Homemade Garden Insecticides

Source: -Mike McGroarty

(more personal stuff about Mike and Pam)http://www.freeplants.com/stuff.htm

After a long, cold winter, no one gets more excited about Spring than a gardener. No one, that is, except the insects that are waiting to dine on our gardens.

How do you prevent your garden from being a 24-hour diner for every insect that passes through the neighborhood? There are any number of chemical products on the market that will killinsects, but many gardeners are hesitant to use strong chemicals on their plants.There are very effective organic insecticides and repellents available these days, and in a pinch you can make your own natural insect repellant. Most insects prefer a bland diet, so by making your garden spicy you can encourage insects to dine elsewhere.

A hot pepper or garlic spray works great as a repellant and can actually prevent insects - and even hungry rabbits - from nibbling on your plants.

To make hot pepper spray, toss a couple of hot peppers, such as cayennes or habaneros, in a blender with about a cup of water. Puree the mixture, strain out any solids, then add enough water to make a gallon of concentrated hot pepper juice.

To use the hot pepper spray, mix a quarter cup of the concentrate with a gallon of water and a tablespoon or two of liquid soap. The soap will help the spray stick to the plants.

To make a garlic spray, roughly chop one or two garlic bulbs, place them in a quart jar and pour boiling water over the garlic, enough to fill the jar. Close the jar and let it sit overnight. Strain out the chunks of garlic and add the garlic water to your sprayer along with a few drops of liquid soap. Leftover garlicwater can be kept frozen for later use.

A good place to buy liquid soap for this purpose would be a healthfood store. Do not use a detergent or a heavily scented soap as these can be harmful to plants.

Once you've made your insect repellant concoction, test it on a few leaves first before spraying your plants. The hot pepper and garlic smell will be strong when first applied but will fade, and your flowers and vegetables won't take on their odor or taste. The spray should be reapplied every week or two, or after a rainfall.

Seven Easy Ways to Make Produce Last Longer

Great info from: http://rawfoodrightnow.blogspot.com/index.html

1. Rotate it. This is especially helpful for mangoes, which can easily bruise way before their prime if left on one side for too long. Learn to rotate your fruit on a regular basis.
   
2. Store it the right way. Learn the best ways to store each fruit and veggie. For example, fruit can generally either go in the fridge or outside to ripen quicker. Greens should never be set out. Raw nuts and seeds need to be cooled or frozen, or else they will go bad!
   
3. Buy ripe and unripe. If you buy ripe and unripe produce at the store, you can eat now while letting your unripe produce blossom to perfection later. Also, you'll want to learn how long it takes something to ripen. Everything ripens at different rates. We usually buy avocados that need one or two days of ripening on the kitchen counter.
   
4. Buy only what you need. We, as Americans, are not used to the "going to the market" concept. In much of Europe, people go to the market many times per week and buy only what they are going to use. As Americans (and others) start eating more and more boxed food, we lose touch with our foods' natural cycles. We go to one grocery store and buy produce that lasts one or two days, and then make one or two trips to our local food co-ops.
   
5. Take bagged fruit out when you get home. It's tempting to buy a big bag of bulk apples, only to open them up a week later and find four or five bad ones. There's always a bad one or two in a bag that can ruin your whole set. Also, it's a good idea to get your fruit out and "breathing" as quickly as possible. That is why many raw foodists have a fruit basket on their dining room table. It's not just for decoration, it helps the fruit ripen!
   
6. Install rolling racks in your fridge. Produce can quickly hide in a raw foodists' fridge. The nature of eating this way brings a constant "fridge full of food", where greens can get smashed in the back or cucumbers can go unnoticed for too long. Rolling racks will help you pull out your racks to see what's in the back. Boy, do we need some of these.
   
7. Don't place ripe produce next to unripe produce. Unless, of course, you want it to ripen much quicker!
8. If all else fails, go ahead and declare Fridge Bankruptcy, you can always start over again.It pays (in time and money) to keep on top of your produce.Following these seven simple tips will get you started on your journey to living in harmony with your foods' natural cycle of life and death.Not only will you save your trash can or compost pile from constant waste, but you will eat your produce at its nutritional peak.That's the whole goal of this raw food lifestyle anyway, isn't it?

Good Info from Mike McGroarty:

SLUGS.....YUCK!!!Who is chewing all those ragged holes in the leaves of your beautiful plants? It could very well be slugs or snails.

