Being concerned with chemicals on food I looked for home made organic pesticides and I came across a recipe that called for 1 cup of cooking oil, 1 tablespoon of dish soap (the biodegradable kind of soap) and 1 pint of water. All mixed well and placed into a sprayer bottle. I did everything the recipe said, however, It never occurred to me that there were correct times to apply it.
It was about noon and being the month of November there was no concern with heat or anything like that. I applied the mix evenly in all of the 2 first raised beds I had planted and the only ones with plants already on them. I even applied the mix to my papaya pots. I did this as a precaution more than as a fix because I only had aphids on 3 or 4 sq ft of the first bed and my thought was that by spraying into the infected ones the insects were going to jump into the other ones so I wanted to prevent that.
Well, it was a mistake. I practically burned my broccoli and my radishes with this pesticide. I learned the hard way that this should be applied gently and in the afternoon after the sun is going down. After thinking a little bit is now common sense to me that the oil got stuck into the leaves and the sun pretty much cooked those plants. This is the result:
As you can imagine I was sad because this was going to be my first harvest and it had taking me about 4 weeks of time since I started caring for this plants. 3 days after applying the pesticide I pulled the plants out, remixed the soil and replanted on those squares.
Thanks for Reading,
AG
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