The nightmare that is fungal disease
Amongst all the problems faced by hydroponic and soil gardeners, fungi related problems remain one of the most challenging. Fungal diseases tend to start rapidly and quickly wipe out entire sections of plants, leaving the grower wondering what happened or if anything could have been done to prevent it.
Sadly, most commercially available fungicides are very toxic to humans and beneficial insects, a reason why their application is detrimental to both the health of the gardener and the environment. For this reason, many people have started to develop natural and more environmentally friendly solutions for fungi-related disease prevention.
The issue with most organic fungicide recipes you find online
However, most gardening websites are written by people with limited knowledge about both fungicidal chemistry and biology, they therefore offer simple solutions that may fail to work. These remedies also carry some problems of their own, for example, the use of milk containing solutions over plants is proved to encourage the growth of molds and sometimes even stimulate the gathering of ant or similar insect populations. Using alkaline solutions containing bicarbonate or carbonate ions may prove beneficial for prevention but it’s effects are readily lost due to rain (which inevitably washes away bicarbonate ions).
In the light of this situation, I have decided to publish a recipe for a fungicide I have been using for sometime, based on US patent No. 6767562. This mix was designed with both the chemistry and biology of fungal diseases in mind, taking into account that most fungi are sensitive to tannic acid and other chemicals naturally present within certain plant species.
How to make the fungicide
This organic, natural fungicide is quiet simple to make. To do so, follow these instructions:
- Add two thirds of a cup of fresh sage leaves to half a gallon of water
- Boil the water down to one third of a gallon
- Add two thirds of a gallon of red wine (the patent says “fermented grape solution” to make it a little bit harder to guess)
- Let it cool down and bottle it in an airtight container
The solution has been proven to prevent and even cure fungus-related diseases in a variety of crops (as stated in the patent). Note, this information is educational and freely available within the patent. If you want to commercialize this, you do need to negotiate usage with the patent holder. I hope you use and enjoy this excellent organic and natural fungicide that will keep your garden free of those nasty, crop ruining fungus pests !
