Lily's Secret Weapon: Neem Oil (What It Is and How To Use It)

As an organic gardener, neem has been a part of my arsenal for years.  I had actually heard about it first from my Mom, an ornamental gardener turned veggie gardener at the end of her life.  She explained it was something you sprayed on trees in early spring to keep the bugs off of growing fruit like apples and pears, of which there were many of on the property she was renting.  I later found out what exactly it is and where it comes from.  From what I can tell, it's something that grows all over Acapulco and very likely right outside our property. 

Neemba in Sanskrit, this tree is native to india. It's currently legally considered a weed but considering most "classified weeds" are extremely useful or medicinal, it's no surprise.  One must not consider this tree a weed, one must consider it a highly medicinal plant that is extremely hardy and adaptable to harsh conditions.  A medication you can't really kill? Sign me up. People in India really do use it, in many ways as it is extremely medicinal.  There's also a market for Organic pesiticides, but more on that later. 

It's a pretty shady tree with white flowers tree best grown in tropical or subtropical climates.  It's extremely resistant to drought so it's actually well suited to Acapulco's wet and dry seasons.  It produces an olive like fruit with a large seed, which is where we harvest neem oil from.  Just about every part of the tree is useful or medicinal in some manner like I'll outline below, but neem oil is essentially a commercial organic gardening miracle product of sorts. The trees range between 65-130 feet in height at full grown size, with long drooping branches.  The leaf to branch structure is similar to a sumac or legumous tree, with long serrated leaflets. 

Leaves are burned in India to repel mosquitos and oil is applied to the skin in an apparently effective repellant.  From my understanding it makes us very upalatable to insects, which is a total bonus for us.  This is of course a natural defense mechanism in harsh jungle growing climates. The whole tree is considered: antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antidiabetic, contraceptive and sedative.  It's reffered to as an anti-feedant and that's the case, it just kind of keeps things repelled. I know many are not a fan of the spicy pungent odor like my mother, but I somewhat enjoy the smell of neem. 

Within the fruits lie the seed which contain most of the oil. This is jam packed with neem goodness and is used for all sorts of applications.  I've used it for everything from killing and repelling pests to getting rid of vaginal infections.  It's known for helping with: skin, hair, liver function, fertilizer, pest and mold repellant, treating infections (viral, bacterial and fungal), treating diabetes and much more.  I've got soap and toothpaste with the oil in it, the possibilities are endless. 

Neem is used in the garden in many ways.  Neem cake, the stuff left over from pressing fruits and seeds for oil is considered super nutritional for plants.  Many gardeners suggest using it as a slow release top feed fertilizer. We use the oil as a foliar feed to coat the plants.  This deters just about all pests, realistically. 

There are a lot of Neem products out there with bold claims and many of those claims are backed up by science.  Because so much is grown in India, a very scientifically minded culture, lots of research and testing has been done on the medicinal qualities of just about every part of the tree.  People to this day use twigs of neem as rudimentary tooth cleaning stuff, like a toothbrusth that doesn't need toothpaste.  Because it the properties of the whole tree, this is beneficial in more than just a getting gunk out of your teeth sort of way.  And that's just how they use twigs. 

Here's just a quick list of things the oils used to help treat: aging, malaria, acne, liver problems, arthritis and back pain, cancer, burns, cold flu and chicken pox symptoms.  There's a wide range of things that it helps with and I know I'm not covering all of them.  What matters is that at this point I have enough experience with trying and treating different things with this one thing with damn good results, and that's worth sharing. 

In the garden, it's an aggressive measure that works even with tropical bugs.  As a medicine, it's equally agressive but honestly pretty gentle as far as most medications are concerned.  The oil applied directly to burns, rashes or things that are itchy and pained provides relief soon, with no stinging to get there.  It's gentle but it also seems to be more than just a quick feel better fix, it helps things in the long run because of it's many useful properties.  

It's available here at Verde Pistache, although we nearly always have them bought out of the pure oil.  They have a whole line of quality products, and I personally recommend the toothpaste.  In the states, this is available everywhere.  Here it is too, realistically.  You can even buy the dried leaves if you know where to look. As with many things in Mexico, finding a good cheap source is totally possible, just takes some looking and sometimes some asking.  

Can you think of anything neem oil can help you with?