neem soil drench??

centipedes in soil?

centipedes in soil?

Wow never heard of that, fungus gnat larva look like tiny maggots, and if you were to really drown your plants in plain water you will (if you look closely) see their little asses swimming in the excess water at the top of the pot. these are the ones that neem oil will prevent from reaching adulthood and breeding. Do not do this if you do not have great drainage, it is messy. After doing a little more research on gnats I found that (lost the link, sorry) these things do not harm the plants when they are adults, it is the larval stage, when they are in the soil, that they cause problems. By eating certain nutrients, they rob the plants, but they also eat the fine root hairs of your plant, further starving them. so IMO it is more important to eliminate the young, and to this end Neem works just fine! peAce pacT.

Re: NEEM

Re: NEEM

purplehazer said:

So you just spray to the soil as you would to the leaves ..in a spray bottle disolved in warm water????



peace
ph

Click to expand...

purplehazer,
you are correct. i used a pump sprayer. it's doing the trick
spray the top down well, and also spray into the drainage holes as they adult gnats fly in there and lay eggs as well

this is a great thread.
i use neem oil in a large garden. it is a commercial organic grow. neem oil is used exclusively in this garden. it needs to work 100% and it does. i'd like to add a few things from my experiences with neem.
neem isn't for use in emergencies, as has been explained it works over time by interfering with critters life cycles. so there's no point in spraying it on a big gang of spider mites. if i do ever have an emergency i mix pyrethrum and neem. no creature can escape this cocktail.

for your neem oil to be really effective it needs to cold pressed (more active ingredients). i buy mine from a pharmacy. it costs about 60euros for half a litre. it's worth it.

i do not have experience of this but i have been reliably informed that neem 'cake' has a very high level of active ingredients. i believe it is the pressed husks or shells of the neem tree seeds/fruit. it is not oily

this thread has quite a few references to oiliness and mess. if you have this problem, you're not mixing your oil right. i find this problem the biggest reason people don't use or stick with neem oil. in my experience people who sell the stuff don't even seem to know how to mix it. it's a shame
this is what i do -

mix
- 1000ml warm water
- 8ml cold pressed neem oil
- 5ml plain liquid soap - (the stuff i have is a pale golden color and smells faintly of coconut)

shake well.
know look at your mixture. it should be opaque milky white.
with no oil floating on the surface
if there is oil, add a little more soap and shake again until the oil is gone.

the soap has now suspended the neem oil in the water and you will feel no real oiliness after spraying.

i spray every 3 days for the first 2 weeks of 12/12 and have had no problems with mites so far. i have seen an increase in fungus twats am thinking of doing the soil drench.

The meaning of 'systemic'..

as i understand it, 'systemic' in regard to pesticides refers not to the method of application but to the means by which the pesticide acts - by being absorbed into the plant's system.
it is still under debate, but if neem's effects are systemic, then it makes no difference whether you drench the soil or spray the leaves - it goes into the plant's system.
personally i have no qualms about using neem if it is indeed systemic. it has been used for centuries in india for a huge range of uses, many of them for humans.
science may not have 'proved' it's safety. but then that's the same science that brought us an awful lot of very nasty pesticides and tries to tell us that mj is bad for us


i know i don't have many posts on here and i could be making this all up.
but try it, it works.
i was taught this by semi-retired commercial dutch growers and have found it to work great for me.
bw

nice

nice

I guess that that about sums it up there billy whiz. I use neem mixed with pyrethrum myself if the bugs get to be a big problem, and as a preventative neem alone works fine for me. I have been using the clarified extract to emulsify my oil with water, tried soap before and didn't like the soap film that was left on my leaves. ( might have been my choice of soap) I also agree with you about the wonders of modern science, i mean wasn't mustard gas "accidently" created in a fertilizer labaratory? Just imagine what might get accidently created in a pesticide lab! peAce pacT

soap

soap

when spraying for thrips and other creatures i use neem oil and instead of just soap i use a product called Safers Soap which is an organic product and an insectiside ...double the fun for these little critters

I think that way both of you handled that was pretty outstanding! We all have bad days. I'll bet even eans has one once in awhile! I for one appreciated they way that beans laid it out, because it was easy for me to get the info without getting sidetracked on other issues. But I was also very impressed with how Pac self reflected. If we could all be like that with everyone we meet, wow, just think of the good things that would happen. At least we have this wonderful place to keep in practice! Peace! and as beans says, let love guide you!

