the main warehouse in PA and they were totally out and said they did expect some in in about two weeks. So then I mentioned the Bonide Fung-Onil and Steve actually had a pint of it in the store and NOW! I kept saying thru this whole conversation that I wanted the 29.6% chlorothalonil and he kept asking me to spell it and then said he had copper spray which says on the side Blight and I said no way. he said you really do know what you want, don't you. LOL He was not in the mood to be told that Daconil acutally blocks the LB and fungal foliage receptor sites on the leaves.( smile) Then call Freda, Freda will pick it up tomorrow and then we see if my pump sprayer is still alive, but if not, she can use the 2 gal watering can just as well. Everything will get it, the tomatoes, potatoes, cukes and squash, the latter two primarily for mildew and Daconil is great for mildew. I'm just not willing to take a chance on the special tomato varieties I'm growing but I can't get out there with the walker to even see if anything is going on with the tomatoes. Freda will do that tomorrow, but then there's more rain, heavy T storms predicted today and tomorrow, so we may wait until Wednesday to spray. Carolyn