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Did I make a detrimental mistake?

sirex said:
Aphids. Treat w Dr. Bronners castile soap. The fatty acids from the potassium REALLY kill the aphids. Unlike that fake ass dawn shit. I use this myself. Learned from Wicked Mike. Never had to use anything else for aphids.
 
Use this
 
 
https://www.drbronner.com/
 
 
because of this 
 
 
http://appalachianheritagesoaps.com/blog/2011/07/31/lye-soap-use-3-insecticide/
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I ordered a bottle and some neem oil as well. Thanks for the info.
Maligator said:
Just ordered a gallon off of Amazon, I'll give it a shot. I did order the peppermint since peppermint in and of itself is a natural repellent to some pests.
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same here I went with the peppermint
 
I have a half gallon sprayer. I'm gonna start with 1 tablespoon of the soap and see how that works. I'll do as mentioned and rinse the plants off after 15 minutes.
 
SavinaRed said:
I ordered a bottle and some neem oil as well. Thanks for the info.
same here I went with the peppermint
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I ordered the soap as the emulsifier for the gallon of neem oil which I ordered the week before. Gonna mix them together per the instructions and see how things shake out.

I'll keep everyone posted once things get going on the outside. It's still 37° out and it's 11am, so...gotta wait for spring to fully arrive. It was 62° yesterday...roller-coaster weather ;)
 
I know how you feel. Last week it snowed almost every day. We had almost a foot of snow on the ground by Thursday. Everything was almost melted before that. This week it warmed up and the snow is almost gone again. Suppose to be 11 degrees Celsius today (52 degrees) End of next week will be even warmer. Sure hope it doesn't drop again
 
So far it looks like the 1tbsp to half gallon worked out okay. The aphids were mostly looking dead 20 minutes later. I sprayed them with fresh water. The leaves look nice and shiny right now. I'll keep posted what it's like in three days when I go for a respray. The soap smells great when using it too!
 
I think I am fighting a losing battle with these aphids. Spraying every few days seems real hard on the plants too. I sprayed them on Wednesday and went to spray them this evening but I noticed that a bunch of the plants aren't looking real healthy. Brown leaves in spots and one of my scorpion plants has almost lost all of its leaves. I still have 3 weeks before I can even begin bringing them outdoors for any length of time. I have been looking at maybe ordering some ladybugs to unleash on them, but it would involve a bit of work to contain them in the house. I broke down and bought some bug b gone insecticidal soap yesterday, so tomorrow I am going to try that. In just three days one of my chocolate habs have gone from no bugs to almost completely covered with aphids. This is really depressing because I feel like the constant spraying is over watering them and the soap isn't doing the plants any good either. Grrrr........
 
Like you, I've been battling aphids all winter long. I have been using Bonide, which without a doubt kills the aphids. However, they keep popping up. So, it must be my lack of complete coverage on both top and bottom of each leaf.
 
Today I decided to try a new strategy. Neem is the product of the day. I took the plants outside and gave every one of them a thorough soaking from stem to stern. I'll repeat this in a week. After that time, if I haven't shot you a PM, remind me and I'll let you know what the results were.
 
p.s. You and I both live in like-climates. I figured that it was just too cold around here for aphids to be a concern. Boy was I wrong...in a big way.
 
 
Shaggs, do you have to keep spraying?
Are you thoroughly spraying under the leaves etc. Please don't think I'm being sarcastic or anything of that nature.

I've never had to continuously spray like the experience you're describing.
 
By the way, you can put peroxide undiluted into the plants for fungus gnats.  Not everyday, not like you are watering.  But it's already a very weak solution.
 
Anytime you spray a soap product on a leaf, you need to follow it up with a plain water spray.  If you coat the plant's leaves, you are clogging the stomata, and interfering with proper respiration. (yes, plants breathe)  In short, you are suffocating your plants.  Had they been outdoors under the sun, you would have seen this happen on an accelerated timeline.
 
You will probably get new leaves, as it's doubtful that you've killed the plants.   But next time you spray with soap, leave it on the plant for 20 minutes, and then give a moderate pressure spray of straight water, to rinse the soap from the leaves.
 
If you are trying to grow plants indoors, you need to be prepared in advance for these sort of battles.  At the very least, you need to have a shower or wash basin, where you can do spray downs for pests.
 
Yeah I must be missing a few of them guys when I spray them. I try my best to get everywhere on each leave top and bottom. I even spray the soil to get any that may have dropped off the plants. I have been giving them a spray with water about half hour after the soap solution. It's been like this all winter in my overwinter plants. I thought I had them back in December because I didn't see one for a couple weeks, but they came back. I've been spraying them in my tub and then just washing the tub afterward.
 
Nope just peppers. I guess I do have the tomatoes that I started around a month ago too, but they have since been infested. It turned out nice and warm today, but lots of wind. I'm bringing the plants outside for a bit some shelter and going to do a good spray on them and then wash off. I am converting an old tarp shed into a greenhouse over the next week. Once it's done I will unleash a bunch of ladybugs in there.
 
I don't know if your situation is similar to mine, because we are in such different climates.  But here, my aphid problem is cyclical.  Usually, if I can keep my growth ahead of the aphid population, they tend to start waning after about a month or two, when they start being parasitized by wasps, and eaten by other critters. At some point, they literally aren't a problem anymore, for no real effort on my part. (other than a few hose spray downs)
 
If this is really a problem, check into BT.  (bacteria)  And if you get a greenhouse, you'll want ladybugs and parasitic wasps.  Very easy to source all of these items.
 
The peppermint castille soap is usually my go-to for aphids because I also run into problems with raccoons, squirrels, cats, and rats. They really don't like peppermint, and I figure "why not?"
 
I ended up giving up on spraying them and ordered 4500 pack of ladybugs to fight the battle. They came in the mail a week ago and have been doing a good job. I still have a good amount of aphids but they are making progress. I only let 200 or so go and have slowly added more to the plants. The other night when watering I found a bunch of eggs laid so the larvae will do good to clean it up. Once my plants are cleared up I will be safe to start letting the rest of the bugs outside in the yard.
 
I looks like the ladybugs have really done a great job. I ended up letting a lot of them go on my plants as they were dying in my fridge at an alarming rate. My plants are now on to a good start of recovery. Hopefully our weather smartens up, so they can start going outside. My tomatoes are growing quick.
 
I am really trying to avoid setting up my third light fixture. The weather starts to look good after the weekend so I will be transplanting and throwing the tomatoes on deck. I can't wait to see my filius blue peppers in their planters once they are bigger.
 
 
 
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