Home Remedies for Plants
You probably don’t realize how many ingredients you have in your home for your plants that are actually more effective than expensive, poisonous commercial pesticides. Home remedies for plants have grown in popularity in recent years due to increasing concern for the environment as well as the potential harm to children and animals from many commercial pesticides.
Home Remedies for Plant Insect Infestations
If you have plants in your garden that are being attacked by soft body bugs or mealie bugs, you can easily make your own all natural pesticide to spray down your plants or simply apply to individual bugs. If you have a few bugs, dabbing them with rubbing alcohol will quickly kill them, but if you have a major infestation, you may want to spray the whole plant with the alcohol or, if you have tender seedlings, a mixture of half water and half alcohol.
If you have a large garden, you can make up a bulk concentrate in your kitchen that’s very effective. Mash up two cloves of garlic with two hot peppers, then add to a blender that’s about one-half full of water. Mix well and strain into a container and fill until you have a gallon of liquid. This is the concentrate, and shouldn’t be used full strength, as it can burn the leaves. Instead, make up a new batch of spray each time by mixing one quarter cup of this concentrate into a gallon container almost filled with water. Remember to shake this frequently when applying to keep the mixture well blended.
If hard shell bugs such as Japanese beetles are your problem, you can combine a teaspoon of cooking oil with a teaspoon of dish soap in a quart of water and spray the plants until wet. Doing this every three days for two weeks will kill off any hard shell pests around.
Another version of this home remedy for plants with hard shell bug problems can be made by combining one teaspoon cooking oil, one teaspoon Murphy’s oil soap and one tablespoon lemon juice and adding to a fifty/fifty solution of water and rubbing alcohol in a quart container. Spray your plants every other day and after any heavy rains.
Slugs and snails can be particularly difficult to get rid of in damp or moist environments, but the right tools can get rid of them. In fact, if you have a swimming pool, you probably already have diatomaceous earth (often marketed under the name Diatomite). Sprinkling this liberally around your plants will kill soft insects by cutting them all over with the sharp cell structures of the diatomaceous earth.
You can control mites by spraying your plants liberally with mixture of two tablespoons hot pepper sauce and a few drops of dish soap in a quart spray bottle of water. Remember to shake the bottle frequently while using to keep all of the pepper sauce from drifting to the bottom.
Home Remedies for Plants with Fungus, Mold or Mildew
Dusting your plants thoroughly with powdered cinnamon is an excellent way to control fungus. If you do develop a fungus problem on your plants despite the cinnamon, try adding two tablespoons of cinnamon to a pint of rubbing alcohol and letting it steep overnight. Strain the mixture through a coffee filter to remove the sediment, than shake thoroughly and spray on your plants. If you have young seedlings or delicate plants, use a fifty-fifty mixture of rubbing alcohol and water.
Your roses can fall prey to black spot disease or powdery mildew in the summer months, two plant diseases that are notoriously difficult to control. An effective home remedy for these is a simple solution of one teaspoon baking soda, a few drops of dish soap and a quart of water. You should spray your roses thoroughly with this at least once a week (particularly after a rain), not forgetting to spray the undersides of the leaves.
You’ll be surprised by how healthy your plants will be when you abandon the strong commercial pesticides and start using these all natural home remedies for plants!