My Personality being one that likes to question and investigate
and to look into better procedures made me question my habit of
spraying and introducing insecticides, Miticides and fungicides
into places where I participate in my love of gardening. I did
not wish for gardening to be a cause of ill health earlier rather
than later for myself and my loved one and cause problems for
the environment by not controlling chemical usage.
In My goal also to achieve fragrance in dahlias, I did not wish
to inhale chemical residues. With this background in mind, I came
up with an alternative which is to inject the plants directly
by hyperdermic needle. For the last three years in my dahlia garden
in Prahran, I have trialled this process. I have utilised four
areas of the plant for various problems injecting the stem just
beneath the skin tissue, on a main module of 30% depth, and into
the cavity of the stem and also injecting the tuber both before
planting and whilst the plant is growing, by a process called
bandicooting.
For legal reason I will not supply the name of the chemicals that
I have utilised BUT, I can tell you this, that the three classes
of chemicals that I have mentioned MUST be systemic.
The amount of chemical per injection depended on the severity
of the problem that i was being faced with and the size of the
plant and weight ratio. In recognising certain varieties are heavier
and produce sizable heavy tubers. I took those factors into account
to judge the amount of dilution required that would correctly
rotate through the plant.
Please note that you should use protection for your hands and
wear facial apparatus.
I also trialled injecting clumps of tubers after lifting. In this
case I found that all the tubers on the clump had to be individually
injected for positive results, noting that circulation is minimal
to zero between tubers when they have been lifted even though
they might have a stem, the foliage being the circulation factor,
working similarly to a figure eight process.
You will need to sterilise your equipment for each plant and for
each clump of tubers. This is a simple process by having a bleach
solution or methylated spirits to rinse the inner and outer parts
of the needle.
As in spraying or the use of snail pellets, by killing the object
of your problem, you could endanger birds and animals that might
happen to feast on the dead plant predators.
The results of my procedures have been very welcome, in particular
in suppressing an outbreak of two spotted (red spider) mite for
and for exhibiting purposes, by not spraying I had no problems
with petal damage and the tubers, having been fortified with a
fungicide and an insecticide, were clean without predator attack
and there was no need to dip then in a fungicide solution after
lifting or to apply a fungicide on part of the crown whilst cutting.
I am still in the process on trialling for sclerotina, both for
prevention and for remedial purposes.
The cost of using chemicals has been dramatically decreased because
of this method.
if you decide to trial this method, separate a small area in your
dahlia plot and especially grow for this purpose or you can grow
two plants of similar variety per stake and compare your system
with the alternative way. When injecting tubers, stem module or
beneath the skin tissue, apply it similar to how the dentists
do it - slowly.
If you have any queries or require more detailed information and
scientific data, I will consider your request if you write to
me. This article belongs to the author and cannot be reprinted
or used in any other medium, nevertheless no responsibility can
be taken by the author.!
Chris Michalopoulos granted Sunshine Publishing permission to
reproduce this article which was received via e-mail from Frank
Turton (frankt@pac.com.au).