Wanted Homemade Garden Remedies

[Mainegal]

I'm hoping to learn to make and use my own remedies in the garden so would love to know what you use. I do use Crabbergirls Hot Pepper Spray but also want to know what you all use.

I have been using self rising flour on my string beans to keep the japenese beatles away, It seems to work but the leaves look awful after rain, etc.

 

[brassi]

I use a hot pepper and garlic mix to keep buggies off my plants
5 hot peppers, 2 whole garlic bulbs smashed in 1 gal of water, 2 tablespoons of dish soap-- let sit and cure for 3 weeks,,
take out 1 cup and spray!

my fertilizer formula is what I call "GO JUICE'
I make up miracle grow as the package says.
Then I take 1/2 the recipe,, mix with 1/2 gallon of water
then I add 2 tables spoons of fish emultions
and 2 drops of "superthrive" a plant hormone-- found at orchid growers
and I water with this mix, once a week.
That is how I keep my plants so lush looking.

just some of my little hints!!

 

[Crabbergirl]

One of the great things to prevent wilts and fungus is compost tea. You can take 2 pounds of cooked compost, and add to 5 gal of water. Let sit for 3 days and the strain into sprayer.( Return strained compost to the garden or the compost pile) Add 1tbs canola oil per gallon of tea, spray plants such as tomatoes,potatoes, beets and so on with the tea. It helps prevent wilt , early & late blight & fungus. Also compost tea is a great organic fertilizer to be used just like Miracle grow or others on any plant. Can be used daily.

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

A very simple and easy way to start off also...is mulch...not touching the plant ...put for any plants that may be open to powdery mildew or black spot...this sreally keeps it at bay...and making sure you don't over head water...this works really well with roses and tomato plants just to name a few...then when wanting to feed with your compost/chicken poo tea...you have the based open ...this is just what works for me, for many many years

 

[Mainegal]

thanks everyone for the tips

 

[brassi]

a mix of 4 tablespoons of fish emultions and 2 tablespoons powdered milk and one teaspoon of baking soda with 1/2 gal water, spray on rose foliage-- to prevent black spot. Also use on peonys, phlox and others that get white powdery mildew.

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

Baking Soda Spray

Another baking soda mixture I use is ......
1 ½ tablespoons baking soda
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 ½ gallons + 1 cup warm water

Combine the baking soda and oil in 1 cup of warm water.....You will want to stir until the baking soda is dissolved.....can take a few mins....Then add the mixture to the rest of the water and stir really well..... I pour into the sprayer and use immediately....never had good luck keeping it longer that two days....and you must stir it up before each use....you want to use this before the sun is hitting your plants ....

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

Chamomile Tea

Chamomile is a useful preventive also I have found..... as well as a treatment for powdery mildew.......As with all the sprays you want to avoid spraying chamomile tea in direct sunlight..... as it can damage the leaves of some plants.....

4-6 tablespoons dried chamomile flowers
2-3 cups boiling water

Place chamomile flowers in a container that will not melt..... then pour boiling water over herbs and steep until cool.....I might mention I have tried adding oil to this to help keep longer and itreally did not extend shelf life..... put in hand sprayer and use within 2 to 3 days......

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

Orange Delight

I have a friend that say's this is all she uses to control bugs/insects....
Have to say I have never tried it...but may this year...
SHe say's to grate the citrus rind ...of 2 lemons and 1 orange and put it in a container that is heat proof....pour over this 1 qt. of boiling water....cover and steep for 8 to 10 hours....you will want to strain it before you put it in your prayer...and then use...she did not say what the shelf life was ...i iwll have to ask and then let you know...

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

Homemade Insecticidal Soap

This spray can be used to get rid of the soft-bodied pests..... such as aphids and whiteflies..... I used it when in California on my roses bushes only.....and it really worked well... 1 tablespoon oil ...I used olive or peanut oil.....1 quart water .....and 3 to 5 drops of dish soap ...
Mix the dish soap and oil together first....I used a bucket....then once they well mixed I would add the water to this...then onto the sprayer....and then onto the plant leaves....you want to make sure you get the undersides of the leaves...this will smother any insects that you may see there...

