Natural Plant Sprays

Posted by Gabrielle

I was researching inexpensive, natural plant sprays for this summer, especially for my tomatoes that seem to get attacked by tomato horn-worms and came across the following advice which I think some of our readers may find amusing as well:

1) Combine one teaspoon of hot pepper or Tabasco sauce, 4 cloves of garlic and a quart of water. Blend well in a blender and strain, with cheesecloth or nylon mesh before placing in your sprayer. This will repel many insects including whiteflies, aphids, spidermites and caterpillars.

2) Mix 1/8-1/4 cup of hydrated lime with one quart of water. This creates an effective spray against many insects, especially spidermites. Add a drop of non-detergent soap to act as a sticking agent and insecticide. Lime can cause serious harm to plants if you use too much, so always spray a test plant first and watch it for a few days, to check for any adverse effects on plants.

3) Take one ounce of tomato leaves and add to one quart of water and blend thoroughly. Strain the resulting liquid and use to repel insects. This works well on white cabbage butterflies too.

4) Take a copious amount (as many as you can collect) of the insect you wish to repel and grind their corpses up into a powder. Mix the resulting powder with one quart of water and, spray as a repellent for the insect that you ground up for the powder.