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Organic Sprays

© Deborah Turton

Your garden is up and running, but there are still problems - you have bugs and perhaps you're worried about disease and fungus. Never fear. Below are some organic sprays for the garden. They should help you keep yor problems to a minimum.

First some general notes about spraying. All of the sprays below are environmentally safe. However, they may not be safe for you to drink or inhale. Don't spray under windy conditions. You wouldn't want to have a stream of hot pepper spray end up in your eyes or lungs. If you have specfic health problems, you may have to be extra careful. I have a freind with asthma and she can't be around when I turn my compost pile. It has too much fungus, mold and stuff in it. I won't use compost tea around her for fear of aggravating her condition. To save yourself time, write down how much spray you used for the number of plants so you'll know how much you need to make next year. I use about 1 qt. Hot pepper spray to spray 24 cabbage and broccoli plants. Finally, scrub your produce well before you eat it. These sprays are not for ingestion, so do yourself a favor and take the simple precaution of scrubbing anything you spray before you eat it.

Use the time you're spraying to take a closer look at your garden. I've found lots of eggs on my cabbage plants when spraying for cabbageworms. I pick these off before they have a chance to become cabbageworms and eat my cabbage. Remember, sprays can help control a pest insect, but they can't do the whole job. It's better to prevent a potential problem from becoming a disaster than to try and repair your garden after disaster has struck.

My favorite spray is a baking soda spray. I use this to conquer powdery mildew on my cucurbits (gourds, squash, melons and pumpkins). It can also help with fungus on other plants such as black spot on rose bushes. To make the spray mix one quart of water one tsp baking soda one teaspoon oil - either horticultural oil or vegetable oil a few drops soap - liquid soap or insecticidal soap

First spray the leaves with a strong stream of water to knock off as many spores as possible. You must do this first for the spray to work. You can either use your hose or a sprayer filled with plain water. Then spray the tops and undersides of the leaves with the baking soda solution.

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