Garden slugs like to hide in dark, moist places during theday, and at night they crawl out of their hidey holes to munchon your plants or ripening vegetables. The evidence thesenight stalkers leave behind will tell you slugs are the culprits. They leave plants pockmarked with irregularly shaped holes and a silvery slime trail to show where they've been. Slugs will eat holes in ripening tomatoes and crawl right inside the fruit, giving you a nasty surprise when the tomato is harvested.

Slugs get a bad reputation but they do have some redeeming qualities. They are actually beneficial creatures who recycle organic matter and help build soil. Think of slugs as tiny composters. Garden snails perform the same service; they're just slugs who carry their home around with them. Slugs and snails are also a food source for other wildlife such as birds, snakes, toads, small mammals and even fireflies. But when slugs cause damage to our plants or ripening vegetables, it's time for them to go.

There are a variety of productsavailable that claim to eliminate slugs, but you don't need to spend a lot of money to rid your garden of slugs. Slugs thrive in moist, shady conditions. They like to hide under debris, under plants that offer the deep shade they love, and under logs or rock piles.

To help prevent slug damage, water your garden in the morning so the plants are dry by evening when slugs are active. You can use their attraction to shade to trap slugs. Set outboards, shingles or damp newspaper in the garden overnight. The slugs will see this as a new place to hide. In the morning lift the boards or newspaper, collect the slugs that have gathered beneath it and drop them into a container of soapy water. Do this for several nights and the slug population will be significantly reduced.

Another simple way to eliminate slugs is to use ordinary household ammonia. Add 2 ½ cups of ammonia to a gallon jug, then fill the jug with water. Spray this solution at dusk when the slugs are active. Be especially careful to spray under the leaves and on the ground beneath the plants where slugs hang out. If you're using boards or wet newspapers to catch slugs you can also spray this solution on the slugs that have gathered overnight. The spray will kill slugs on contact, and since ammonia is a source of nitrogen, the spray will also give your plants a little boost.When spraying the ammonia solution, be careful to not get it inyour eyes.

(more personal stuff about Mike and Pam)http://www.freeplants.com/stuff.htm

Coffee and Gardening

Source: http://www.sustainableenterprises.com/Business/coffeefert.htm
Every day across America, Asia and Europe, millions of pots of coffee and tea are brewed, and the millions of pounds of wet grounds, filters and bags thrown in the trash. This is both wasteful and foolish.
Coffee by-products can be used in the garden and farm as follows:
Sprinkle used grounds around plants before rain or watering, for a slow-release nitrogen.
Add to compost piles to increase nitrogen balance. Coffee filters and tea bags break down rapidly during composting.
Dilute with water for a gentle, fast-acting liquid fertilizer. Use about a half-pound can of wet grounds in a five-gallon bucket of water; let sit outdoors to achieve ambient temperature.
Mix into soil for houseplants or new vegetable beds.
Encircle the base of the plant with a coffee and eggshell barrier to repel pests.
If you are into vermi-posting, feed a little bit to your worms

More Passion Flower Info

Source: http://www.rain-tree.com/maracuja.htm

TRIBAL AND HERBAL MEDICINE USES
Passion fruit is enjoyed by all rainforest inhabitants -humans and animals alike. Several species of Passiflora have been domesticated for the production of their edible fruit. The yellow, gelatinous pulp inside the fruit is eaten out of hand, as well as mixed with water and sugar to make drinks, sherbet, jams and jellies, and even salad dressings. Indigenous tribes throughout the Amazon have long used passionflower leaves for its sedative and pain-relieving properties; the fruit is used as a heart tonic and to calm coughs.
Passionflower was first "discovered" in Peru by a Spanish doctor named Monardes in 1569 who documented the indigenous uses and took it back to the Old World where it quickly became a favorite calming and sedative herb tea. Spanish conquerors of Mexico and South America also learned its use from the Aztec Indians and it eventually became widely cultivated in Europe. Since its introduction into European herbal medicine systems, passionflower has been widely used as a sedative, antispasmodic and nerve tonic. The leaf infusion was introduced in North American medicine in the mid 1800's as a sedative through native and slave use in the South. It was also used for headaches, bruises and general pain; applying the bruised leaves topically to the affected area. In many countries in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, the use of passionflower leaves to tranquilize and settle edgy nerves has been documented for over 200 years. It was also employed for colic, diarrhea, dysentery, menstrual difficulties, insomnia, neuralgia, eye disorders, epilepsy and convulsions, and muscle spasms and pain.

BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES AND CLINICAL RESEARCH
Passionflower (as well as its harmane alkaloids) have been the subject of much scientific research. After almost 100 years of study the sedative, antispasmodic and analgesic effects of this tropical vine have been firmly established in science. The analgesic effects of passionflower were first clinically documented in 1897 while the sedative effects were first recorded in 1904. Antispasmodic, anti-anxiety and hypotensive actions of passionflower leaves were clinically validated in the early 1980's. An extract of the fruit demonstrated anti-inflammatory and tranquilizing effects in animal studies. Also, a leaf extract has also shown to have diuretic activity in rats.
Passionflower has traditionally been used as an aphrodisiac and recent clinical studies with mice have verified this use as well. In a 2003 study, a leaf extract was reported to improve overall sexual function, increase sperm count, fertilization potential and litter size. Its traditional use for coughs has also been recently confirmed. In a 2002 study with mice a passionflower leaf extract was shown to be comparable to the cough suppressant action of codeine.

Passion flower, Maypop... Passiflora incarnata

The Maypop is a common native, roadside weed, found throughout many areas of the Southeastern United States, where it often grows in large masses in ditches and open fields. It derives this common name from the way it just seems to 'pop' out of the ground in May.The Passion flower, cultivated throughout most of the rest of the country, and sometimes grown as a house plant, was named by early missionaries in the early 1500s. They believed that several parts of the plant, including the petals, rays, and sepals, symbolized features of the crucifixion of Christ.Regardless of what you choose to call the Passiflora incarnata, These 3 inch diameter flowers are very unique and beautiful. They begin blooming in July and continue until frost. The vines can easily grow up to 15 feet in a season. Grow it on a fence or trellis, or simply allow it to scramble over your shrubs and trees.The fruit produced by this plant is an oval berry, a little larger than a chicken egg. Passion fruit is edible, but seedy. It can be used to make jelly, but its best usage may come from being a food source for several species of butterfly and their larvae.

Although Passion flowers are considered hardy in USDA zones 5-9, they should be planted in a protected location and mulched heavily if severe cold threatens. The top growth is killed back by frost, but 'pops' back to life in the Spring.Passion flowers are easy to grow. They need partial to full sun, and will adapt themselves to most well-drained soils. During the growing season, the soil should be kept evenly moist, to ensure good flowering and growth. Apply a balanced (10-5-20) fertilizer in the early spring, and then again six to eight weeks later. Maypops should be planted in early spring. They will benefit by the addition of compost to the planting hole.Passiflora incarnata may be propagated by softwood cuttings of fully mature wood in early summer. Cuttings will take 3 months or longer to root. It can also be grown from seed. The seeds must be soaked in warm water for 12 hours, before sowing indoors, in early spring. Germination may take up to a year, so be patient. It is probably best to keep the young plants indoors until the following Spring, and then plant them outdoors in their permanent homes.Passion flowers make excellent container grown plants in the home. Grow them in bright light, never full sun.

Source: http://www.thegardenhelper.com/passion.html

Softwood Cuttings

Geraniums, Fuschias, Dianthus, Chrysanthemums and many other softwood plants can be easily multiplied by taking softwood cuttings early in the spring. Not all species of plants can be propagated from cuttings, but for the plants that can be reproduced this way, you will be able to create a genetically identical clone.
The ideal time to take cuttings is when the plant has begun it's active growth cycle in early spring. The 'stock' plant should be healthy and well branched to ensure the health of the new clones.
Using a sharp clean knife, take a cutting 3 or 4 inches in length from the top growing tips or vigorous side shoots. The cut should be made at a slight angle, just below a node (The point on the stem where a leaf has developed). Trim off any flower buds and the lower leaves from the cutting, leaving a stem with 3-4 leaves at the tip. Dip the cut end into a rooting hormone such as Roottone® or Hormonex®, and insert the cutting deep enough into sterile moist sand, vermiculite or sphagnum moss that it will support itself. At least one node must be buried, but it is better if there are 2-3 nodes covered. (The nodes are where the new roots will emerge from.) Water the rooting medium well. Create a mini-greenhouse over the container with poly film over a wire frame (an old aquarium works very well for this) and place it in a bright, warm spot (NOT full sun). Keep the cuttings at a minimum temperature of 72 degrees, and you will be rewarded with several new plants in just a few weeks.
Keep in mind that when you are doing any type of plant propagation that you are doing "plant surgery", and that cleanliness is extremely important.Always use a clean, sharp knife and sterile potting medium for the best results!