Using neem oil on aphids

As expected when growing so many veggies from home, I ended up with a few pests......especially aphids on my lettuce plants. My challenge now, was how to solve this with an organic product and find something chemical free to use?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJWwVygsXY

So as we do in this modern day, I headed to Google. I've had advice from several people to use warm water with a little dishwasher soap to gently spray on the plants, which is quite a useful tip and I did consider this, but also thinking how many different chemicals make up the range of washing soaps out there, I kept up my search for any other options, because I truly believe that what we put on our food will eventually affect how we feel - positively or negatively.

Something jumped out at me while reading through a post on pests relating to Neem oil, this was interesting and I then found quite a bit of info about Neem oil. This oil comes from the seed of a tropical tree and is actually used to treat a variety of conditions as it is also used as skin and hair products in some places. It is said to reduce insect feeding and act as a repellent.

🌱 Handy hint:

What we put on our food will eventually affect how we feel

This organic neem oil is solid and quite yellow in colour, the recommended use was to soak it in warm water first so it becomes more liquid then dilute down with warm water. I used a spray bottle and went around spraying each leaf and all the soil around each plant.

One thing I did realise from growing a mixture of vegetables indoors and out is that they are more susceptible to disease and pests if the same plant is kept in a group in one area. So as well as spraying them, I spread the plants out in between other plants, when organising them outside or on the shelves in the kitchen.

I'm definitely happy with how well it seemed to work, we had loads of lettuce to eat, there we still a few bugs on them, but not as much as there were before! When they were picked I simply gave them a good rinse under the tap and ready for my lunch plate!

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