Indoor Gardening Project - Part 6 - Pest Control
Pests can be a big problem when growing indoors especially if you are bringing plants in from out doors as I had done.
See previous post on my experiment digging out garden plants to grow inside for the winter at:
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@porters/gardening-for-food-security-indoor-gardening-project-part-3-the-experiment-worked
I have a few simple methods of pest control that doesn't involve the use of any chemicals.
A very simple and effective way to get rid of aphids is by simply washing them away.
If gardening outdoors just spray them off with your garden hose.
If you have your plants in smaller containers you can wash them under the tap as I did in the video below (if you have no running water you can wash them off in a tub of water):
My second method is with
DIY Sticky Strips.
You can buy yellow sticky strips or simply make some following the steps below -
Material Needed
Material
Yellow Cards approximately 2 to 3 inches wide by 4 inches long (I used yellow card stock)
Sticks or wire to place them with (I used popsicle sticks and a long twist tie)
Masking tape or glue to attach your sticks
Vaseline for something sticky to catch bugs
Step 1 Attach Sticks or Wire to Yellow Card
Step 2 Smear Yellow Card with Vaseline Covering Both Sides
Step 3 Hang Above Plants or Stick Beside Plants
DIY Sprays
You can start with a very basic soap water mixture using -
1 1/2 teaspoons mild liquid soap, castile soap is good,
1 quart of water
Mix together and spray the mixture directly on infected area
Make this a little stronger by adding vegetable oil to the mixture.
Mix thoroughly 1 cup of vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of mild soap.
Use this as your concentrate.
When ready to use add 2 teaspoons of this mixture with 1 quart of water, shake thoroughly.
Spray directly on the pests.
Other items to add to the mix to make an insect repellent is some garlic.
Add 2 bulbs of garlic to 1 quart of water.
Puree them in a blender or food processor
Let it sit overnight, then strain out garlic and add
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of mild liquid soap
Just under a quart of water.
When ready too use, mix 1 cup of mixture with 1 quart of water
Spray all over infested plants.
Neem oil is very effective for pest control too. Just follow the instructions on the bottle.
What I use for rodent control is
My Contented Kitty JJ
See the whole series about the indoor garden project at:
All photos taken with my Canon PowerShot A495
I love engaging with folks here so please feel free to leave any comments or questions,
if you found this post beneficial an Upvote is appreciated.
Please don’t hesitate to follow me here on steemit at @porters
Thank you for this wonderfully informative post! I have never actually done any indoor growing but I would love to do it! I enjoyed the video and the step by step instructions that make it very easy to follow. I like the idea of using the vaseline cards as pest control, I've never come across it.
Glad you found the post informative! This is a new project for me this year with the indoor gardening, but I feel it will become very important in the future with our changing weather conditions. I feel I have more food security if I can grow in a more controlled environment.
I've been trying to post and document my journey with this project as much as I can so others can lean with me.
Thanks for introducing me to home made sticky strips, I will have to make some. I just ran out of my shop bought ones so a perfect time to try!
Just followed you, I look forward to seeing more of the progression of your indoor gardening project :)
Glad I could give you a timely tip!
also glad you will be following along on my indoor gardening project!
Just did a little video for next days post.
Earth says thank you!
I like your project!
Steem on!
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Wow, amazing post, did not know about the vaseline trick...
Thanks for sharing @porters...
/FF
Interesting info. I'm a big user of the yellow sticky strips
I find it marvelous how everyone finds a way to be innovate when the need arises wthout breaking the bank. And I love using as many “natural processes as possible in whatever I do.
I have been very fortunate so far to never have brought in any stowaways when bringing my plants in from outdoors, and I hope to keep it that way!
Thanks for a vey informative post.
Oh lucky you to never have brought in any stowaways.
I thought I was going to be lucky this year even though I actually dug plants right out of the garden and bought them in for my indoor gardening project.
I was fine until I bought in some sphagnum moss late in the season and a few hardly last minute plants that hadn't been killed off by the frost yet. When I put the mulch on my plants it wasn't long before I noticed some aphids appearing on the plants. aphids are pretty easy to get rid of.
A couple of years ago I bought in a coleus from a plant sale and potted it up with my other coleus collection and they had mealy bugs on them - Ah-h-h! I tossed out all of my coleus for I had other more precious plants growing in my sun room. I thought I was rid of them but then they appeared on my fig tree.
I didn't want to spray the fig tree until I had picked all the figs and they got out of hand. I ended up taking cutting from the fig tree and got rid of the mother plant (it had grown real huge and I wanted the space in my sun room for other things anyway.)
I'm a little more careful now and with keep plants bought in segregatesd until I know for sure they don't have bugs.
Yeah, not crazy when I see swarms of bugs, don’t mind the odd one but when you get an infestation, yuk, lol!
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With 75+ house plants I was hoping you'd show a specific for sucking scale. I've used most of your methods (except the sticky card) but none of them work for scale. What I do use for that is the extremely labor intensive wiping down with Q-Tips (cotton swabs) and alcohol to remove all of them I can see. But something more broad spectrum would sure be welcome, especially if it works well!
Ah! I'm not much help there.
I had a bad problem with scale on my indoor fig tree. I ended up spraying it down til it dripped with Safer's insecticidal soap. It did get rid of it for the winter and first part of the spring then they returned when the figs were starting to form on the tree and I didn't want to spray it. they got out of hand and I ended up taking cuttings from my tree and getting rid of the mother plant (I wanted the room indoors for other plants too for it had grown quite large.)
Rather server treatment . I'm sure you could find something bette.
Nope, not found a better plan. Just keep battling them as I can....
I do like the idea of homemade sticky stops! What a useful thing for all gardeners to know how to do.