And when you just can't love, respect is a more than adequate substitute!

Thanks for the info dudes!

T

The lack of research into the systemic properties of neem is dissapointing however it can't be that hard to remedy.


Reasons why I'd prefer systemic control...

- Foliar application is time consuming and impractical for large rooms as each side of the leaf needs treatment for good coverage.

- The UV sensitive nature of neem forces you to work with a timetable to apply it properly without plant damage. You can't get good coverage spraying in the dark.

- The foliar application requires several applications multiplying the above PITA problems times 4 or 5.


Soil application works on fungus gnats root aphids etc but may not deal with other problems unless the product is systemic. Problems like...

Whitefly, scale, aphids.


If the product is systemic applying neem with waterings during vegetation should be an extremely effective regime, a regime I am willing to experiment with in a months time when things come together to do this.


To experiment on the viability of neem as a systemic product you merely need to use it as a soil drench only and note the effects. Introduce one or all of the above leaf dwelling pests to the grow and see if neem soil drench deters them or not.

You could always try it on a tomato in another room...

Bumpy mcbumperson...
I'm researching this topic right now, and just tried adding a 1/2 gal. of approx. 2 teaspoons neem/ gal water into my res and flooding immediately to take care of a fungal problem. I have white mold on top of rockwool cubes, and some black powdery mold on the bottoms. We shall see.
My experience with black mold, in buildings, is that it's baaaad news. I'm hard pressed to assume that this is what it is in my plants, though

I'd like some help about neem soil drench ...
How many times should I drench it?

I currently water 1 time a week .. Should I use it every watering or is once enough?
Any ideas...

BUMP

Looking for real life experiences using Neem oil as a systemic treatment.

Anybody??

good info in this thread

i use neem for foliar and as a drench-same dilution for both, 5ml/L with a drop of detergent/wetting agent. As for how often to appy: I used it 2-3times a week when watering everyday for a few weeks in veg-then re-apply if any beasties were spotted during the grow

as an experiment once i massivily overdosed a few small plants with a root drench and saw no ill effects at all

overdoseing with foliar is not a good idea

eddieS

I've been researching neem oil use. This is the best neem oil thread on the web. Thank you to the contributors.

Please keep it going!

Neem oil alone is fine, but you should also add neem cake, and karanja oil to the mix.

I mix in neem cake to my soil. It comes out to about 1 1/4 cups of neem cake per 10 gallons of soil. Then when replanting I sprinkle neem cake on top of my mulch.

On Monday, and Friday I spray with neem oil, karanja oil, and a touch of soap. It has made a huge difference in the fungus gnats this winter. I still get a few here and there, but no explosions like usual.

When I spray I am spraying as a soil drench only. I no longer spray the plants with neem oil, karanja oil. I only do a soil drench.

Basically if there is something on the plant that needs to be killed then I use Spinosad. It works in 24 hours, and keeps them dead for 3 or 4 weeks.

I had thrips a while back, and tried neem, karanja oil, and it did nothing but stress my plants. I actually lost some mothers form it. I tried to fight them that way for 3 weeks or so.

Finally I came across spinosad, and in 1 day it was done. I would have had some of my mothers if i would have known from the beginning. Live and learn.

Check out Azasol. It is systemic and can be applied to the roots or foliar.

Hi ya'll... search Azamax and you'll never turn back.

I use a hell of a lot more neem than anybody I know, got a lot less problems to. Drench um, spray um, even like to give my room a good wash in it & let it dry after I wipe everything with bleach a cpl times.

anywho, I always just followed the directions on the bottle more or less. Like others have already stated, keep using it for awhile. Shit works.

just bumping this one up...read the first page...it has all the good stuff...

GH2045 General Hydroponics' AzaMax comes in a 4 oz bottle and is designed for use as a insecticide spray. It is safe to use on plants from germination all the way through harvest time. AzaMax's active ingredient, Azadirachtin, is derived from naturally occurring neem trees. Whether you're having problems with bagworms, moths, caterpillars, or spider mites, AzaMax is one of the most effective products for fast, organic pest control.

so its............................neem oil

Instead of spending so much on the Aza products you can make neem tea. Place 1 cup of neem cake into a 5 gallon compost tea brewer, and bubble for 36-48 hours.

Soil drench 3 times 3-4 days apart and everything in the root zone is out of there. Then soil drench once per week for maintenance.

If you want to foliar spray cut it in half with water. Then spray weekly.

Much cheaper.