Eatwell Farm

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Grapes

The bunches have formed and it appears there is quite a bit of fruit out there. Sadly, it is obvious that we have a lot of powdery mildew, so I doubt we will get any fruit to harvest. I did a quick reading and found products we could spray that are acceptable for an organic crop, including sulphur. Nigel was always opposed to using sprays, even if they were approved for certified organic crops. I did see two products that are strains of bacillus (bacillus subtilis, and bacillus pumulis). This is interesting because a few years ago we had pretty good results spraying the stone fruit with old raw milk and whey. What I learned in the soil class I took with Elaine Ingham is the good bacteria can crowd out a fungus, virus etc.  This year, with as much rain as we had, I doubt there would have been much we could have done to prevent this from happening.  Certainly more reading and research is needed.