In this step, you’ll find four things:
- How to mix your own organic foliar (leaf) fertilizer
- How to mix your own organic insect repellant and insecticide
- How to mix your own organic herbicide
- How to mix your own anti-fungal spray
With these four types of mixes, you should be able top handle most gardening needs.
So, let’s get started!
First, what is a FOLIAR fertilizer?
Well, the plant pull in lots of nutrients from the soil, but every few weeks, they like a little pick-me-up through the leaves. Foliar fertilizer is meant to be absorbed through the foliage rather than the roots. And the happier and greener your plants are, the stronger they’ll be against disease and bugs.
Go check out our favorite fertilizer recipe HERE.
Insect Repellent and Insecticide
For some bugs, like squash vine borers, we’ve never found any organic solutions. However, for most other pests, we have found the following recipes do a fine job keeping them at bay:
- Combat aphids and other little bitties with Ivory’s Bug repellant from onions, mouthwash, and soap
- Combat tomato hornworms, other leaf-cutting insects, plus asparagus beetles withTL’s Marigold insect spray
- Knock ’em dead with Spicy spray
- And here’s a nice repellent made from essential oil
Homemade Herbicide
To kill of a plant entirely, use Ivory’s non-selective herbicide. In an around other plants, I recommend using a dog collar cone to eliminate drift.
Anti Fungal Spray
Sometimes your plants will start to get fungal infections. We find that baking soda spray helps a great deal. Mix as much baking soda as you can get to dissolve in hot water and still go through your sprayer.
Alternatively, use this recipe for a chamomile spray, if you haven’t yet put enough yard plants through your blender to suit you.
And don’t forget to:
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Beginner gardening series: 1)Beginner Garden in a Day, 2)Composting, 3)Alternative Beginner Gardens
Intermediate gardening series: 4)Lasagna gardening, 5)DIY mixes and solutions, 6)Indoor seed starting