nepia

17 hours ago, GarethM said:

Erm, shifting the goalposts there.

 

From weedkiller to insecticide then to biocide.

They were trying to rely more on seed dressings than regular spraying, that got a knocking back.

 

Even though it was short term whilst the plant was most vulnerable, so now they want you spraying more to sterilise the soil effectively.

You've lost me; sorry

2 hours ago, GarethM said:

In all honesty the levels of agri weed killers and sprays are so small it's laughable

Not sure that's how the insects see it

Not having a pop; we ask farmers to grow food for us so they do.  Some laxity is therefore needed when there is collateral damage but benefit of experience now suggests that we need to rein in our use of biocides

Best solution depends on level of infestation.

We have a moderate amount in the garden which received little attention for the couple of years before we bought the place.  If you have the patience digging out the roots can work: yes, you often leave small pieces that grow so go back and do it again.  It's working for us; we're definitely getting on top of the stuff.

In places it's simply impossible to access the roots so we remove as much as we can, let some top growth reoccur and repeat.

It doesn't take forever to defeat bindweed; if you stick at it you can exhaust the roots.

We haven't used any chemicals other than against the house where we needed to kill the stuff asap so membrane and shingle could be laid on top

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Heading home to France after the apf and seeing some mates. 
4 hr crossing from Newhaven, followed by a 6 hr drive. 
 

Used to dread the 'French trips' from school on the old ferries - four and a half hours each way 🤢 when I suffered travel sickness a lot as a kid.  Then they got the Supercats - way hay; two and a bit hours of smooth flying.

Now it's 2024 and... oh dear.  🤞 for a smooth crossing Mick.  The six hour drive will be a doddle

@peds      Bionnay, just up from Les Hoches.  No idea what the aspect was; it was a grey morning with light drizzle.  We were under conifer canopy on a mossy mound

On 16/09/2024 at 23:13, peds said:

Where in the endless forest of the valley were you? North or south facing, what altitude? 

 

Edit:

I had a quick look for a few old mushroom pictures from the Alps, life wasn't so bad when you could just stroll through the woods with the dog for a a few hours just picking a load of wildly-expensive delicacies off the ground.

 

I shall ask where we were as I haven't a clue.

Foraging is huge amongst the locals as I'm sure you know; neighbour rivalries, closely guarded secret spots etc.

Stand by for reply...

A few found recently in the High Alps near Chamonix in conifer forest

Feel free to disagree with my Google Lens id's

And almost every Scabious flower was occupied by 6-spot Burnet moths - hundreds of them

Caterpillar of the endangered Spurge Hawk Moth

Recently spent a long weekend with my daughter in the French Alps.

Grizzled Skipper

Forgotten moth caterpillar

Scotch Argus

Impressive locust-sized grasshopper

On 10/08/2024 at 08:09, Mick Dempsey said:

Igor is showing his age a bit. 
he’s around 11 we think. 
On pills for his arthritis and can’t come to work in the summer, because the van gets too hot, much to his disgust. 
But an early morning laze in the sun still hits the spot. 
 

Mick; father-in-law has a former street dog of indeterminate age but also believed to be around 11. She has slowed up due to arthritis so he bought some food-fed extract of green-lipped mussel. F-i-l says if he hadn't seen the almost overnight improvement with his own eyes he wouldn't have believed it; reckons it took 2-3 years off her

Did mercifully few Carnivals in my former life.  The only memorable one was '86; stood for 8 hours in stair rods of rain 10 yards from one of the big sound systems.  I'm sure it had a permanent effect on me.  Pardon?

Is there a generous circle of clear ground around the bases?  There needs to be as turf absorbs almost infinite amounts of rain

Yes, could do that Mick; a perfectly viable option on reflection.  I was probably thinking too much Tulip and not enough apple; you wouldn't get away with such a thing for long with a Tulip

I'd say that the spreading rot would remain confined to the dead heartwood if allowed to continue and I've encountered apples entirely hollow from the ground up for 3m yet still thriving.  Presumably at some point the pocket would fill with water and remain full in which case the rot would slow due to reduced oxygen present at the wood/water interface.

But in your circumstances I'd drill a drainage hole at an upwards angle into the base of the rot pocket.  I did it some years ago with a Tulip tree at home and the union survived for another fifteen years or so until a storm did for it by using the twenty foot long regrowth as levers on it.

You will be aware of the difference in durability of apple and Tulip; steel vs butter!

The hole I drilled was 20mm in a 300mm stem (approx).

On 14/08/2024 at 09:47, Dan Maynard said:

Sigma, often used symbol for sum.

Yes but the word 'sigma' doesn't make sense in the sentence with the other three symbols. Sigma pie?

Jeepers creepers; I'll bet your chest felt like King Kong was pummelling it from inside

I'll dab my toes in as usual but I shan't ling-er; that would be sailfish so I'll fin-ish it here

15 hours ago, WirralBoy said:

 

 

You may need to put your thinking cap on for this . . . . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

I get three of the four; can't see the relevance of the third character

There is a pair ( I think) of very old and much propped specimens at Leeds Castle but I've never come across any that big in my work.  I think my best effort was a 9" stem in Coulsdon

The hornbeam genus Carpinus is indeed in the birch family, Betulaceae

My (large) garden experience of ponticum is that for every stem large enough to get an Ecoplug or two into there are 20 stems too small.  The plant doesn't conveniently grow from a central trunk with all other growth emanating from that; the root and stem system is more of a shallow tangled mat.  On a woodland scale I'd expect to need to rip up the entire mat.  In hot dry weather you may get away with it being stacked and left to desiccate but in winter it would certainly root and grow again.  So ideally you need to burn it or shred it but I get that on a commercial footing those options may not always be viable