Information and discussion regarding garden diseases, insects and other unwelcome critters.
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December 5, 2008 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Germany 49°26"N 07°36"E
Posts: 5,041
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Root Shield, Another BioFungal
As most of you know by my posts I use a Biofungicide called "Actinovate" from which I have had excellent results as a soil drench and a foliar as well. I came across another product the other day called "Root Schield". Where as Actinovate is made up of Streptomyces Lydicus spores Root Shield is made up of Trichoderma harzianum Rifai spores. Different animals but go about doing the job the same way. Most of what I have found on Root Shield been very favorable and I'm going to use it next year alongside Actinovate and compare the results. Here are a couple links to more information and sources for Root Shield. Ami
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/bi...ichoderma.html http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/776/
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December 5, 2008 | #2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Arkansas zone 6b
Posts: 441
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Thanks for the info, Ami!
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December 5, 2008 | #3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 6a - NE Tennessee
Posts: 4,538
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Ami, you had such beautiful productive plants this past season. This subject prompts a few questions.
How much of the Actinovate did you use per plant (average)? How much of the Root Shield do you anticipate using per plant? I didn't see where the ads talked about foliar use. In your experience to date, what do you consider to be the ideal process of applying these compounds? Where - when - how often? 4 ounces of Root Shield costs 19.99 plus shipping, etc. How far should it go if used in containers? Self watering containers don't have the "wash out" problem of other container types and should make the stuff go further. You (and I) do a lot of containers. Just trying to decide if I want to go with this product. After chasing your links and then google-ing until I got sick of google-ing, I'm very tempted to try this Root Shield in self-watering containers. BTW, I liked those pictures of your stomping grounds on the other thread. I keep remembering the golf course at Ramstein. Where else do you get narrow fairways and rough that's composed of 120 foot tall pine trees? Ted (the other one)
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Ted ________________________ Owner & Sole Operator Of The Muddy Bucket Farm and Tomato Ranch |
December 6, 2008 | #4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Germany 49°26"N 07°36"E
Posts: 5,041
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Ted, a 2oz pack of Actinovate was all I needed last year. A little bit goes along way. When I started using it initially I would sprinkle a little bit in the planting hole along with some mycorrhiza. Last year I went to Cow Pots and did it a little differently. Every year I plant my seeds in jiffy-7s and then transplant the seedlings into 4" plastic pots. Cow Pots are made of processed cow dung that can be transplanted whole and the pot will feed the seedling as it decomposes. So you have minimum shock to the plant as the roots are not disturbed. So when I got ready to plant the seedlings in Cow Pots to their final resting place I mixed up a 1 gallon batch of Actinovate solution and soaked the Cow Pot/seedling in the solution for 30 seconds, applied some mycorrhiza powder to the side of the Cow Pot which adhered readily as it was wet with the Actinovate solution and planted.
One other product I used for the first time last year was Fox Farms "Light Warrior". It's a very light potting mixture that already has Mycorrhizae added. I used this to transplant my Jiffy 7's into the Cow Pots. Worked great and the seedlings really took off. I used the Actinovate as a foliar as I added it to my Microbe Tea when brewing and applied with a hose end sprayer. T&J Enterprises carry it along mycorrhizae and other excellent products. I havn't decided how I'm going to use Root Shield yet and will have to wait until I get the product. I will be definately using it in my surrogate garden at work and probably add it along with Actinovate to my Microbe Tea when brewing. I think 4oz of Plant Shied should be enough as you are growing in containers as I and less is needed. Hope ths helps and if you have anymore questions feel free to ask. Ami
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘...Holy Crap .....What a ride!' |
December 6, 2008 | #5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 6a - NE Tennessee
Posts: 4,538
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Thanks, Ted. I'm 99% sure I'll be using Root Shield in all my pots next year. I was already going to add some composted manure, some dolomite lime and some ground-up oak leaves to my compost heap and use some Tomato Tone at planting time. Looks like I need to do one more hard look at my entire package of "to do's" on next year's planning. I've written a couple of computer programs to help me keep track of and document all aspects of my tomatoes and peppers next year (including pictures). I'll have a lot of data to post if anyone gets interested.
Thanks for the reply. Happy Holidays Old Bucket Farmer Ted
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Ted ________________________ Owner & Sole Operator Of The Muddy Bucket Farm and Tomato Ranch |
December 7, 2008 | #6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: texas
Posts: 1,451
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reply
boy this gets increasingly complicated!
Kat |
December 7, 2008 | #7 |
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
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I'll be interested to see how this all turns out with Root Shield.
