Allotments 4 All

I thought i would share this with you & some of you may already do this.

I tried this last year on my cabbages & brussels etc. After picking some rubarb i cut off the leaves & put them in one of my black water buts with the lid let it brew for about a week gave it a stir & wow what a smell, After picking myself off the floor i waterd some of my cabbages with it as they had a touch of the whitefly, continued with this on a regular basis, every night!! & after a week i noticed this   no white fly,green fly,black fly, no butterflies were around the plants no catterpillers,no flea beetle . but on the plants i left they were infested with white fly etc .
So after a while i started with the other plants and there was a massive reduction in the white flys etc, natures pesticide .
I think its down to the toxins in the leaf that does the trick & the plants looked really well, in fact one comment i had last year they were the best cabbage & brussels on the whole site  , ouch my head its getting bigger!!

Just one thing i found a water butt with a tap is better & try and filter the water  a pair of tights do well catches all the bits from the water.

Sounds impressive... got anything for a sore head then??
;D

Willow bark. It's the original source of aspirin.

wow cool tip, i will have to add this to the list of things to try out.

many 'older' growers used to use sticks of rhubarb and the leaves at the bottom of the planting hole for brassicas, said to be very good against club root

but don't forget you'll be ingesting this by spraying with it  :o

Try spraying just with water too - very organic!
Done early, a pressured water spray knocks off a lot of pests at the stage where they can't yet fly far and haven't started breeding, so they fall to the ground, can't get back to the plant to feed, and die.

Thanks for that tip the good life - I will certainly try it this year!

Old Bird

;D

I think the oxalic acid in the rhubarb leaves breaks down very quickly - so i don't believe (but I'll check) that this carries over enough to cause problems if you eat the produce.

yes the toxins from the rubarb leaves do break down, im still alive!! think its 2 days when its broken down i stopped watering 7 days before i wanted a plant for dinner etc but have done a few straight after watering when dear lady wife calls and requires one a good wash and the cooking process makes it all safe ;D

I'm haveing major  problems with my  peas  being eaten by the  fleas even to the stage now when I have  started a backup crop of everything. will try this on them as I've  just cut a load of Rhubarb  for a pie . LOVE TO GET ONE OVER ON THOSE BUGS

Does anyone know whether spraying greenfly with a weak washing-up liquid solution works??  Not exactly 'nature's' pesticide, but we use the eco stuff so it's not that bad.  I tried it on our toms the other day, unfortunately my hubby got a bit free with the Bug-Killa gun afterwards so I've no idea which method worked....  He says we're going organic after this bottle runs out....  :D

Also with the rubarb leaf idea - do you water the soil or the whole plant?  If the latter - how do you get it under the leaves, do you use a spray or something?

Fanx everyone!
Pinky

Rhubarb leaves steeped in water for a couple of weeks works wonders for all sorts of plants, It keeps the aphid off my roses, and doesn't hinder the scent of the blooms.  Pinkwellies, you water the plants, which then drains onto the soil.

Quote from: patrickking04 on April 22, 2008, 15:37:55
wow cool tip, i will have to add this to the list of things to try out.

Hope this is a joke. Best not to mess about with garden plants like willow.
Although, just remembered, feverfew is good for migraine.

So, if I spray my broad beans with this to try to bump off the blackfly, will it kill any of the good insects like my ladybirds?????

Sinbad

Rhubarb will kill anything. If you just want to kill the greenfly, try soft soap.

Thanks Robert.

Sinbad

Pulled  some  sad looking garlic plants today just to see what is up with them, they are covered with   miniture white  worm like things only about 2mm long and .5 mm in diameter, this happened last year but I was told it was due to the wet summer cant be the cause now as had first rain  for months on tuesday. Anyone know what they are and if there is a treatment for them . I'll try the  rhubarb thing  any way to see if things pick up

According to my veggie bible this is the maggots of onion fly!!!!!!! It says if this is a regular problem then sow sets not seed and chose another site.  Nothing can be done with infested plants - should be burnt.

I had onion fly badly in my spring-planted onion sets last year; there's barely a sign of it this year.

Will the rhubarb spray kill the little black maggots on my Asparagus?  Squashed the beetles but I notcied today it is now covered in the maggots :(

Sinbad