 

[Mainegal]

Bringing this forward, would like to hear what you all use

 

[Dale]

I have never used it but a friend gave me the recipe for Homemade Rooting Hormone. 1/2 honey and 3/4 cup water bring to boil, making sure the honey is dissovled. Let cool. Dip plants you want to root a couple of hours into mixture then plant. Makes sense to me.

 

[sunflower3]

I'm saving this one Dale>>>>

want to try it this summer on some cutting and see if it works. Thanks for posting it. Is it 1/2 cup honey?? I would think it would be..

 

[Annette99]

fat free milk mixed 50/50 with water will control powdery mildew on plants.

 

[Bernie]

Here in the PNW slugs can be a major problem. I found coffee grounds will keep them away. I get coffee grounds from Starbucks. They give them to gardeners for free. I encircle my beds with the fresh grounds especially my hosta beds and I haven't had a slug nibble a single leaf in three years. I add more if I see those little slivery tracks in the garden. The slugs seem to die when they come in contact with the stuff. At first I found dead ones but somehow they've just learned to stay away.
I also use the coffee ground on my hydrangeas, roddies and any thing else that likes the acidity.
I let the grounds sit out all winter then add them to the compost and beds, makes a great soil conditioner without altering the Ph.

 

[sunflower3]

Ants in the kitchen or flowers or where ever, just sprinkle cornmeal around its a herbicide to them .I used it in my herb garden they had a huge nest in my oregano plants and this worked they where gone in 2 days.

 

[Crabbergirl]

Mint oil is great to control ants. I have mint planted right in the lawn along with pennyroyal bot help keep fleas off my fur kids! You can boil mint to express oil pour the boiled water in a spray bottle and spray around doors and windows to keep ants out.

 

[Dor]

Ants in the kitchen or flowers or where ever, just sprinkle cornmeal around its a herbicide to them .I used it in my herb garden they had a huge nest in my oregano plants and this worked they where gone in 2 days.

I added some humus/manure and garden soil to my raised veggie bed but noticed I had a huge ant bed in there and some other bugs. I will use the cornmeal for the ants but need to figure out now to get rid of the other bugs before I plant by the end of this months.

 

[tonya]

moles/voles?

i have searched for quite some time for a thread related to moles/voles to no avail so i'm gonna post here they are after all a pest...2 years ago i planted the "sunup" and the "sundown" echinacea, they were gorgeous and i was looking so forward to dividing them in the future..."sunup" didn't make it to the next season..he just disappeared!!!!"sundown" was approx 18" away and he was such a nice shade of dark orange..beautiful...i got maybe 10 stems and coaxed him to continue blooming all the way up to august....sometime during a summer weeding session i noticed the soil was raised in the area where "sunup" used to be..MOLES/VOLES!!!!!i know the difference between the two but i don't know which one i have or even if maybe i have both...last year i smashed the bottom off a bunch of beer bottles and stuck them in the ground following the tunnel..i had read somewhere that they didn't like the noise the wind made blowing through the bottles..didn't notice any new runs that season but i had to take the bottles up b/c it embarrassed the MOTH...so yesterday while i was cleaning up the southwestern bed i was going to snap the old stems off of "sundown" low and behold three stems came right out of the ground complete with small little roots and BUDS!!!MOLES/VOLES!!!again!i think the dastardly demons are laughing at me
little do they know...this year i am going to try something different...in the southern gardens i am going to plant daffodil bulbs all along the tunnel i know that they don't like daffies so maybe they'll go bother some one else..none of my neighbors are gardeners...and in the back yard instead of beerbottles this year i am going to plant castor bean plants!!!!that'll teach 'em i hope!cross my heart guys this stinking critter made those two holes!!!all i did was put the piece of wood in there that looks like a frown "sunup" used to live in the upper right of the photo and "sundown" will hopefully come back about 6" below the frown as i did stick that stem back in the ground as fast as i pulled it up..MOLES/VOLES!!!DASTARDLY DEMONS!!!!

 

[Randy]

I have them both here in addition to gophers. I usually have traps set and I nail one once in awhile. I also have problems with skunks. I have only gotten one skunk this year, four last year and sixteen the year before. The voles are the toughest to deal with. I have dropped poison down their holes but I have never seen any change in population. The moles do the most damage in my garden.