Treating Box Blight with red wine

This post was prompted by the news that the topiary at Avebury Manor is being pulled out because a savage attack of box blight which has destroyed much of the historic hedging.

Two years ago - almost to the day - I purchased 8 box balls and 35 box hedging plants and duly planted them as a border around a newly created border.

(Image right: an infected box ball shortly after planting - click to enlarge)

It was a very dry spring so I watered copiously to make sure the plants established themselves.

Even though I had very good air circulation around the plants (there were no other plants in the border at that point) I noticed box blight appearing. One ball rapidly succumbed and several of the hedging plants began to show signs of the fungal disease taking hold.

I eased off the watering but I was concious that I could start losing more plants due to lack of water: I had to maintain some middle ground between over watering and encouraging the pathogen to spread but giving enough water to the plant roots to enable not only to survive bit also throw out new roots to establish.

It is often the case that if a new planted plant - be that tree, shrub or annual - doesn't have enough water that it will just sit in the ground and not develop. Often the plant my remain stunted for a long time.

Sadly I lost a few hedging plants but the infected box ball hung on.

Cheap table wine

I'm not too sure what made me want to try it but I had a feeling that wine had some kind of properties that might help fight off disease. One would often hear that a glass or two of red wine a day would help protect the body against ailments.

I know that vinegar can be used as a fungicide and I knew that red wine is used to make vinegar.

So I bought a gallon of cheap table plonk and a hand sprayer and then set about liberally spraying the wine around the infected plants, as well as drenching the soil immediately around the box plant roots.

I had a feeling that results would not be immediate and that proved to be the case.

But after about three months I noticed that fresh growth was beginning to replace the dead woody stems. By the autumn almost all of the plants that had survived had freshened up and were showing signs of a reversal.

The following spring there was a slight re-occurrence of the blight in some plants but essentially it looked as the blight had been kept at bay. During last summer I lost one plant - although I'm not certain it was due to box blight.

Today, all of the box plants in my border are thriving and showing no signs of blight.

I have no proof that the red wine is responsible for saving my plants but I am confident that blight isn't currently a problem - though I'm sure it remains a threat.

Give red wine a try, what have you got to lose?

(One of the the now thriving box balls)

Comments

[Andy Morley]

There's a lot you can treat with red wine.. didn't realise it could be used for this though.

[Jack]

Try Topbuxus Health mix. I work at a wholesale nursery and we sell loads of it. We've had a lot of very positive feedback. www.topbuxus.co.uk