tips & tricks
ORGANIC OILS AND SPRAYS
The third path is homemade organic oils and sprays.
As we touched on earlier, plant lice do not like mint.
There are also a wide range of other natural products
that plant pests don’t like. Garlic is a fantastic example.
It is an antifungal, antibacterial, and general-purpose
insecticide that is effective on whiteflies, spider mites,
thrips, ants, aphids, caterpillars, and even deer. Basically
a great all-rounder, it can also be used as a deterrent
within indoor growing environments, on intakes, outtakes,
openings, and closings of the growing environment. This
can be refreshed every few days. The simple recipe for a
garlic based spray is one teaspoon of garlic oil to one pint
of water with 60ml of 100-proof drinking alcohol.
If you don’t do your research properly, you
might end up using a deterrent sacrificial plant, which
will attract another type of pest that could potentially
be worse than the pest that you are trying to deter.”
Take note that the garlic spray can also deter some beneficial
insects and bugs if used on outdoor growing environments.
There are other natural herbs and produce that can be more
specific to problem pests. Here’s a quick list of the usual pest
suspects and what they do not like:
• Aphids – Garlic
• Caterpillars – Neem oil
• Deer – Capsaicin (hotter the better)
• Fungas Gnat – Cinnamon
• Leafminers – Coriander
• Mealybugs – Cloves
• Moles – Chili
• Spider mites – Garlic
• Thrip – Coriander
If you have a problem with pests, try a home remedy before
you run off to buy the latest and greatest chemical off the
shelf. You may be surprised by the results.
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grow cycle