I've heard and seen many discussions about which soap/emulsifier/surfactant to use with raw neem oil and other raw hoticultural oils. While I'm sure some are better than others, I wanted to share a trick that makes them all work, and might even work with no emulsifier at all. There used to be a neem oil secret thread, but now you have to read the cached version on google if you want to see it. In any case, the recipe was bad in that thread, and thanks to Clackamas Coot for correcting maryjohn's mistake.
Neem oil stirred by hand, even with equal parts dish soap, looks like this:
Notice the distinct layers? The middle layer is most of the oil - in big, suffocating globs, whereas the bottom layer is mostly soap and water with a bit of emulsified neem oil. I've tried a million ways to mix it, including putting rocks in my sprayer and shaking til it hurts.
What's missing is mechanical, not chemical. Enter the blender. In my case, a hand blender. I put just a bit of water, then as much oil as I want with the right amount of soap for the final volume. Hit it with the blender and:
Notice there are only two layers?
Now I top up with room temp water and:
I'm sure you could do a gallon or more this way. Obviously if you are doing an orchard you want a bigger blender.
Neem oil stirred by hand, even with equal parts dish soap, looks like this:
Notice the distinct layers? The middle layer is most of the oil - in big, suffocating globs, whereas the bottom layer is mostly soap and water with a bit of emulsified neem oil. I've tried a million ways to mix it, including putting rocks in my sprayer and shaking til it hurts.
What's missing is mechanical, not chemical. Enter the blender. In my case, a hand blender. I put just a bit of water, then as much oil as I want with the right amount of soap for the final volume. Hit it with the blender and:
Notice there are only two layers?
Now I top up with room temp water and:
I'm sure you could do a gallon or more this way. Obviously if you are doing an orchard you want a bigger blender.