Wait till he makes up a neem meal tea and lets it sit for a bit...*lol* I think that one is the worst - not that a good old-fashioned comfrey tea is anything to sneeze at...hehe
Nothing's wrong with the plants themselves but had I harvested the first cutting @ 4' then I'd have at least 18" moving towards the 2nd cutting Poor asset management on my part - LOL
NOOB Neptune's Harvest out of New England carries a Cedar oil pesticide Cedarcide Cedar Oil and as you can see it isn't cheap. But if you were to call them you could probably save yourself a lot of effort on looking for information. They're a very solid company. HTH CQ
Wow Jerry that horse stall is amazing!!! I'm not a horse guy by any means, I'm actually quite petrified of them for some reason. Quite funny actually since I stand around 6'5" haha. I love the chicken coop as well. Nice and simple. Can't wait till I get a house so I can have chickens this whole renting thing sucks ass!!!
Thanks for all the help CQ, you are definitely right about the neem oil being cheaper now that I see the price tag on some shit like that I would spend that kind of money on a garden only if my plants produced gold bullion by the pound.. that's not happening any time soon, I guess the neem oil is way cheaper if you buy the bigger bottles tho? $11 for an 8oz bottle seems a little steep, but when you do the math and how many spray bottles you can get out of it (about 32) it makes the investment a little cheaper that way.. You also have to factor in tho the cost of the protekt as well, as I've found the neem to be rather difficult to mix without it
NOOB You cannot use Neem oil effectively without emulsifying it first and Potassium Silicate is an easy way to get there. It contains 3.8% Soluble Potash (K2O) and 7.9% Silica Oxide (SiO2). Besides the emulsifying the Silica brings a whole level of benefits. Here's a less expensive source for liquid Silica than the Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt. A gallon is only $19.00 but as you can see it's almost 3x the potency. Hydro-Gardens.com is where the manliest of chemical men doing hydroponic gardens choose to shop - they buy their base ingredients, pick up some 'science' like the Lucas Formula and head forth before hitting the 'Help Me Grow My Dope' threads. Potassium Silicate is a mined compound - ancient sea deposits. It's 'approved for organic food production' and besides one other source, this is the best price I've been able to find. The cheaper product is a pure powder and I haven't taken the time to figure out the mixing ratio. When I get that done I'll post link to the powder version CQ
CQ can aloe or liquid soap be used as the emulsyfier for the neem ? edit : also my out door veggie garden leaves are getting bit to pieces - can I use my neem spray on my vegetable garden outdoors??? thanks swap
Swap I don't do soap so I can't answer you on that one. Aloe vera 'can' emulsify the Neem to some extent but it's a mess (personal experience). I'll call a friend down in San Diego (my garden guru) and see what he uses. This should be rich - LOL CQ
Here's the cheapest pesticide and fungicide I could come with....... 2 Garlic heads - leave the skins on and smash, pulverize and drop into a food processor. Garlic - Sulfur: Fungicide and Pesticide 1 Ginger hand - do the same thing as you do with the garlic - Ginger - too many too list 2 cups of the hottest chili pepper (fresh) you can find - Habanero, Thai, Serrano whatever What you're getting here, among other things, is Capsaicin Add just enough water to puree this to a paste and cover with 3x water. Soak for 3 or 4 days. On this one only use 1 cup to 15 cups water = 1 gallon This will burn the crap out of mites, white flies, larva, etc. HTH CQ
I use Dr Bronners liquid soap, and usually peppermint or tea tree, because that's what my family uses most. BaddKitty pointed out recently that it has the ability to rid plants of bugs all by itself, so my using it to mix the goopy stuff together is good in more ways than one.
Its actually about impossible to mix the neem oil without the silica/emulsifier. Don't forget the (aloe) surfectant, either... Hi Mike. My timing on this place was about perfect. We were living in MA some years ago, and when the housing market went thru the roof I was able to sell that place and make enuff where I only had to come up with $2,500.00 out of pocket to make up the difference and buy the house in Maine on 15 acres. Outright. Timing was everything. It took a big (30 year mortgage) load off. Mortgages suck. Whatdya end up paying double on what ya borrow? What a racket.
Usury Jerry, the proper term is usury... Just calling a spade a spade, that's good you were able to get out before the bubble completely burst, I know some folks who are still paying WAY over-priced inflated mortgage payments that cost more than what their house is worth some lost it all too.. The banksters get bailed out with money from hardworking taxpayers because they made checks that their ass's couldn't cash...
Here's some examples of bad asset management - LOL Comfrey Plants Future Tomato Bed Rhubarb after the 1st cutting - leaves kept for pesticide tea
I always figured the aloe was the surfectant (helps to "spread out" over the leaves) and the silica as the "emulsifier" - ie: break down the oil like dish soap in a greasy pan. I use all three items now - neem oil, aloe vera juice and Pro-Tekt. It did take Lumper awhile to talk me into buying the bottle of Pro-Tekt, tho...*lol*
Cripes CQ! Those rhubarb leaves big enuff? Talk about plant material! Very nice! I had a wierd thing happen with a couple of my tomato plants recently. I put some of my seedling plants into my most recent soil mix, which my MJ is really diggin' btw, but the tomatos aren't seeming to like it - ends of the leaves are seeming to be "burning"... Any idea? The very same soil is kicking butt on some pot plants - go figure. I remember eating a lot of rhubarb as a kid - from "dipped in sugar" to luscious rhubarb/strawberry pies - yummy!
Jerry That is what's left of the Rhubarb plant after the first cutting over the weekend - about 1/3 was harvested. LOL Rhubarb Chutney (in the South Indian style) coming up! Tomatoes - first off you and I shouldn't even be able to grow tomatoes where we live. We do because that's one of the main reasons to have a garden in the first place, right? Fresh, real tomatoes. But it is a tropical plant so right from the start we face challenges. If the night temps are dropping down into the low 50's you'll see the the leaves curling. If you have these low temps coupled with humidity over 40% you'll see this more pronounced. Calcium applied to the leaves is a good defense. Getting some Silica onto the leaves is also helpful and on this bump it up to 1 tsp. per gallon - that's still an uber-safe amount. How tall are the plants? How big across? CQ
Dang jerry you're really rockin it out over here! Loving those comfrey plants. Really beautiful spread u got there bro.