Does neem oil makes buds taste bad?

[rigidigital]

I'd rather use food grade orange oil, also a potent insecticide. Pure orange oil is limonene, a beneficial cannabis terpene. Orange oil is easy to obtain and inexpensive. Best to order in a glass bottle, since it degrades plastics. Also a great solvent for cleaning fingers and scissors.

Interesting, thanks. I did a little research on the orange oil as well, looks promising. Do you have a dosage (ml /Litre) and application schedule you could recommend? I'm assuming as a folar spray.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I've been through the fungus gnat problem several times now, impossible to avoid in our locale. Have tried most things, but everything can interact with everything else (apart from the fungus gnats) .... in the case of H202 specifically, it will also kill everything else & including the benefical orgnisims in the soil; and also the beficical nematodes which eat the fungus gnat lavae.

I was talking about fungus, not bugs. I never put peroxide in the soil.

 

[rigidigital]

Nasty little bug, well, maybe not so little based on the several web pages I visited that mentioned the size.

My impression is that Neem Oil is not going to do you much good if the insects are in the adult stage. There are some other products available to you, or at least in New Zealand, that were mentioned being used for adult insects. It seems that they can jump and fly away fast enough that they tend to stay ahead of the spray.

I am pretty sure that I read an article that mentioned they are related to the locust.

What about as a folar spray, for if and when they land on leaves (and suck I notice).

 

[rigidigital]

I was talking about fungus, not bugs. I never put peroxide in the soil.

Thanks for the clarification.
Fungus gnats are bastards, seemingly almost indestructable; plus many treatmaments interact to create yet other problems. Best I've got so far: beneficial nematodes in the original soil mix (but them seem to have a limited shelf life); mosquito bits (BTi) solution from time to time - that's for the larvae. Certainly not pryethum, and am really not so sure about neem oil either... (effects on bud development & final smoke). The earlier post about orange oil is interesting.

For the flyers - they stil come back in cycles it would seem. Yellow sticky cards and a bug zapper in the room - not sure if this really kills all that much, but certainly provides feedback as to when & how many are around. Am also trying a new soild cover - have used diatomaceous earth in the past, it kills everthing else in the soil incl. the nematodes; sand or pelite seemed as bit messy and not all that effective. Current try is Gnat Off! pot plant barrier: a mix of pumice, course sand & neem granules. Seems good but am not so sure about the neem bit yet.

 

[rigidigital]

@Phillybonker I am growing outdoors in the tropics, in greenhouses. I haven't seen those bugs, but what I use is neem oil mixed with Bronner's peppermint soap, 2 tbs neem, 1 tbs soap, per gal water. I don't spray buds.

Pure orange oil - limonene - is a potent insecticide. I use food grade limonene. This can be added to your neem mixture, or alone with the soap. Be careful, too much limonene will burn leaves. I have found that ~20 drops is OK, in 1 gal.

I use Neem Rich for the other vege & herb gardens in general, the point is, ready to go for spraying (no soap etc required).

 

[Azimuth]

You could try a SIP (sub irrigated planter) for the gnats. With those you water from the bottom and the top of the soil stays dry. My understanding is the gnats only thrive when you have a constantly wet soil.

 

[rigidigital]

You could try a SIP (sub irrigated planter) for the gnats. With those you water from the bottom and the top of the soil stays dry. My understanding is the gnats only thrive when you have a constantly wet soil.

Thanks, nice idea. However I always use fabric pots, great for root growth and stops any access by the gants excess for the top soil. Still, an interesting idea - I 'could' inject water and/or nutes into the lower half of the soil via syringe (I have one of those 50ml meat needles used for injecting marinades etc ...

 

[Phytoplankton]

Throw some diatomaceous earth on top of the soil, it will cut the bugs up as they emerge from the soil. Also adds silicon. I used it recently for thrips and it worked well, kept them under control.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Interesting, thanks. I did a little research on the orange oil as well, looks promising. Do you have a dosage (ml /Litre) and application schedule you could recommend? I'm assuming as a folar spray.

...limonene (pure orange oil) with a little Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap... the limonene does the killing and the soap is just to emulsify the limonene. So, 12 drops limonene per 1 gal water, and just a very small amount of Bronner's, like 1/8 tsp or less. Limonene is a solvent and could affect the trichomes, but in that concentration it shouldn't be an issue.

you can also add limonene to a neem solution. For neem, my recipe is 2 tbsp need oil, 1 tbsp Bronner's peppermint, in 1 gal pure water, in a pump sprayer. shake very well before spraying. I don't spray buds with this.

 

[Sativa1970]

Peppermint it the most common essential oil to repel everything. Personally I have never had any luck with it. I have several patches of it growing around my house so maybe they are numb to it. Mosquitos and field mice love to live in those patches. If you are growing a strain high in limonene adding more wouldn't seem like it would help.

The orange oil sounds delicious but will it effect the PH? I have had great results from rosemary oil but it dose not pair well with all strain terpenes. Floral, earthy, grungy plants taste even better with the hint of rosemary. Rosemary on your floral mango mowi wowi is interesting at first but it gets old fast.

