I am a long time organic gardener. Before using an organic product, I do my research and investigation work, and, I continue to research the products I am using. I completely believe in the organic movement, it has been my life, and believe it is the only way of assuring healthy, chemical free food for myself and my family. I haven't trusted 'organically-raised produce' because I have found cases of fraudulent activity (chemicals used secretly and never reported). This is why I raise my OWN produce. I do not mean to sound paranoid, but again, I do my research. I have been using ecoscraps organic products when I first learned about them because they claim to be organic. Now I am convinced they are not. I found out they don't actually use food waste in their compost -lie number 1 it is all a marketing scam to get you to buy their product. if they use 'some' it is such a small amount, it really does not make a bit of difference to the planet like they say. I know because I talked to the composter. He also showed me piles of chemical-full grass clippings that they put into the compost. Huh? second, the products are not really omri even though they have the symbol (they have fooled omri). But the biggest change in my opinion came when I learned this week that scotts miracle-gro is buying the company. I am sure they want to keep this secret, so they can keep fooling people into believing it is a small organic company, but now they will start sneaking chemicals and chemical fertilizers into the compost and other products. Isn't there any organic products company out there that can be trusted anymore? I am interested in knowing from this forum what companies can be trusted and what can't be. I really appreciate this forum because this allows the people to speak and learn from each other. Please help me and the organic community raise healthy, organic produce that we can trust!

Campanula, you are right to be concerned. There are unwanted consequences to every bio-control agent out there. I work in ecological restoration and we really dislike preying mantises and crab spiders, both non-native insect eaters, and we aren't wild about the store-bought ladybugs either as they are an Asian species and they appear to be pushing out the native ladybugs. Things like ladybugs and mantises are generalist predators - they eat whatever they can fit in their mouths. Not good for native species! Parasitic wasps tend to be more specific but still no guarantees. We really dislike Bt as well as it kills all caterpillars - the pestiferous ones and the native butterflies all. My boss doesn't like any bio controls - bugs introduced to control invasive weeds or insects. They will eat native species in the same genus as the target pest, for the most part. The USDA does run tests before it allows these bio controls to be released but their focus is not the same as ours - they support agriculture, and native ecosystems are expendable. Ditto for the EPA's tests of biological pesticides - they don't run them long enough or thoroughly enough to uncover all their negative side effects. The needs of agriculture trump environmental health. But, there are no undisturbed ecosystems. Our gardens are all highly disturbed. Garden plants usually are not native and are planted in disturbed, amended soils and watered with imported water and fertilized with imported materials. Even native plants are exposed to imported diseases and pests and unnatural conditions. I feel it's unfair to the plants to do nothing for them when diseased or attacked by insects. I just keep in mind that there are NO 'safe' pesticides - all have unintended effects on nontarget organisms. And bio control agents won't willingly starve to death once the target pest is gone - they'll eat something else if at all possible. I use cultural controls as much as possible, and companion planting to encourage a mix of beneficial insects and predatory birds. I've also come to the realization that perhaps I should leave food production to the professionals! there's plenty of small scale producers selling at the local farmer's market and I should be supporting them since they do a much better job than I ever could in my little urban backyard.

First, do some research on the available chemical fungicides. If environmental concerns are your top priority, then understand that many chemical fungicides are less damaging to the environment than are many organic ones. Most chemical fungicides are also much less potentially damaging to the person spraying than are even the mildest of insecticides. If you wear proper personal protection at both during mixing and applying, then your risk of contacting enough of the chemical to cause yourself harm is rendered exceedingly minute, and this is for chemicals who have a lower toxicity profile to begin with. I've found that BannerMaxx combined with mancozeb will give you 95-99% control of BS, and this is in a climate much hotter and humid for longer than most, except for Florida. If, after fully informing yourself of the choices available and the consequences of each one of those, you choose organic methods to control disease, be aware that the first principal of organic gardening is to get rid of the disease magnets. That may mean elmininating most of your hybrid teas, as they are not really suited to growing organically in most of the East. Concentrate your energies on the roses that have at least some resistance to disease and your results will be far more pleasing. You must be willing to accept some damage to your roses as a total gardening philosophy. Growing roses organically doesn't mean you just substitute products and achieve the identical spotless results. Also be aware that roses with poorly controlled disease are far weaker going into winter and have a much greater chance of not surviving even mild winters. That again makes your cultivar choices of primary importance. The most effective organic fungicide that I've personally trialed for preventative spraying is horticultural sulpher. It must be applied at least weekly, and during times of rapid growth like in early spring, sometimes twice weekly in order to coat the most rapidly growing foliage. It had an effectiveness rate of 40% in my trial, meaning that Angel Face, a rose that will defoliate 100% with no spraying, will retain 40% of it's foliage if sprayed regularly with sulpher. On a more resistant cultivar, of course the retained foliage % would be higher, but I find ANgel Face a good "lab mouse" with which to judge a spray's effectivity. Sulpher has a tendancy to burn at temps above 86°, which is highly problematic in my location as we regularly have many many summer days with temps above that. None of the baking soda and horticultural oil formulations that you may hear regularly touted had any effectivity approaching even 10%. Neem oil, while a decent enough insecticide, burnt leaves badly and also wasn't terribly effective. Copper is is good, but it burns worse than sulpher and can build up to toxic levels in the soil and is far more dangerous to the human than is sulpher. The more folkloric remedies of milk and cornmeal aren't even worth the bytes...

