Garden Update
Garden spray update:
The concoction I made up to spray on the garden worked, at least as far as the bugs are concerned. It’s been raining the last 2 days so I couldn’t get out and check it until today, I went into the garden cage, walked straight to the okra, these had been infested with aphids and were being farmed by little black ants. I looked at the okra leaves that had been encrusted with aphids, all I could see was dead aphids, hundreds, maybe even thousands of them… The ants were still walking around on the ground, I didn’t see any on the plants, I need to get back out there and dust with diatomaceous earth, especially around the ground where the ants are coming in. I didn’t look around much, but I didn’t notice any grasshoppers either, I’ll look in more detail next time I go out there. The plants look great too, I always worry that I might be making my mixtures too strong and might burn my plants, but apparently I got it right, strong enough to kill the bugs, not too strong for the plants. :)
… To recap, here is what I mixed up and how I applied it:
In a one gallon container I mixed
1 cap full of mouthwash (generic Listerine type, plain-not flavored)
4-5 tablespoons blackstrap moleasses
1 palmfull of Epsom Salt
1 palmfull of powdered milk
1-2 hard squirts of Ivory dish soap
I filled the container half way with water, then I mixed everything with my hand until I couldn’t feel anything granular, once mixed, I filled the gallon container the rest of the way with water. I put this into a small hand held pump sprayer, I was able to fill it 3-4 times with the mixture, I sprayed the plants with the mix making sure to get the underside of the leaves (where many bugs hide). The spray is along the lines of Jerry Baker’s recipes and Howard Garrett (the Dirt Doctor) recipes, more leaning toward Jerry’s stuff, if you don’t know about them, look them up by name. I love being able to use things I have around the house, non-toxic, inexpensive and it works. :)
Wretha
September 9, 2008
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