Our garden is struggling this year, not sure why, but it could be the strange weather we had going on in early Spring. Anywho, most recently the tomato plants were showing signs of deterioration in a few spots and on closer inspection, my honey decided we had what he called "lice". I'd never heard of plants having lice, but he grew up gardening (for a living) and that's what they called it. I went to Google to see what the "lice" were. Turns out, they are Aphids, and Aphids really like tomato and pepper plants!
This is what the Red Beef Steak looked like when we first planted it back on April 22. It was a bit distressed because our goofy weather couldn't make up its mind if it was going to be freezing cold or warm, so it took us a while after purchase to get it into the ground.
Here it is today (May). It's finally growing, getting blooms and producing fruit. We've gotten two whole tomatoes so far! lol!
Click right here to see how we use 99.9% pure water to hydrate our garden, trees and other plants.
This sad little stem is the first thing we noticed while watering the garden one evening.
And even more sad little stems on the other side. These little bugs work fast don't they?
I went to Pinterest to find a natural or organic solution. After all, we are going to be eating these tomatoes soon and we don't want to spray some type of chemical on them.
You will need a
spray bottle,
water,
castile soap and
garlic. Its that simple! The soap kills the aphids and the garlic will hopefully detour any new aphids coming to the plant party!
NOTE: Please use a pure liquid soap, such as Castile, or all-natural soap. The active ingredient in this insecticidal soap comes from the fatty acids in animal fat or vegetable (coconut) oil, so it’s important to use the real thing. Please don’t use detergents (which aren’t actually soaps), like dish soaps, or any products with degreasers, skin moisturizers, or synthetic chemicals, these are NOT GOOD for your food products!
Fill your spray bottle 3/4 of the way full with
warm to hot water and add one to
two cloves of minced garlic.
NOTE: I used filtered water and heated it for about 1 minute in
the microwave so that the soap would dissolve easier.
The liquid
castile soap would be much easier to use, but our local Walmart didn't have anything except the bars, so that's what we got. It was a three pack for $3.28.
I grabbed
my little hand held grater and shredded off a good four (4) tablespoons of
soap.
Add the
soap shreds to your water and garlic mixture. Put the sprayer back on your bottle and gently shake to mix it all together. Let it sit over night for a good concentration of each ingredient. I periodically shook the bottle to mix throughout the day just for good measure.
This next detail is VERY important! ONLY in THE EARLY MORNING or LATE EVENING, spray your plants on all the infested sides, including the bottoms of the leaves (that's where the aphids live). You do not want to spray a liquid on your plants in direct full sun because the water will act like a magnifying glass and burn your plant up and that is worse than having bugs on them!
Snip or pinch off any dead or dying stems and discard them away from your plants. We added our snippings to
our natural compost bin to recycle them.
Since we normally get
our spray bottles from Walmart (.97 cents) and they all look alike, I like to use
a sharpie marker and mark on the bottle what it holds. I wouldn't want to accidentally spray my plants with something I shouldn't! Eeeek!
It's only been a few days since we sprayed the plants, so I'll check back in soon and let you know how its working for us.
If you want to read all about the original step by step process of our garden, click below.
Raised Bed Garden (Part 1)
Raised Bed Garden (Part 2)
Raised Bed Garden (Part 3)
How to Make a Small Garden
Making Your Own Organic Compost
It doesn't have to be done all at once. It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!
I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
The Dedicated House - (I was featured)
Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteGreat article! I'm down in Ecuador, South America and we have some bugs called "pulgòn or cochinillas" that kill the plant in no time. I will try your mix and hope it works on them too! Of course we don't have that soap down here, but I bet any natural soap will do, correct? ��
ReplyDeleteHi there! Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes, as long as the soap is all natural and without chemicals, it should work. Good luck! :)
Deleteglad to find your recipe. Thanks
ReplyDeleteHi Katy! You're very welcome! I hope it works as good for you as it does for us. :)
DeleteThank you so much for sharing your experience! I'm quite interested in the follow up to see how the solution works against those pesky bugs. I'd just about given up on growing indoor plants because no matter what I do, they always end up looking like they have "lice" when placed in my plant window, and even on my front porch. I was told it's basically a spider mite? I've cleaned the window area and don't understand why they keep coming back.
ReplyDeleteHi there! Yes, it does work and without fail, every time! We've already had to use it on our plants this year. I hope you can try it and it works for you too. Thank you for stopping by! :)
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