"In my book this is an unneeded spray for any but the worst of fungal diseases." Could be. But the ARS consulting rosarian who came to my house suggested it for the smothering effect of the horticultural oil on overwintering insect eggs. "I would start spraying with milk every 2 weeks. Get the bottoms and tops of the leaves. Milk develops and feeds the microbes living outside the plant which repel (and help the plant to repel) invaders." I did a 'net search on this. Everything I've read says milk is a fungicide, like baking soda; it acts by creating an acidic environment where the spores of blackspot and powdery mildew canÂt thrive. DidnÂt find any mention of any insect control properties at all. "I'm not trying to be a smart a## on this but it sounds like it. " Correct. "Tea is not a fertilizer. It is a source of microbes. Aged manure is really called compost. Once it smells fantastic, it is compost, a totally different material from the original manure. " You're right; perhaps I should have used the word supplement with regards to the tea. But IÂve read great things about its properties on the rose forum. Thanks for the grammar lesson on manure/compost. I canÂt tell if you approve of using it or just want to be argumentative. "Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate. That is a chemical. I supposed it is allowed by the organic standards, but I would not use it." According to that definition, table salt - sodium chloride - would be a chemical. Not that IÂd add that to roses, mind you. "Do you know you have a low pH? " Yes. Very. "You're a rose guy, right? Don't you prune back 2/3 every spring? " No I'm not a rose guy. First, I'm female. I donÂt consider myself an experienced rose grower at all. So I had an ARS rosarian come to my house for a consultation, and he kindly gave me most of the steps above. And, I havenÂt been routinely doing pruning as IÂve tried to grow roses that require only minimal pruning (no hybrid teas here) and I wasnÂt sure what to do. I put that in as another of the things recommended to me. Perhaps the "helpful advice" forum is somewhere else. I've been gardening organically for 20+ years, but responses like this make me want to go grab the Diazinon.

Hi! My husband and I have a linden tree on our property and in 2006, the beetles just decimated it. It was our main source of shade, so having it defoliated was awful. Anyway, I got some of the Bayer insecticide and applied it but I can't remember if I put it on in fall or spring). The beetles still got to the tree this summer, but not nearly as badly. It looked like the ends of the branches got nailed-all the newer growth. What was weird was we'd lived here for six years before this ever became a problem. And we have a small property, too, about.25 acre, plus there are about 50 rose bushes on the property. So now I am not sure if the Bayer helped or if the beetles just weren't as bad this year but I guess I'll try it again for the next growing season-but I am thinking that maybe I should wait until spring. The tree is fairly mature now-it's as high as our two story house, and about 15 feet across. So I wish you the best, Alexander3, and if anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it. (and my husband has treated the lawn with milky spore and nematodes, etc., and he keeps the rose bushes treated with something systemic-plus alot of manual control, i.e., knock 'em off the bushes into a coffee can, etc. Oh, and my dogs love to eat them!--so I knock the beetles out of the tree in the early morning, and the dogs run around under the tree munching away-it's rather disgusting)

Some time has passed since anyone has posted on this, but I used the Bayer Advanced product for fruit trees (apple in my case) - in about May of 2013 on 3 apple trees. Now that harvest time is here, my apples are bigger and less diseased then I've ever seen them. The trees are very old - over 50 years and not much has been done to them except the last few years - slight pruning and a little one-time application of this or a similar product - and sometimes a lime sprinkling. Anyway, I am now so concerned about having used this product that I'm looking for comments from anyone else who has. I called the company a couple of weeks ago and was told that the amount of Imidacloprid used in the product is so small that it will not affect the fruit in terms of it's 'edibleness'. OK - so I picked several bushels of apples and started making pies, etc. I did eat some - raw and cooked and this past week my tongue has been kind of numb. It is possible that I burned it or overbrushed it but am not sure. I'm wondering if anyone else has used this and had anything similar. I'm just trying to figure out if it could at all be related to the Imidacloprid in the apples. I really hope that is not the case. Others have eaten a few slices of pies and are not having any reactions so I'm probably just being paranoid. My trees are huge and I used less than what the recommended amount was - but reading all the different posts - I thought I'd resurface this and ask some follow-up questions. (Had tons of bees on them this year and used the product after flowers were all off). As I'm about to hit 'submit' - I'm realizing that my daughter's friend gets a numb tongue from apples - maybe its in a lot of the apples we eat and children would be more 'allergic' / sensitive to this .... ? food for thought.

I just wanted to do a little follow-up on the corn rootworm damage issue. I got a little too busy to follow my own advice. Several weeks have gone by and the beetle population increased while I wasn't paying attention. Below are two photos of ornamental sunflowers about 5-inches in diameter. The first photo is of a bloom that has been open for a about a day. The beetles don't seem to begin feasting on the sunflowers until they open up and begin producing pollen. As soon as the pollen appears, they also begin ravaging the outer ray petals -- as seen in the first photo below. This second photo is about a day later in our blistering hot, dry weather. Normally, the blooms will look great for a week or longer without the beetle damage. It is kind of interesting that a defense mechanism of these beetles is to just fold their legs up under themselves when disturbed. They simply allow their bodies to freefall to the ground. I have even played with some I find on the leaves and when you bother them, they will just begin rolling down the leaf until they fall off. You can take advantage of this habit by simply mixing up a little soapy dishwater in a small dish. Hold this dish under the blooms and they will fall right into it. I like to call this, The Dish of Death. (Heh, heh, heh.) This whole process only takes a few minutes in the garden and can be repeated as necessary. The Dish of Death IronBelly