"Nancy" writes:
hi
I as wondering if anyone had a recipe for organic
garden spray.
I have beautiful organic vege garden beds but
the white butterfly are starting to come about.
hoping someone can help me

For butterfly larvae, I'd have thought the bacterial spray Dipel
would be ideal. No chemicals, just a bacteria that makes these types
of caterpillars very sick. The same type of spray is marketed under
another brand name. Maybe someone can remind us?

Of course, a purist would make their own spray by crushing a handful
of the grubs, letting them marinate in their own juices for 3 or 4
days, then mascerating with water, filtering, and spraying over the
remaining plants. Let us know how it all works out. :-)
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

"John Savage" wrote in message
...
"Nancy" writes:
hi
I as wondering if anyone had a recipe for organic
garden spray.
I have beautiful organic vege garden beds but
the white butterfly are starting to come about.
hoping someone can help me

For butterfly larvae, I'd have thought the bacterial spray Dipel
would be ideal. No chemicals, just a bacteria that makes these types
of caterpillars very sick. The same type of spray is marketed under
another brand name. Maybe someone can remind us?


It's also called BT (bacillus thuringiensis) and is sold under various brand
names apart from Dipel.

Of course, a purist would make their own spray by crushing a handful
of the grubs, letting them marinate in their own juices for 3 or 4
days, then mascerating with water, filtering, and spraying over the
remaining plants. Let us know how it all works out. :-)
--

I fear this kind of spray appeals to the principles of sympathetic magic or
the assumption that an organism must be revolted by the juices of their
squashed brethren.

David

"David Hare-Scott" writes:
"John Savage" wrote in message
m...
Of course, a purist would make their own spray by crushing a handful
of the grubs, letting them marinate in their own juices for 3 or 4
days, then mascerating with water, filtering, and spraying over the
remaining plants. Let us know how it all works out. :-)
--

I fear this kind of spray appeals to the principles of sympathetic magic or
the assumption that an organism must be revolted by the juices of their
squashed brethren.

Let me allay your fears. No magic is involved, neither any self-loathing.

Its efficacy is based on breeding high numbers of any bacteria or parasite
that accompanies the pest species. A spray containing the parasite is in
turn applied to infect and hopefully overwhelm the pests on the plants.

The extent to which practice follows theory resides in the lap of the gods.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

If by 'Organic' you mean something that has been alive, like a tree, as opposed to something that has not, like granite, then here's a real easy one that actually works.

Get a pound of fag ends, pour boiling water over them, strain the liquid, then
dilute a bit more and spray. Don't eat crops for 1 week as it won't do you much good, but after then the spray will have broken down and is harmless.

This will shift just about any bug that crawls or flies.

"Tim Perry" wrote in message
...

If by 'Organic' you mean something that has been alive, like a tree, as
opposed to something that has not, like granite, then here's a real
easy one that actually works.

Get a pound of fag ends, pour boiling water over them, strain the
liquid, then
dilute a bit more and spray. Don't eat crops for 1 week as it won't do
you much good, but after then the spray will have broken down and is
harmless.

This will shift just about any bug that crawls or flies.




--
Tim Perry

Do this with great caution as the nicotine extract you produce will be quite
toxic to humans and pets as well as garden pests. In this sense such
"organic" sprays have the same problems as the toxic synthetics. That is you
can poison yourself and beneficial creatures as quickly as the harmful ones.
There is nothing inherently safe about poisons derived from natural sources
nor inherently dangerous about those that come from factories. What matters
is how, when and where you use them and the qualities of the particular
substance, not whether it is "natural". Whatever that means.

David

Tim Perry writes:
Get a pound of fag ends, pour boiling water over them, strain the
liquid, then
dilute a bit more and spray. Don't eat crops for 1 week as it won't do
you much good, but after then the spray will have broken down and is
harmless.

This will shift just about any bug that crawls or flies.

When this was mentioned on a previous occasion, someone cautioned about
its use on tomatoes because it is a way to pass on the mosaic virus from
the tobacco leaf to your tomatoes.

On a local gardening program (Vasili's Garden, tvs and sbs), he once
visited a garden with the best out of season tomatoes you'd ever see. The
gardener had some strange, but undeniably successful, ideas. One was that
she would collect cig butts from all her friends and (as I recall) spread
them about the tomato bed, on the surface. It must have been one of the
untidiest garden beds you'd see. But she had tall laden tomato plants in
Syd or Melb in the middle of winter.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)