2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
You don’t have to spend money on pest control chemicals. Nature itself took care of this by teaching garden plants to accumulate toxic substances in their stems and leaves. You just need to use the help of such plants
Why in one garden some of the plants succumb to pests, while others grow successfully, not paying any attention to them? Because plants, like all living earthly creatures, in the process of evolution learn to resist their enemies, accumulating chemicals in their roots, stems, leaves that repel pests. Someone does it more successfully, and therefore such plants can be used to save weaker representatives of the plant world from pests.
Tomato tops in a duel with aphids
Although the plant with the name "Tomato" also has enemies annoying its growth, among which can be noted the Colorado potato beetle, bear and potato aphid, however, when meeting with other species of aphids, as well as cabbage scoop, caterpillars, ticks, the plant comes out the winner. Therefore, while stepson the lush growing tomato bushes, do not rush to carry the tops to the compost heap, but prepare a “treat” from it for pests attacking other vegetables in the garden, for example, cucumber beds, the leaves of which were “rented” by a spider mite.
To prepare a saving potion, you will need one kilogram of stepsons per bucket of water. First we leave
tomato tops four to five hours in the water for her to share her chemicals with. Then boil the infusion over low heat for a couple of hours, cool, filter and dilute with water twice. The potion is ready to spray on pest-affected plant leaves.
Potato tops against pests
Potato tops, like the tomato, is ready for a duel with ticks and aphids, except for the type of aphid, which specializes in eating potato leaves, because pests of the same species have different taste preferences. Actually, the similar abilities of the tops of potatoes and tomatoes are explained by their natural relationship, because both plants belong to the Solanaceae family, which is known for a certain toxicity of its representatives.
To prepare a two to three hour infusion on a ten-liter bucket of water, no more than 1200 grams of chopped fresh potato tops will be required, since with a larger amount, the concentration of the infusion can become dangerous for the sprayed leaves, causing burns on their surface. So, when dealing with toxic plants, you should include your sense of proportion, so that instead of benefit, you do not harm the plants. We filter the infusion and spray the leaves of vegetable or ornamental plants affected by pests. Fresh grass can be replaced with dried tops at the rate of sixty to eighty grams of dry weight per liter of water.
Other members of the Solanaceae family against pests
In principle, all members of the Solanaceae family contain toxic substances in their grass, which, however, does not always save them from pests. The Colorado potato beetle happily devours the leaves of potatoes, tomatoes and other cultivated plants that people have been able to tame for their own needs.
They successfully fight with insects that eat leaf-gnawing and suck nutritious plant juices, decoctions from black helen, from black nightshade, infusion of common Datura. But, such plants, unlike potatoes and tomatoes, are not found in every garden or behind the village fence. If they are available, then they can be safely used in pest control.
If to prepare a decoction from
Black nightshade it takes 450 grams of fresh grass for ten liters of water and thirty minutes for boiling, then greens
Black henbane it will take three kilograms per ten liters of water. Moreover, first the grass is boiled for two or three hours over low heat with a small amount of water, cooled, filtered, and then water is added to ten liters.
It is even easier to prepare a potion from
Datura ordinarythat does not need to be boiled. You just need to pour ten liters of water over one kilogram of crushed dry grass and leave to infuse for twelve hours. Then they spray the leaves of the cucumbers, saving them from spider mites, bedbugs and gluttonous aphids.
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