fight red spider

[Gerardo]

Neem/DE/Soap will stop 'em dead in their tracks.

Abamectin takes care of a lot of organisms, more than just the 6-8 legged kinds. Thrips do not like it all.

[fonseca]

1 TBS cold-pressed neem oil
1 TBS cold-pressed karanja oil
2 TBS natural soap

Add to a small jar with warm water, shake until it looks like milk, then add to pump sprayer with 1 gallon water. Goodbye mites. And aphids. And flea beetles, whiteflies and caterpillars. Many insects that eat vegetation. I like to make garlic extract and include that occasionally if I notice any slug damage.

[NicolasGarcia]

Thank you very much everyone for your help, it has helped me a lot

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by fonseca

1 TBS cold-pressed neem oil
1 TBS cold-pressed karanja oil
2 TBS natural soap

Add to a small jar with warm water, shake until it looks like milk, then add to pump sprayer with 1 gallon water. Goodbye mites. And aphids. And flea beetles, whiteflies and caterpillars. Many insects that eat vegetation. I like to make garlic extract and include that occasionally if I notice any slug damage.

This is the first time I've ever heard of karanja oil. I had to look that one up. I'm just curious with your neem plus this plus the soap, does your sprayer and get a residual residue that won't come out? That was one of the problems I had with the neem was that not all of it would clean out of the pump sprayer, and then I had a brown tank!

[fonseca]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

does your sprayer and get a residual residue that won't come out?

After spraying, I rinse the tank out with hot water, dump and fill partway again, and then spray under pressure to clear out the line. I do still get some residue in the tank, but I have never had any issue with it clogging after rinsing. I always use lukewarm water for application, maybe 110 degrees. I use a fine mist so it is cool when contacting the plants.

I first heard about karanja when fighting a bad infestation of spider mites. The neem alone would kill 99% of them, but they would eventually rebound. One application with half the neem oil substituted for karanja and I did not see another one for the entire year. It works!

I think a lot of people try an off the shelf neem oil from a big box store (chemically extracted) and then say "Neem doesn't do anything". It needs to be cold-pressed, and if the bottle doesn't list the azadirachtin ppm, and the seller can't provide any proof, buy something else.

[peebee]

Does karanja oil kill beneficials too? I'm thinking of trying garlic spray for the first time, and I also read that cilantro/coriander tea repels mites. It's worth a try as I've only seen a small number of the spider mites so far. I've been watering from above *GASP!* and also from below to aim the water at the bottom of leaves this year, so far so good. The only tomatoes that didn't like this water treatment were my Japanese hybrid varieties like Momotaro and Odoriko etc. Leaves got funky fast, lost one plant. The other heirlooms are doing just fine.