Cucumber beetles

BP · Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:40 pm

Can someone please post the recipe for the organic soap pesticide?

gardenvt · Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:14 pm

The one I wrote down from here last year is:

1 cup whole milk
1 quart of water
1 tsp dish soap (not anti-bacterial)

I used Palmolive

gardenvt · Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:16 pm

Sorry, that is for powdery mildew.

I don't know of one for insects except for safer soap insecticide.

BP · Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:59 pm

I bet I was thinking of the powdery mildew brew. It's hot peppers, pepper, and something for bugs, but I can't remember.

rainbowgardener · Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:34 pm

There's a variety of different recipes like that. Here's mine:

So I would use a teaspoon or less of soap (make sure it is soap not detergent)
a few hot peppers or just a teaspoon of hot pepper sauce
a few cloves of chopped garlic

A little bit of salad oil helps it stick to the leaves.

Add 3-4 cups of warm water. Blend it up in blender and let it sit for a few hours. Then strain it out, dilute at least half with plain water, and spray.

If you are really having a big problem and need to increase the potency, you can add nicotiana, tomato, or chrysanthem leaves to the blend. But all of these are real insecticides and can kill beneficial insects as well. Don't spray your garden with it, spray where you see the problems.

Any time you spray anything but water on your garden, it is prudent to test it on a couple plants first, be sure it doesn't burn them.

sheeshshe · Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:33 pm

every now and again I go out there and dust with diatomaceous earth. and every now and again I spray some neem oil. no more cucumber beetles. they're all at my neighbors down the road LOL

I don't know if this is the right thing to do, if it is bad for beneficials or whatnot, but my garden is seriously lagging behind this year and I need all the chance I can get. plus it has rained almost daily all spring/summer.

rainbowgardener · Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:59 am

Neem oil does not harm beneficials unless it is sprayed directly on them. Otherwise it kills only when ingested by leaf eaters. It is not a poison, it works by disrupting their hormones. (Except that if sprayed directly on an insect, it will clog up their breathing pores, spiracles.) So to protect the honeybees, spray in the evening after they have gone home.

But I still believe you generally don't want to spray any treatment for insects, fungus or whatever, broadcast over your whole garden. Spray where the problem is. The less disruptions we can make the better, since we can never know all the consequences of our actions.

(That's a generalization; for you personally, Shee, re the fungus treatments, you probably do need to spray your whole garden, since pretty much all of it was suffering from fungal infections due to your very acid soil and water.)

sheeshshe · Tue Jul 03, 2012 7:27 am

Makes sense. And it has rained EVERY DAY, so I've had to do it more often than I want to. I'll have to do it again today. I've been alternating between the neem and the spray I made for the fungus. So far so good. There are a couple tomato plants that have a little something going on on the bottom leaves of the plant, so I don't know if I am still completely in the clear or whatnot. BUT... for this time of year, I am impressed!

As for the bugs though, I've seen the bugs and then I haven't been seeing them any more. so I do believe it is helping in that regard as well. The only thing is isn't helping is the slugs... thankfully the plants are getting bigger now so it isn't as bad of a threat. well, except for my pea plants. they completely ate and entire row of peas with peas on them