Black Spot- pre-emptive spring time spraying

Got hit by this quite badly last summer and it disfigured some of my varieties quite badly.

Is there anything organic which I can perhaps make up myself cheaply which will retard the spread of the fungus/ spores which cause this?

Id like to spray now to prevent the problem rather than spend the summer sorrowfully picking off affected leaves.

 

I'm looking for a organic solution too Melinda, haven't tried yet but have read that fat free milk mixed with equal parts water and sprayed on the leaves works, going to give it a go this year, not sure how often you have to spray though sure someone on here who's tried it'll be able to tell us.

 

I use milk as a preventative against mildew on cucumbers and it appears to work. According to what I've gleaned from Googling milk forms a barrier to fungal infections and also acts as a foliar feed.
See -
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/organic_gardening/78810

While I'm 100% organic with our veg that we eat, I'm not above using some 'nasties' on the six roses we have left from the 30+ we once had. An early season blast with Rose Plus works wonders!

 

Me too Dave don't use any other chemicals but until last year did use roseclear 3, always careful to spray early evening as recommended,prevented everything blackspot greenfly the lot but noticed last year it'd been removed from sale thats why I'm looking for an alternative will definitely be trying the milk.

 

Ok- Ive done mine.

As my hand cramped it occured to me that I asked the same question last year, and I had actually sprayed with the milk/water mix last year.

Perhaps it didnt work so well because I didnt persist with it?
Should it be sometihng Im doing weekly?

 

Hi,
Do the companion plants need to be close to the roses or will within a certain distance do?
Would a sign help, "free aphids this way"? :-)

Cheers
D

 

Just curious, was Roseclear another victim of the re-classification of chemicals?

Consisdering how many hundreds of thousands of gardeners across Europe must be using Roseclear, I wonder how many recorded injury case studies it has taken to trigger this response.