Thanks for the responses. Let me clarify a bit on why I have had to use copper. I am growing vinafera grapes. The number of people successfully growing vinafera grapes organically in the entire mid-atlantic region is, to my current knowledge, one -- myself. (Well I am sure there are a few more but it must be very uncommon). There are a few people growing vinafera organically in NY and other somewhat less disease-ridden places. Anyway even if my soil were the best in the world there is no way to grow vinafera here without a significant spray regimen. My current experiment is to spray copper plus Surround plus Nufilm on the undersides of the leaves; the Surround seems to physically interfere with the downy in some way which tends to start on the bottoms of the leaves, and since it is on the underside and plastered on with nufim, the spray stays there a long time since the rain can't get to it. I am hoping that I can double or more the length of time that a spray lasts with this technique. Maybe I can even cut back on the copper strength. I tried milk, bicarb, sulphur, and others with no luck at all. They work fine on powdery but downy gets into the leaf tissue itself and these sprays just don't work. I am also experimenting with different varieties, I have several dozen. I have found a couple vinafera that seem to have much better disease resistance. My favorite so far is an obscure Portuguese variety called Tinta Pinheira which is known in Portugal for its resistance to diseases. I was out looking last night and it is completely clean of diseases now. I also have many hybrids, but none of the red hybrids make a good wine as far as I am concerned. Well they make a fine wine but its just not the kind of wine I like to drink. The white hybrids on the other hand make some very good wines and all my white wine grapes are hybrids. This whole effort is still in the experimental phases, I have already gotten rid of a half a dozen varieties that seemed to be too disease-prone and I will probably be getting rid of several more. Anyway with regard to copper it sounds like most people here are not using it at all - ? Scott

One third cup ground mustard (powder) dissolved in 1 gallon of water, poured on a one foot by one foot area. As all the worms come up, pick them up and move them. I have no idea what this will do to mosses, but the mustard irritates the worms' skin. This may not work well in clay soil. Of course, the worms will move right back in, but it might give you temporary control. Here is a link that might be useful: Worm Survey Methods

Sanding/Pressure washing will be the quickest, but it sounds like the wood has started to rot if it's that soft. Understanding you don't want the dust to get into the soil and the groundwater.... You could try a heat gun and a scraper used a lot in the wooden boat building industry. Will require some more labor on your part, but once you figure it out the paint will come up in long strips and can then be collected and disposed of properly.

As a sidenote. I do want to mention that my tomatoes grew perfectly throughout the summer, as this garden hasn't been tilled for 5+ years. The garden was really fruitful, the soil was very strong. Obviously not the ones that had glyphosate damage, as mentioned in my previous opened thread. But i will mention that now in September, i am seeing some of the tomatoes get more easily damaged likely by some sort of a fungus. Fungus destroyed all the other tomato gardens this year ,because of their tillage-destroyed gardening and specifically the large amounts of rainfall we received. My tomatoes weathered all of it ,but now seem to have weakened. Could that possibly be because of the toxin or the worms dying off? I do not know, but I want to know.