ok that makes perfect sense! i will put mine in the freezer then, thanks for the tip! have a good one my man!
what you said gave me an idea, so check this out! put the neem and karanja oils in the freezer, and you can just scoop it out like ice cream and emulsify it with silica straight from the freezer! don't need to keep any at room temperature. didn't even wait for it to melt. emulsified perfectly! hashberry babies in their new #1 smarties!
got 2xquart bottles. seeing as i use about a teaspoon a week i think it will last me quite a while (384 weeks to be exact!). but regardless, why not keep it as fresh as can be? edit: post 400!
True. I used neem to spray last night. It's so oily, the vibrations from the sprayer unscrew the container that holds the liquid in just a second or two. It was so frustrating trying to screw it back on, keep it on and refill because the oil and smooth surface of the container. The emulsification in the blender was a huge mess with exploding foam all over my kitchen. I hate it so much. Fucking hate it. I still smell like neem and I've washed and washed. I almost fell on my butt from the oil that fell on the floor. I don't understand why there's not a better option for IPM.
I love that idea! Did you see any separation at all? It always separates when I freeze it. How deep is the container?
Yeah a blender would make a mess. How much are you mixing? Try this out. Take the neem oil, say a tbsp. put it in a shot glass or small glass container, and add one tsp Agsil or pro Tekt and mix with a bamboo skewer until milky. It will mix right up easily. I do this in a Pyrex measuring cup, then add any other oils I'm using and stir, adding more Agsil if needed, then a little warm water at a time until I'm at a cup or so and it still looks homogeneous. Pour that into the rest of whatever you're spraying and shake occasionally as you spray. That's the only way that works for me every time. You must mix the Agsil with any oil alone first or it won't work properly. At least, it won't for me. HTH
Thank you!! I add it all to a small amount of water and blend. It looks milky when done then I added more water and blended. That's when it exploded. I will just try doing your way instead.
no separation here. the above pic was just a small container to test but i use a larger one now for the whole quart. its maybe 1.5-2" deep. Neem on top karanja in the bottom container. yeah like mainah said, you just mix it with pro-tekt first and it will become milky. once that is done it will mix pretty easy with water. neem+protekt mixed with a spoon for maybe 10 seconds
you know i was thinking, emulsify and freeze into ice cubes so that each cube is good for 1 gallon H2O. it should become a lot more solid this way and you could just store the cubes in a ziplock once they freeze. not sure how well it would mix from frozen but its worth i try. i also want to try: frozen malted barely Popsicle! soak 10oz malted barley, finely ground in water (2-3 cups?) for 4 hours. strain measure liquid, divide by 10 pour 1/10 into each icecube cell and freeze. ------------ to use, mix 1 cube per gallon water. could also pre add the fulvic and aloe perhaps?
You beat me to it Scoob, was going to suggest pre-measured in ice cube trays. I do that with herbs I grow in cooking.
Great idea, but freezer burn probably could cause an issue if left too long. Should be good for at least 3-6 months though I would imagine. I haven't noticed any degradation in the oil after a couple years though. It's been through several freeze/thaw cycles too. Smaller quantities would be more of an issue. Test it out Scoobie!
good call! i could vacuum pack them into a month or two month portions, each pack would have enough cubes for a month or two. im willing to share the credit haha! im making some now, not a lot just enough for tomorrows SST. ill post pics!
not sure it was a great idea after all. i soaked the 2oz in 2 cups of water and it seems after straining that there is still a lot of the good stuff left behind in the ground barely. i ran another quart of water through the strained material and it came out very white and milky. maybe not as opaque as the main run but there is obviously a lot of stuff still trapped in there. so my new idea is to use 1.5 liter pop bottles. soak what i need for 1 or 2 gallons in a bottle full of water and then freeze the whole bottle. just thaw and strain when needed. using bottles obviously means less will fit in the freezer but you could still make enough for 3 or 4 applications at a time. freezing the whole concoction would probably help release even more enzymes from the ground up material and the plastic bottle can also help against freezer burn.
You're trying to freeze barley SST? Why not just grind malted barley into flour every other week, top dress, then water the rest in. Easy. Or maybe pregrind and use that for SST? Or I could be high.....very, very likely.