Garlic and Lemon experiment for pest control...

[HigherDrifter]

Hey all...

I'm currently doing this experiment thing with Garlic and Lemon.

I took about 5 or 6 bunches (like what you get in those netted bags at the store) of Garlic cloves, skinned them, puree'd them in a blender with a decent amount of water. Wound up with a decanter (almost full like about 5 cups) of a very liquidy Garlic puree. Poured in into a bowl and set it aside.

Then tore up a gob of Lemon peels (thick skinned variety), and along with only one whole in-tact (but cut up & w/out seeds) Lemon, stuck it in the blender with a decent amount of water. Puree'd the heck out of that in the blender and wound up with 5 cups of very liquidy Lemon puree.

Then combined the Garlic puree and Lemon puree in a slow cooker, added more water to fill up the crock pot, and just cooked for a day on the low setting, stirring occasionally.

Just about a hour ago, I poured that blended/cooked Garlic/Lemon puree into my homemade distiller (that I use to distill water) and now I've got one of those old-style, 1-gallon glass apple juice jugs filling up with clear Garlic/Lemon water. I just nose-tongue tested it and...wow. Odds are I'm gonna have to dilute it before I use it - it's pretty concentrated bitter and pungent stuff.

Garlic is quite notable for repelling a large list of insects and has been known to kill some insect larvae, such as Buttlerfly/Moth catterpillars. I know dried citrus peel (Lemon, Lime, and Orange) is a great alternative to Moth balls in the closet.

I just need to do some more experimenting with it to come up with a good mix ratio that will work on my plants, not just my Cannabis plants, but for my other plants (fruit and veggie, fruit trees, etc.,) I've got in the backyard.

If anyone else is doing, or has done, any cool experiments similar to what I'm doing - wouldn't mind your input.


Later.

 

[PrairiePoet]

I used a tobacco/garlic/oil/soap tea I made to fight Thrips. Kept them down long enough till I could harvest (careful not to spray buds). But it didn't get rid of them.

Now days I spray SNS217 and SNS244 in veg every other week when I change out the res. I only veg three to four weeks.

 

[JJ Bones]

Nice, keep us updated on the experiment. Who knows you may find a concoction that works and soon become a 420mag sponsor

I'm similar to Prarie, I spray weekly with either Aza-Max or SNS-217 depending on what I happen to have. Also I highly recommend spraying with an organic tea, microbe brew, etc as it will help to prevent future pathogen issues.

 

[HigherDrifter]

Update on the experiment:


I've got about 3~4 hours left for the distiller fills up that gallon jug.

Usually takes my distiller 12~13 hours to distill a gallon of water.

My distiller is rather simple and crude; a 7 quart stock pot with a slightly modified lid with a simple condenser sitting on top of that:

It sits in the garage, on a stove w/low heat distilling water much of the time.

I'm not sure what to make of things now. The solids that were in the water are clinging to the inside of the pot and they're baking. The vapors from the baking are mixing with the steam from the Garlic/Lemon mix and it changing the smell of the solution in the jug. I not sure what I'm going to wind up with now. Baked Garlic and Lemon Surprise LOL.

Oh well.

I'm gonna keep going with this though...just for curiosity's sake.

Later.

 

[Droopy Dog]

Garlic does indeed work quite well.

I did a spring flowering of clones rooted over the winter and hid them among the 17-5 gallon buckets of garlic that I was growing. The garlic had overwintered from the previous October and were growing like crazy.

Zero bugs of any sort, on the garlic or the clones and I mean zero, even with 9 weeks of flower.

I was feeling all proud and crowing about my *discovery* when another grower posted pics of something so simple and elegant, it made my jaw drop.

His solution? He simply planted a garlic clove in the pot along with the plant at the final transplant.

Besides constant pest repellent, there are other benefits. Garlic chives is one, but the main thing is, Allium's (garlic, onions, shallots, leeks ...) are Mycorrhizae magnets and will load the soil up with them. Great for grow yer own mycorrhizae.

Of course you don't end up with any garlic, since it takes 8 months and a winter dormancy to mature, but all that pest protection for the cost of 1 or 2 cloves per plant?

DD

 

[HigherDrifter]

Hmmm...

I finished distilling the Garlic/Lemon mixture.

The water...has a really concentrated stench to it - of degraded (burnt?) Garlic with a hint of Lemon. Not what I was aiming for.

Tried it out on a few things: sprayed the heck out of a Peach tree infested wit Fig Beetles, drenched a Hibiscus with a White Fly/Wooly Aphid problem. Sprayed it on some Ants climbing all over my flowering Spearmint. In every case, nothing happened - Fig Beetles are still munching on my Peaches, the White Flies and Wooly Aphids are still on the Hibiscus, the Ants are still crawling all over the Spearmint.

Through the rest of the distillate down the sink.

Could be this stuff I made just isn't potent enough...?

Dunno.

Ah well.

Was just an experiment. I didn't have my hopes very high and my curiosity is satisfied. I'm not disappointed.

The planting of Garlic is sounding more and more appealing.

Thanks for the tip Droopy Dog