AKgramma
Well-Known Member
I have read somewhere that one can pre-treat the soil with neem to keep down the bug infestations. Anyone doing this? What is the formula?
Pre-treating soil with neem?
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TheFertilizer
Well-Known Member
Do you mean coots mix where he amends neem cake send karanja in? I believe he uses something like 1 cup of neem cake per cubic foot of soil. Takes about 4 weeks of being moist for it to break down.
Or do you mean with neem oil? You can drench your soil with it, but I haven't heard of anyone doing it before they planted in it unless they were trying to fungus gnats. I'm just not sure how well it sticks around in soil, so I just always wait until the plants are a little mature to give a neem drench. Neem oil can be pretty harsh so I'm not sure if it would burn seedlings or not.
Neem oil soil drench is pretty basic either way.
You'll want 2 tsp/G of rate of neem oil but don't just dump it straight into water.
Take your 2 tsp of neem oil and mix into that 1 tsp of mild dish soap. Stir it up until it is milky white and creamy looking. Then mix that into your water.
The soap is super important because the neem oil will just stay in solid clumps in the water, and attach to your roots and make tiny hydrophobic spots.
Or do you mean with neem oil? You can drench your soil with it, but I haven't heard of anyone doing it before they planted in it unless they were trying to fungus gnats. I'm just not sure how well it sticks around in soil, so I just always wait until the plants are a little mature to give a neem drench. Neem oil can be pretty harsh so I'm not sure if it would burn seedlings or not.
Neem oil soil drench is pretty basic either way.
You'll want 2 tsp/G of rate of neem oil but don't just dump it straight into water.
Take your 2 tsp of neem oil and mix into that 1 tsp of mild dish soap. Stir it up until it is milky white and creamy looking. Then mix that into your water.
The soap is super important because the neem oil will just stay in solid clumps in the water, and attach to your roots and make tiny hydrophobic spots.
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AKgramma
Well-Known Member
I already have neem oil, so the recipe of neem+soap+water will work for me. I just needed to find the recipe. TY!
After reading some positive stuff on Neem and how it can be useful to deter some pests. I included approx 1/2 cup of Neem meal granules per cubic foot of soil as part of my super soil amendments. It seemed to work well, my left over unused part of the mixture includes worm castings and after sitting for about 8 months there are still worms living in it so they have no worries about the Neem. Good luck.
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