I remember it first became available commercially around 1999/2000 as offered by Garden's Alive. At the time I was the Lead Moderator at another site and there was quite a bit of talk about it. One person ended up doing some research and came up with the place where it was developed and sent an e-mail asking about it b'c Garden's Alive was representing it as being protective for Fusarium and Verticillium, both acquired through the roots, and Fusarium in particular was a huge problem in CA where this message site was based. I remember the e-mail response where a woman scientist said that it had not been tested against either of those systemic diseases and that it had been developed for the bedding plant industry in terms of damping off problems, which one can see with seedlings either from sown seeds or in many cases in the bedding plant industry from vegetative propagation. Ami, I read the two links you gave but didn't see anything specific about tomatoes so I did a quick Google search and it appears from a quick scan of the links that its use is still for damping off of seedlings and not something that is used for root acquired systemic diseases such as Fusarium and Verticillium. Damping Off can be caused by one or more of the following: Pythium species, Phytophthora species Rhizoctonia solani. And all of them can cause pre-emergent damping off such that seeds are destroyed and it looks like bad seed germination, or post-emergent damping off with the typical brown constricted lesion on the stem where the root meets the soil, which is is seen on seedlings and can actually be seen on seedlings up to 4-6 inches tall. Here's the Google Search if anyone wants to read about Root Shield and Damping Off: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...Search&aq=f&oq= So I'm mot sure what Root Shield would do as part of a mix in a container for mature plants in terms of systemic diseases acquired through the roots since most folks don't use native soils that might be contaminated with those pathogens. No harm in trying it as long as controls are used so a direct comparison can be made between two identical plants, one in a container with and one in a container without Root Shield. Yeah, I'm a bit of a fanatic in using controls so one can assess if there is or is not an observable difference. After all, there could be some general effect not already noted for tomatoes, that I could see by a quick scan of those Google links. There were a few links from home growers but again, I doubt that they did use controls. Hope this helps somehow.
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December 7, 2008 | #8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Germany 49°26"N 07°36"E
Posts: 5,041
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Carolyn, Thi statement below from the Cornell report suggests to me that it does more than just control damping off. We shall see. Ami
Pathogens controlled So far as the author is aware, different strains of Trichoderma control every pathogenic fungus for which control has been sought. However, most Trichoderma strains are more efficient for control of some pathogens than others, and may be largely ineffective against some fungi. The recent discovery in several labs that some strains induce plants to "turn on" their native defense mechanisms offers the likelihood that these strains also will control pathogens other than fungi. The link below shows a study of T22 on tomato seedling growth as a added benefit. Ami http://www.actahort.org/members/show...knrarnr=635_16
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘...Holy Crap .....What a ride!' |
December 7, 2008 | #9 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 6a - NE Tennessee
Posts: 4,538
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Besides the possibility of more pathogen control, I was drawn to the other mentioned possibility of enhanced root size and efficiency. I'm thinking "better roots = healthier plants."
If we need a test, then I suggest the test be done in more than one climate and with more than one variety. I can easily set up one here. Just which varieties would be good for the test? Anybody else have any thoughts on doing a test. Old Bucket Farmer Ted
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Ted ________________________ Owner & Sole Operator Of The Muddy Bucket Farm and Tomato Ranch |
December 7, 2008 | #10 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: texas
Posts: 1,451
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hmmm
4 of the same plants, in seperate containers. one container has actinovate, one root shield, one has both and one has none. make them like a 10-18 gallon self watering container each or better yet my horrible soil! I see an experiment comming on.
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December 7, 2008 | #11 | |
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
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Quote:
I also read that acta link you posted but all they were doing was comparing growth of the same variety with and without Rootshield, and we don't have the data, and it was done in a greenhouse and heaven knows what other variables might be at work outside in what I call the DIRT, or in containers. I'm not trying to discourage anyone here, but Rootshield has been suggested for the control of primarily systemic diseases and primarily for the control of Damping Off. So I'll be waiting patiently for your reports next year.
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December 8, 2008 | #12 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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Here is a link I posted before in a thread on fusarium wilt
(summarizing some research on greenhouse plants that happened to include Rootshield in some of the tests). It is a pretty good paper, covering a lot of ground in this area, even if tomatoes were not the test subjects. http://www.gpnmag.com/Biological-Con...es-article8278
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January 3, 2009 | #13 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New York Zone 6
Posts: 479
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Gardens Alive had a product called SoilGuard a few years ago that I found worked pretty well in curtailing (although not totally eliminating) fusarium in my garden, although it wasn't the only technique I adopted to try to improve my results (such as mulching with grass). Are you implying that was the same product as Root Shield? I went a few years without using any products making similar claims after SoilGuard was discontinued and I couldn't find it anywhere, and each year the fusarium seemed to creep back a bit more in my in-the-ground garden (and I planted more and more in containers to enhance my results). Last year I tried Root Shield and saw some improvement with fewer plants being hit than the year before, though it wasn't as good a result as with SoilGuard.
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January 4, 2009 | #14 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2,591
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Has anyone here tried a product called "Roots".
Without going thru the snow and mud to find an old container label, to the best of my knowledge, it is a "bio-stimulator" product. Has lots of stuff in it including seaweed ( I think). It's dark brown/black in the jug. I dilute it into my water / weak fertilizer mix I use for watering everything in my greenhouse. I usually can see a difference in growth rate on the plants that get it if I run low or out before I get more. But I've never run an actual test on it. One thing to be careful of tho is any product that has iron listed on the label. You can get Roots with or without Iron. I always get the without. While plants need iron, tomatoes and especially peppers are quite sensitive to Iron as seedlings. I've killed plenty of seedlings when I didn't look at a fertilizer or additive label closely enough. I won't use anything over 1% iron on my seedlings any more. Even very diluted in water as a "constant feed" solution, I've killed lots of peppers. When the plants are big, the iron isn't a problem, but watch out as seedlings. |
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