I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression. DH is great. He isn't turning a blind eye to SS's behavior. He realizes there's at minimum an "attitude problem" going on. SS's behavior got worse after his biomom left (again) last fall. She tends to come (after being gone for years at a time), promise to be a real mom, hang around just long enough to make SS think maybe she really will this time, and then disappear which is where I think the majority of SS's behavior is coming from, especially the unconscious behavior aimed at women. The physical incident between the 16 and SS happened after the 16 yo didn't shut the van right and in SS's mind if something wasn't perfect, I might leave just like his bio mom so all his anger at biomom came out backwards at the 16 yo. There's only been one physical incident but in a household with austistic spectrum kids, it just takes one incident and they think there's the pattern. I really don't want to make excuses for SS but I do understand why he's acting the way he is. I'm just not sure how to help him, try to keep things fair in the meantime, and not walk around being constantly ticked off at him. I"m thinking this is going to be my plan of action. Let me know what you think 1- SS starts seeing a counselor - as soon as one can be found- period - I"m not his biomom and shouldn't be punished for what she did. I would never ever treat him or anyone that way. and most siblings of children with disabilities have problems adjusting or relating to them, why wouldn't a teenager thrust into the situation, especially with not just one sibling but 3? 2 - Anytime SS doesn't do his 15 min daily chore he will not leave the room the chore was to be in (even if I have to sit on him and he misses his baseball game, pees his pants, or I'm late for work) until he does (making DH enforce the rules isn't adding much to my credibility with SS - It's almost like SS wants me to be the one to punish him) 3- If SS doesn't mow the yard properly with the riding lawn mower, he will use the push mower, even if I or DH have to follow behind him the entire time and make sure he does it all. 4 - the attitude will stop. If he can't see that we all have to work together, I just might try the strike thing and see how much he likes doing his own laundry, own dishes, making is own meals (probably just sandwiches since he can't cook and I"m not buying special groceries for him to eat alone and he wont' eat leftovers). Maybe then he might come to the conclusion, that even if he doesn't realize it, we all work together and people are doing things for him. 4 - the lying, "storytelling, "smart alec comments", whatever you want to call them - I'll just immediately call him on it. NO more games, no more him trying to outsmart me, no more trying to catch him in the lie, just quietly, and simply state "that's bs and you know it" and move on 5 - any attitude directed at the other kids will become immediate and lengthy family discussion and we all know how much teenagers love those, most likely followed by a grounding where he's required to be around the other kids and has to get along - no going to his room, no going to friends, etc (I'm in the office only 3 days a week so this should be able to be closely supervised). 6 - as for unfairness in material possessions, they'll each just have a dollar limit for school clothes, etc. IF SS wants to blow all his on one pair of shoes and one pair of shorts, so be it - he doesn't then get to complain that he has nothing to wear. 7 - as for the homework, DH and I discussed at the end of the school year, that we can check on the computer for finished homework - if the homework shows as not turned in on Friday (too bad if the teacher forgot to update it), the TV from his room is gone (no more cable, no more video games, etc) and he spends each night until bedtime at the dining room table doing homework and has to physically show us the homework (the exact missing assignment and any current assignments emailed to me from the teacher) is completed before being excused - if he says he forgot it at school the principal has kindly volunteered to go open up the school for him (the principal just doens't want it to become a daily thing, but I think we'll only have to call this bluff a couple times) - this one is going to take a lot of time, but again I don't think it'll be something that will always require as much time, just follow up, once he sees we mean it ok what does everyone think?