A bold experiment! We are hearing such good things about AACT. And I know that central Pennsylvania is a humid place where disease pressure is strong. I look forward to hearing more about your garden results as the summer wears on.

Rosefolly

What is AACT, if you don't mind my asking?

Thanks,
Mary

I'm encouraged too, Barbara. If yours do well and mine bomb, I may try adding the AACT. I ordered the Teaming with Microbes book and maybe will add it in next year.

Thanks for the update - and how do you like the Pioneer roses you've gotten? I'm interested in Mier Y Teran. Glad to hear it's clean!

Please update again in late summer! Thanks, Gean

Contrary, AACT is Actively Aerated Compost Tea. I'll provide a link. I use these folks brewer and their tea kits although you can easily make your own brewer and use your own compost.

Rosefolly, I never thought of this experiment as bold, but I guess here in BS heaven where most roses are stretched to their limit it is. I'm just getting old and tired of spraying every two weeks. I'm also fed up with spraying pesticides, which I did for rose midge and I still have them.

Gean, I think you have made a good investment in the book order. Let us know what you think.

The two pioneer roses I have are good ones. The better of the two is by far Thomas Affleck. Mier y Teran is a midge magnet and most bugs seem to like this rose. TA hardly ever gives me cause to worry. He just keeps on blooming. Also, MyT is not as cold hardy as TA. It's first spring in my garden he died to the ground. This year he had much taller canes-the winter was much milder. Very pretty rose and blooms well when midge aren't attacking. Right now he is about 3 feet tall and I know this rose can reach 8 feet as he did his first season in my garden.

A word of caution about AACT. Don't regard it as a silver bullet. It is not meant to be a complete fungicide or pesticide. Its purpose is to improve the garden environment, to keep a balance of good organisms in the garden-plant and soil. Years of spraying fungicides and pesticides do some damage, and it is likely to take time to correct the balance. It can also be used in conjunction with pesticides and fungicides. The recommendation is to follow the fungicide/pesticide spray with AACT. That's just too much spraying for me.

Thank you all for your comments.

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: Keep It Simple Web Site

First year roses are sometimes not representative. You have some pretty resistant roses and some that are really BS prone. I would expect that your next year report will be very different. Sorry to be a pessimist. But there is no way Abraham Darby or Golden Celebration or Felicia, for example, will be clean in a long run in PA.
Olga

Olga, I'm not sure what you mean by "first year roses". Is that the first year without fungicides? If so, yes, I realize it will probably take 3 years to make a good judgment. Some I'm not willing to give 3 years as they are already badly spotted-like Louise Odier and Baron Gerod. I agree with you about Abe Darby and Felicia. Golden Celebration, I'm not so sure. He has been amazingly clean in mid-summer in the past when I've been real lazy about spraying. But, only time will tell.

The next questions are how much BS can I tolerate and how quickly will some of these roses recover (if at all)?

Thank you for your response.

Barbara

Great report, your list is giving me 'rose envy'. LOL

Can someone please tell me what is considered humid? In percentages please? Any maybe what is not humid. My inner geek needs this kind of information-sorry.

Humid as relates to BlackSpot please.

Sorry, Barbara,
I think I misread yor post and thought you are talking about roses just planted this year. These roses can be not representative, probably they have some residual fungicide in their systems or something else. But I noticed for me that sometimes roses are clean during their first year and then the honeymoon is over, they get BS badly.
Your situation is obviously different, let's see how it will work. I will be happy to be wrong in my pessimism.
Olga

I wish you luck Barbara. I think it would be wonderful to not spray.

Carla

Olga, I must not have been very clear in my initial message. I can see how you would mis-interpret. Anyway, most of the roses have been there for at least 3 years, some for 9 years and only two since this spring. Yes, if I had planted all this spring (and broken my back in the process) this report would be useless. However, I'm as skeptical as you. We still have plenty of summer ahead and lots of unpredictable weather. Then there are the midge. Ugg!

Carla, thank you. I can use all the luck I can get. And luck it will definitely take.

Barbara