Homemade whitefly spray?

[smj81]

Found a mixture of dishwashing liquid and vegetable oil..my question is can I use canola oil instead?

[itchybromusic]

just my thinking 

why spray a plant with something that has no benefit like dish wash liquid , i know it will emulsify the oil

 

you can use soap nuts to replace the dish wash , cheap as chips , you get saponins out of soap nuts 

which is a pest spray by itself & a bit of a health tonic for the plant at the same time 

 

neem oil will do the job as long as you cover every mm of the plant , top to toe , under over stems soil pot

crushed neem seed from making oil , called neem cake = ebay is a great top dress for pots , npk & protection , worms love it

 

i use neem , silica & aloe as a regular pest spray , lill more X'y than dish wash but of much more benefit to the plant 

[smj81]

Ok thanks bro ..I just try do things on the cheap cos I'm a poor mofo haha

[smj81]

I just read that houseflies eat whitefly..I've had a few flies on the plant but shooed them away maybe I should let them sit on the plant ? We have a bad fly problem locally atm

[itchybromusic]

i get wanting to do on the cheap mate , we all like that i think

 

but things like what you read re flys is exactly how it's supposed to work

 

you can buy for outdoors a beneficial seed mix that will attract all the benne's 

with there little flowers to the garden to keep all the bad dudes in check 

 

they say 5 to 10% of your garden should be made up of beneficial plants 

to help drive a healthy backyard eco system 

 

scent masking plants . sacrificial plants & the small flower plants , cos allot of the good 

benne's have tiny mouths & like flowers , but big flowers are no good to allot of them 

[smj81]

You're a good source of knowledge itchybromusic, thank you . I have no garden at all apart from 9 palms in the backyard that attract bats and rats when they seed and one tomato plant in a pot, although I do want to get a bit of a garden going eventually as the yard looks very boring without colour.

[smj81]

And also like you said to attract beneficial insects

[itchybromusic]

" attract bats and rats "

get yourself a cat , i had rats in the backyard , we had a cat , he was up to the job

most of his life but got to old & to well fed to care

 

anytime smj , as you can tell i rant a bit , sorry 

 

have a look at sub irrigated planters for a small backyard ,

i have one i'm playing with they are very cool

 

can produce a large amount of produce with not allot of effort

well ,  i'm using one for the first time so we'll see if that claims true

 

Bit of an outlay $$ to start with but pretty cheap after that by the look of things 

http://greensmartpots.com.au/

you could also diy one , heaps of youtube vids , look under sub irrigated planters or SIP's 

[smj81]

The neighbours have cats I have a dog but he sleeps inside ..ok cool I will do that

[smj81]

Holy shit they are awesome things ..I definitely need one of those for when I go back to work !