The important part of horticultural soap is the level of fatty acid it has as
its active ingredient.

This is what's in baby shampoo by the brand name:

Johnson's Baby Shampoo - moisturizing formula with honey & vitamin E
water ,PEG-80 sorbitan laurate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium trideceth
sulfate, glycerin, PEG-150 disterate, disodium lauroamphodi-acetate, sodium
laureth-13, carboxylate, fragrance, poly-quaternium-10, honey, tocopherol
acetate, tetrasodium EDTA, quaterium-15,FD&C yellow #6, FD&C yellow #5, FD&C red
#4, FD&C red #33, FD&C blue #1


Which of the above ingredients is a fungicide? Possibly if an uppity health
food store sells one with tea tree oil in it, possibly he is referring to that.
Maybe one of the listed above is from tea tree oil or neem tree oil.


I don't see where there is fatty acid in the above listing, but that is what
causes the contact pesticide, insecticidal soap, effective. I know you know
that, but many people may not know that.

When I use baby shampoo, my hands don't burn. When I get fatty acid found in
insecticidal soap on my skin, it burns.

Jerry Baker? Could there be a more ignorant asshole on television selling his
stupid shit? I doubt it.

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 09:31:36 -0700, (paghat)
wrote:

I dunno that I'll ever have need of this little tidbit, but it kinda
interested me, as I used to use dishwashing soap as a horticultural soap
to get rid of aphids, until I discovered a good hard spray of water did
the job just as well, without injury to ladybug larvae. Jerry Baker
(thuggish anti-marijuana hippy-head-bashing police officer cum "America's
Master Gardener") suggests using baby shampoo instead of dishwashing OR
horticultural soap, because baby shampoo has a very small amount of
fungicide in it as well. That was news to me, but interesting, & possibly
useful to know.

-paghat the ratgirl