Need to kill insects on herbs indoors
gosssamer
10 years ago
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gosssamer
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Indoor herbs & organic feeding
Comments (5)Wonder if my roommates would notice? :) I've been doing some thinking on this, as well as reading up on various soils/soilless mixes, since first posting. It isn't my intention to deliberately add microorganisms to the pots, which is why I'm unsure of how to go about this -- my understanding of organic gardening involves all of the natural processes involved in decomposition and elemental interactions. This makes transitioning to an indoor, more "sterile" environment difficult to fathom. At this point, I intend to re-pot the herbs in a soilless mix, for drainage, and see how some of David's less odiferous amendments work for them. Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm getting a better idea of how to go about this....See MoreHow to kill harmful insects while, keeping bees
Comments (26)"I planted Holy basil and regular basil this spring. The honeybees and several different bees, wasps and butterflies love it. Along with lots of green spiders. Unfortunately, I've only seen the green spiders eat beneficials." Thanks for mentioning the basil, it is another excellent bee plant for the vegetable garden. As for spiders... my observations mirror yours. Spiders are indiscriminate killers - and they are just as likely to kill beneficial insects as harmful ones. They are often listed as "beneficial", but I would rate them neutral at best. I've also had some nasty bites from spiders, and those bites heal slowly, so I don't have a great love for them. Fortunately, the wasp population in my property is very high - including mud daubers. Some of them hunt spiders, and do so very effectively... so the spider population in my garden is very low. Only those which spin webs at night & hide during the day escape the wasps, which suits me just fine. Never tried Murphy's Oil. I've used insecticidal soap, sometimes as part of the following recipe. It was contributed by Jimster several years ago, and is a great starting point for formulating your own insect sprays: INSECTICIDE: A U.S.D.A. formula combining oil and soap is effective in killing soft-bodied insects. Mix 1 cup peanut, safflower, corn, soybean, or sunflower oil with 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing detergent. To make the spray, use 11/2 teaspoons of the oil-detergent mixture for each cup of water. As I mentioned above, I've tried several different variations of soap spray, sometimes with oil or alcohol. Since soap spray primarily works by blocking insect respiration, I even used sugar as an additive, when I was trying to kill cucumber beetles. Figured that would really clog their spiracles, and it seemed to help. Molasses might be even more effective, provided you can get it to dissolve. The advantage of using insecticidal soap (such as Safers) is that it is potassium based, and will cause less leaf damage. You can also use dish soap or baby shampoo, which is what I normally use. But in stronger concentrations (which may be required, depending upon what pest it will be applied to) there may be some leaf damage if the spray is allowed to remain on the leaves. Provided you are just targeting small areas, that is no big deal... but if spraying young plants, or covering a larger area (such as a squash bug infestation) then the spray should be washed off when it has done its work. Sucking insects die pretty quickly, you could rinse the leaves off after 15 minutes or so. For beetles, you just need to watch to see how effective the spray will be... it's possible a second spraying might be necessary. Beetle larvae are easier to kill than the adults, which can be remarkably resistant to soap spray... they will be temporarily paralyzed, but slowly recover. Cucumber beetles are a great example of this, they are pretty hard to kill. You really need full body coverage when spraying beetles, and a little alcohol in the mix will prevent them from flying away while you give them a good soaking. When trying out a soap spray the first time, observe its effect on the target insect. It's worth mentioning that while soap sprays have little to no no lingering toxic effect, they will kill most insects they are sprayed on. I've used the alcohol spray in my previous post to kill yellowjackets, it will knock them right out of the air. If bees or other beneficials get sprayed, it will kill them too....See MoreDo you grow your herbs indoors or out?
Comments (12)Music garlic is a type that offers a single layer of big cloves. Its hard neck and is suitable for the north. Garlic is only available for planting in early fall, where it does need the winter to grow. You do have to order it early. Cut off the stiff stalks (scapes) in early summer when they emerge. If the stalks/scapes are not removed they can take away nurishment from the cloves, and the bulb ends up being much smaller. Soft neck garlic doesn't do well in Z6 or below. I have tried all kinds and Music garlic is the best I have ever planted and harvested. I also add some bone meal to the planting row prior to dropping in each clove. In spring I use a fertilizer from Dixondale which gives my garlic, onions and shallots a not more growing size. I used mostly nursery bought garlic. I had a few cloves from my batch that were also planted next to the nursery seed suppler. Usually you don't get as big a bulb of garlic if you use some from supermarket bought or from your own crop....See MoreHerbs, leggy indoor started repotting need advice
Comments (3)Ok... That's what I was wondering! I thought maybe it might help one or two become stronger even. But I'll just transition them to the hoop house and see how they do. Thanks...See Moreballoonflower
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