Experimenting with Organic Pesticides - Garlic/Castile Soap/Cayenne Pepper
I’ve recently noticed the leaves of my little turnip plants in the front yard are already full of holes, and I think I’ve found the culprit:
This punk-ass (not the exact scientific name, perhaps) and his little babies/minions have been wreaking havoc on the kabu (turnips) in the front yard. The plants in the backyard are fine. A couple days ago I sprayed them with a castile soap and water mix, but today I’ll be trying something different. Organic pesticides such as the ones mentioned in this post are ideally preventative measures, but I am going to see if I can’t turn this war in the turnip row around.
Today’s Mix:
Boil for 10 minutes, and let steep another 10 - 20 minutes:
- 4 cloves of crushed and chopped garlic
- A couple shakes of cayenne pepper powder
Next, add the mix to water in the spray bottle, 1 part mixture to 5 parts water.
- Finally add 1 table spoon of pure castile soap directly to the spray bottle.
This type of mixture is supposedly best to use just once or twice a week.
I’m going to try this out on the already ravaged kabu (if the spray harms them I will know to make the mixture less potent) and report back to you!
~*~
(Thanks fo stopping by! If you have any organic gardening tips and tricks you’d like to share, let me know in the comments. I trade value for value and your knowledge and assistance are appreciated!)
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
Let us know how it turns out!! I heard cayenne was great! If there are visible bugs, I’m sure your solution will knock them suckers out cold.
Haha. Thanks, and will do!
Friend linking that your experiment works and you can eradicate that plague. regards!
In my little garden I use a mixture with garlic, salt and onion... The smell is unpleasant and you will say goodbye to the annoying pests.
Garlic/onion is great, see above post, but the salt? I'd say go no-sodium. Not sure what that will do except make the soil quite saline.... Great for samphire, I guess. There is an argument to be made for borax if you have termite problems....
good for ants too. Some plants also require it as a nutrient.
Ah! interesting. Any particular one spring to mind?
Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, if your broccoli has hollow stems it needs boron which you can supply with borax.
Great information! Must sow some to try.
it's good for men too.
Are you now comparing men to broccoli? Hmmm, an acquired taste I suppose... good comparison.
One application of neem oil often is enough.
How would this work on herbs? My mint plant is suffering heavily from small aphids that don't seem to pay any mind to my basil plant! I love my fresh mint and lemon water but want to try a natural pesticide over store bought. Thanks for the advice
So far mine seems to be working. I imagine it would be fine for herbs, too.
I recommend that you use basil infusion (Ocimum basilicum) and it is also very good for the infestation of your plants the infusion of nim (Azadirachta indica), greetings from venezuela I follow you
I wonder if boiling the garlic is helpful. You might lose some VOCs (volatile organic molecules), thereby reducing the strength of the mixture.
Yes, I wondered about that as well. That's a good point. So far, though, it seems that the bugs are gone, so it may be a win regardless.
I was not aware of this method to eradicate pests. I will start using it in my garden. Thanks for sharing that interesting knowledge, it helped me a lot.
can you get a picture of the specific pest? It's a lot easier when you are targeting something specific. A great organic pesticide is called "Capt' Jack's dead bug spray" Adding some rosemary to that concoction might help as well if you are going the homemade route. If the pest is spider mites you can just spray them with plain water daily for three days and they will get a fungus and die.
It's pictured in the post. Not sure what it is exactly. Need to hit the Google library. Thanks for the advice on the other pests.
That big fucker? Wow I don't know how I missed him, grab him and stomp him good and the soap garlic and rosemary should keep them off. Plant some marigolds. essential oils will be better/easier than actual garlic or rosemary
@kafkarnachy84, this is wisdom boss, an adage says:
they is no harm in trial but I believe with the mixture of garlic with organic pesticide, the pest will be arrested.
@KAFKARNACHY84, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME I VISITED YOUR BLOG BOSS