 

[SmokingWings]

Peppermint it the most common essential oil to repel everything. Personally I have never had any luck with it. I have several patches of it growing around my house so maybe they are numb to it. Mosquitos and field mice love to live in those patches.

Yep. Just opening up a bottle of peppermint oil to mix up as a insect repellent does not work often enough to justify the cost. I have had better luck just cutting a few sprigs and putting those in a glass of water and leaving it sitting on the table.

I don't know about field mice but I do see a lot of flying insects plus various pollinators in the mint patches. I always figured that some of the mosquito looking ones were something else since they do not bite and most of the time they were flying in and landing on the flowers like the pollinators do.

 

[rigidigital]

I keep neem oil on the shelf for infestation in veg but try not to use it. I have diatatamatious earth dusted on the floor for crawlers. I've used rosemary oil soap to kill spider mites late flower. Killed the mites and actually made the buds taste good.spray upwards to get the underside of leaves and buds with lots of air flow.

Similar here, but ... have used diatomaceous earth in the past and the problem with that (for me) is that the 'shards' eventually leak down into the soil and kill benefical critters as well. For example, I may use benficial nematodes from the start (in particular, Steinernema feltiae for fungus gants) or even better, predatory mites (Stratiolaelaps scimitus) for longer life control: these tend to last about the life of an auto flower grow, whereas the nematodes may need reapplication from time to time.

In any case, diatomaceous earth ends up killing these in the soil & so I switched to a far more neutral fine pumice mix (Yates Gnat Barrier) & this has been working very well indeed. With fabric pots (no entry holes below), nematodes in the soil, pumice on top & a few yellow sticky cards spread around, the gnats have almost completely dissappeared. I say 'mostly' becuase they are a real problem in the region & climate here near the forest in sub-tropical Brisbane, Australia. They simply keep coming back but as far as I can tell, not from the plant, but they still get into the room, but never get far with this setup. Only a couple here and there on the yellow stickies.

 

[cbdhemp808]

...limonene (pure orange oil) with a little Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap... the limonene does the killing and the soap is just to emulsify the limonene. So, 12 drops limonene per 1 gal water, and just a very small amount of Bronner's, like 1/8 tsp or less. Limonene is a solvent and could affect the trichomes, but in that concentration it shouldn't be an issue.

you can also add limonene to a neem solution. For neem, my recipe is 2 tbsp need oil, 1 tbsp Bronner's peppermint, in 1 gal pure water, in a pump sprayer. shake very well before spraying. I don't spray buds with this.

My response here is for foliar spray, not for adding to the soil.

Peppermint it the most common essential oil to repel everything. Personally I have never had any luck with it. I have several patches of it growing around my house so maybe they are numb to it. Mosquitos and field mice love to live in those patches. If you are growing a strain high in limonene adding more wouldn't seem like it would help.

My recipe above is for limonene and Bronner's peppermint soap, in water, as a foliar spray. Limonene and soap landing on bugs is a vastly different concept than limonene bound up in the trichomes. Limonene kills on contact. That's my understanding. Combined with soap, even better. So, I'm not talking about repellent so much. Limonene evaporates very quickly, so not a lot will be left behind to serve as a repellent.

The orange oil sounds delicious but will it effect the PH?

I'm not sure what you mean there. It sounds like you're talking about pH of the soil, so that doesn't apply to what I'm talking about (foliar spray).

Yep. Just opening up a bottle of peppermint oil to mix up as a insect repellent does not work often enough to justify the cost. I have had better luck just cutting a few sprigs and putting those in a glass of water and leaving it sitting on the table.

Again, I'm talking about a contact insecticide, not a repellent.

 

[Sativa1970]

My response here is for foliar spray, not for adding to the soil.


My recipe above is for limonene and Bronner's peppermint soap, in water, as a foliar spray. Limonene and soap landing on bugs is a vastly different concept than limonene bound up in the trichomes. Limonene kills on contact. That's my understanding. Combined with soap, even better. So, I'm not talking about repellent so much. Limonene evaporates very quickly, so not a lot will be left behind to serve as a repellent.


I'm not sure what you mean there. It sounds like you're talking about pH of the soil, so that doesn't apply to what I'm talking about (foliar spray).


Again, I'm talking about a contact insecticide, not a repellent.

I was asking if the oil had an effect on the ph of the spray. Most things with citrus added have a pretty low PH. Anything sprayed on the plant is going to be absorbed to some degree. Same concept as foliar feeding. Never used orange oil so just curious how much citric acid remains in the oil.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I was asking if the oil had an effect on the ph of the spray. Most things with citrus added have a pretty low PH. Anything sprayed on the plant is going to be absorbed to some degree. Same concept as foliar feeding. Never used orange oil so just curious how much citric acid remains in the oil.

Apparently it's not easy to find the pH of limonene. Here's an article that explains why: click here.

What I can do is test the pH of my solution... will post that soon. I'll check: a) rainwater, b) rainwater + soap, c) rainwater + soap + limonene.

It looks like orange oil is about 90% limonene, and contains no citric acid. I am using pure limonene.

 

[SmokingWings]

Again, I'm talking about a contact insecticide, not a repellent.

I was replying to Sativa1970 who was mentioning Peppermint oils repelling insects. Sorry about the confusion.