Organic Gardening Stuff

[Nawtilus]

Anybody know any organic mixes with easily obtained ingrediants here in bkk for an insecticide and another for fertilizers.

I bought and downloaded an organic document sometime ago and have not utilised it yet, mainly because some of the ingrediants may not be easily found here.

I did mix up one tonic from it, smelt like crap and went rotten over night, think I buggered it up, but anyway did not really work, but think that was my fault.

If anyone interested to see it, i can maybe copy it here for comment from any experienced gardners.

[chownah]

If you describe what you are growing and how you are doing it I might be able to help. Probably the most easily obtained natural insecticide you will find in Thailand will be a Neem product (from the Neem tree) but I've never used any of them so I have no direct experience....There are also biological controls for various pests but once again I have never had to use them...with the exception of lady bugs which eat harmful bugs, especially aphids....they are very effective at controling aphids and they occur naturally and quite abundantly in my garden which is in the north. It is best to not use poisons in the garden because these might kill your lady bugs which are truly a valuable insect control agent. Preying mantis eat harmful bugs in the garden too and I have seen a few but not very many. I'm hoping someone comes on and describes their experiences with natural insecticides and where to get them so that I can broaden my knowledge too.

[lingling]

There is an organic pesticide based on shells (oysters, mussels, shrimp etc) that you can buy in any farm supply shop. I haven't tried it so I don't know if it is good, but it is supposed to be completely free from DDT etc

I don't remember the name, but I came across it when I was shopping around - sold in a white plastic jar containing maybe 1-2kg.

[udon]

http://thaineem.com/ any good? I can't read Thai.

[Mantra]

I've got a pit full of organic fertilizer at my house going free.

I'm sorry I can't deliver, so you'll have to collect

[Nawtilus]

Ok, this info that I got over the net is a bunch of homemade recipes for fertilisers and insecticides.

Problem is it is american and geared for running down the st and getting the ingrediants easily.

Plus I dont know how real or well any of them would or should even work.

An example is an insecticide.....liquid soap and water in a spray bottle.

Now I tried to find liquid soap, I remember liquid soap in a bottle back home and all I could find here was liquid wash with many different ingrediants included for smell and moisture and so on, no pure soap. So I am wondering if all these added extra are ok to use and if the 'wash' is in fact the same as liquid soap as required for this method.

The other one was for a monthly fertiliser for plants, flowers and lawns....epsom salts, baking powder, ammonia and warm water.

Now, again i went and tried to find these things in the supermarket here. I only found baking soda, is this the same as baking powder as I remember small tins of baking powder at home, not soda. Then I could not find epsom salts at all and ammonia was only available in mixed solutions for scrubbing floors with all stuff added again for smell and killing germs etc, no pure ammonia as I remember seeing back home.

Anyway, I am trying to kill pests in the garden, we have aphids galore on some plants, we have the rust on frangipanis and another thing that seems to be eating the leaves from inside out and another little red bug that sucks the goodness out of the leaves and leaves it dead after awhile.

Many plants are not flowering very well and I want to give them some oomph naturally. Also the lawn, while still nice, has lost a lot of it thickness and luxurious sheen and green colour it had.

We have animals and most importantly kids, so I do not want poisons laying around the house unused and sprayed around the yards where they play everyday.

[chownah]

Nawtilus,

Let me point out that epsom salts, baking powder, and ammonia are not organic ingredients and so the fertilizer you would be making would not be organic fertilizer. I think the source of your mixtures can not be trusted to provide you with an organic solution to your problems.

About your aphids and liquid soap. Aphids have a waxy coating on their bodies to keep their bodily juices from leaking out....by applying a soapy solution to them it dissolves this waxy coating and they "bleed" to death in short order. When I have an aphid infestation in my garden (a large vegetable garden in the north) and I don't think the lady bugs will handle it quickly enough (although almost always they do handle it quite will indeed) I mix up a solution of dish washing liquid and water and I spray this onto the aphids...it kills them...but does not kill the beneficial bugs so usually with one application of this solution it cuts down the number of aphids to a low level which will not really do any harm and the lady bugs appear in short order to finish off what's left.....I want to stress that an organic garden where the beneficial bugs can thrive usually has no need to use this spray....I've been averaging once per year and each year I seem to apply less. Dish washing liquid is a detergent and not a soap so it is not techincally organic...but it is not poisonous and it readily breaks down in the environment....and I use about 100 times more dish detergent on my dishes than I do on my garden. I know many organic gardeners and many/most of them use this same technique on the few occasions it is necessary....if you used soap then it would be closer to being organic...but my guess is it might not be as effective...that detergent is good stuff...I've never tried it with soap. The detergent solution has so far not damaged any of the plants that I have applied it too...at least that I have ever noticed. I mix up the solution so that it feels really slippery.....about like what you would do your dishes with or maybe up to twice as strong (depending on how much you use for your dishes). Don't worry about it...just mix some up, spray it on liberally, and the next day (or maybe in a few hours) check to see if it worked...if not then mix it a bit stronger....you shouldn't need to go overboard on it though....if it feels really slippery then it will do the job. Some people say if you spray it on in bright sunlight on a very hot day then it can do some minor damage to some delicate leaves but I've never noticed that...if I had some delicate ornamental that I was growing for appearance I'd probably do it in the shade and start with a weaker mix just to be careful....maybe make up a mixture and do a test patch on some leaves in the back........etc.

Chownah

[Nawtilus]

Ok, thanks will give it a go and let you know if they all fall off thier perch.

As for organic farming/gardening, I have absolutely no desire to get into it, I would love to get back into cattle one day, maybe here, maybe not.

But I do have a strong urge to get the type of land that I like in the area that I like and build a home there. I would dearly love to produce a garden big enough to supply all of our family and workers needs naturally, organically here as I have heard some horror stories about what goes on both with meat and vegetable/fruit produce.

If you ever feel like putting in writing how you do things, I would love to read them. Or you could wait and I will ask the questions as they pop up.

Thanks again.