Howdy y'all...hope you aren't baking in the 100 degree heat we are! Gonna
have to buy a wider hat to keep my arms from burning :)

Q: Is it OK to spray Neem Oil directly onto fruits and vegetables?

I am spraying (amongst many other plants) pepper plants, tomato plants and
some strawberry bushes which are all fruiting so the fruit is getting
sprayed as well.

I've seen (old) literature that said you could spray DDT on the actual
veggies, too, so I don't really care what the label says. (Kinda like
pressure treated lumber -- oh, it is ok, the aresenic doesn't get in
you...oh, wait, we were wrong... and now the EPA says it is no longer
approved for residential use.)

My Results in May:

Short of Garrett juice which ends up costing more, I've gone to Neem Oil for
an Organic insecticide (I found two concentrates at Lowe's and bought
'Safer' brand 3-in-1 which is 'Clarified Hydrophobic Extract' at 70%)
(Sulphur was really too toxic to spray in a yard with kids and cats me
thinks...organic or not) (Took every store for 15 miles before I found
it...)

It was bought to treat (this year anyway) Black Spot, Thrips, Aphids and
Scale.

It has worked (albeit slowly) on all of those things, tho the roses are
dying off anyway.

Actually, it worked on the thousands of aphids attacking a sage and some
mums over night.

Since Neem Oil affects plant-eating bug's biology vs. killing them outright,
some, like the Scale, have taken several applications over several weeks and
some are still alive.

I was afraid for living 'Good' bugs (Neem oil kills bees on contact so you
have to wait late enough they aren't around) but my Lady Bug population
(half a dozen) seems just fine. Suposedly it only affects the bugs that eat
the plants and not the bugs that eat the bugs.

Comments, questions and your results would be appreciated.

Thx,
John
Austin, Tex
Zone 8a...yeah, but I forgot what a freeze was like!

Walmart sells a great sunscreen with Parsol 17something (which is what my
dermatologist said is the only true sunscreen). It comes in 30 and 50spf. I
use the 50 since I'm so light and strawberry blonde hair, etc. If applied
correctly and I allow it to dry for 30 minutes as the label says, I can garden
in 100 degree heat for hours with having no burn at all. I do wear a hat and I
do also wear a white linen, full length sleeve, but clothing only has about a
4spf unless they are special spf clothes.


On Sat, 31 May 2003 14:15:40 -0500, "John T. Jarrett"
wrote:

Howdy y'all...hope you aren't baking in the 100 degree heat we are! Gonna
have to buy a wider hat to keep my arms from burning :)

Q: Is it OK to spray Neem Oil directly onto fruits and vegetables?

I am spraying (amongst many other plants) pepper plants, tomato plants and
some strawberry bushes which are all fruiting so the fruit is getting
sprayed as well.

I've seen (old) literature that said you could spray DDT on the actual
veggies, too, so I don't really care what the label says. (Kinda like
pressure treated lumber -- oh, it is ok, the aresenic doesn't get in
you...oh, wait, we were wrong... and now the EPA says it is no longer
approved for residential use.)

My Results in May:

Short of Garrett juice which ends up costing more, I've gone to Neem Oil for
an Organic insecticide (I found two concentrates at Lowe's and bought
'Safer' brand 3-in-1 which is 'Clarified Hydrophobic Extract' at 70%)
(Sulphur was really too toxic to spray in a yard with kids and cats me
thinks...organic or not) (Took every store for 15 miles before I found
it...)

It was bought to treat (this year anyway) Black Spot, Thrips, Aphids and
Scale.

It has worked (albeit slowly) on all of those things, tho the roses are
dying off anyway.

Actually, it worked on the thousands of aphids attacking a sage and some
mums over night.

Since Neem Oil affects plant-eating bug's biology vs. killing them outright,
some, like the Scale, have taken several applications over several weeks and
some are still alive.

I was afraid for living 'Good' bugs (Neem oil kills bees on contact so you
have to wait late enough they aren't around) but my Lady Bug population
(half a dozen) seems just fine. Suposedly it only affects the bugs that eat
the plants and not the bugs that eat the bugs.

Comments, questions and your results would be appreciated.

Thx,
John
Austin, Tex
Zone 8a...yeah, but I forgot what a freeze was like!