Homemade spray treatments?

[citylights]

Hello from Toronto !

Can anyone share their ways to prevent blackspot or mildew or any rose diseases? share your homemade recipes.


and also how to attract lady bugs or helpful predators that eat away those annoying aphids ! ex. planting certain plants that may attract them...

Thanks guys!

[rainbowgardener]

Blackspot and other fungal diseases result from water standing on the leaves and especially from water splashing back up on the leaves from the soil and from other infected leaves. So the first step is avoid having moisture stay on the leaves. Water early in the day so the leaves have a chance to dry off. Try watering with your watering can, so you just pour water on the roots and aren't splashing it around. Don't leave infected leaves on the plant, remove and dispose of them (NOT in the compost pile). Make sure there's good air circulation around the plants.

If the plants do get fungal diseases, there are a couple different remedies we've been recommending:

dissolve a little bit of baking soda (1 tsp or so) in a quart of water and spray with that.

dilute milk with water to 50:50 or less. put a tablespoon of yoghurt in it and let stand at room temp for a few hours and spray with that.

Re the aphids -- the aphids are the ladybug attractor. If you have aphids, the ladybugs will come, as long as they aren't being poisoned (no insecticides!). But you can buy extra ladybugs on line and release them. Also put up bird feeders. Lots of the birds that come to the feeders also eat insects at least part of the time. Here's a thread on aphid control (and if you type aphid control into the Search the Forum feature, you will find more):

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=99388&highlight=aphid+control#99388

[Rootietoot]

When I have aphids and no ladybugs (particularly early Spring) I add a squirt of liquid dish soap to the baking soda/water mix the earlier commentor mentioned. It breaks down the waxy coating on the young aphids and causes them to dehydrate, killing them. It won't keep new aphids from coming back, and it won't kill hardshelled insects (like ladybugs)

[dbang10]

hoverfly larvae are better aphid eaters than ladybugs.

[Kisal]

There is midge, Aphidoletes aphidimyza, that is said to eat more aphids than any other predator. It's also said to kill 80 times more aphids than it actually eats.

In my opinion, a garden needs a variety of helpful insects in order to enjoy the best protection from insect pests.

[rainbowgardener]

It also helps to have flowers/ plants around that the ladybugs like, which includes yarrow, marigold, things in the carrot family (including fennel, parsley, Queen Anne's lace, etc) and others.

Here's a nice article on what to plant to attract beneficial insects:

https://www.farmerfred.com/plants_that_attract_benefi.html