How To Use Neem Oil Without Getting Your Plants Oily

8ml of Neem oil + 1 litre of warm water

you can see that the oil and water are completely separated..








8ml of Neem oil + 5ml of liquid soap in 1 litre of water.

NOTE - you may have to add more or less soap, depending on the strength of your soap. When you can see soap bubbles youve got it right.



Shake this in your sprayer, it should make a milky-white liquid, with no oil floating on top. Leave it to settle for a few seconds. If there are any oil droplets floating on the top, add a little more soap, drop by drop, (keep shaking) until the oil is gone. Dont be surprised if you have to add more soap than I did. Now you are ready to spray.

Spray everywhere, especially under the leaves where critters hang around. Get those plants dripping wet. Keep shaking while you spray.

IMPORTANT - you must repeat this application every 3 days for at least 2 weeks (3 weeks if you want to be 110% sure)

This is important because Neem oil doesnt directly kill bugs (amongst other things it stops them from reproducing, feeding and molting their skins). So in effect, it breaks their life cycle.

This means you need to spray for at least the length of one life cycle, which for spider mites in ideal conditions (like most growrooms) is around 2 weeks, sometimes a little longer.

I use this method for the first 2 weeks of 12/12. It was taught to me by a professional grower of 20 years experience. He also uses this recipe as a soil drench (Neem is systemic and therefore there is no need to spray if soil drenching)

I have used it as a foliar spray for about a year now and have had no problems with mites or any other vermin, large or small. Skeptical friends have also been won over to this system.

Emergencies

If you are facing an infestation emergency, you can add Pyrethrum to the above mix. I challenge any nuclear-proof insect in the world to survive the twin pain of Neem and Pyrethrum.

Notes on Ingredients:

Cold-pressed Neem oil has much higher levels of active ingredients and is well worth the money. A good place to find this stuff is from a Pharmacy that stocks herbal remedies. (It is used as a treatment for head lice.)

If your Neem oil appears solid and/or cloudy it is most likely too cold. Run the bottle under warm water for a few minutes until the Neem oil is easier to work with. Shake it well.

Liquid Soap - plain unperformed, boring liquid soap. Personally I don't let that stuff anywhere near my plants, but many do, and if you're one of them you may find you need less than if using liquid soap. Experiment a little when you shake the mixture. Plain liquid soap is much more gentle than washing-up detergent.

Pyrethrum is extracted from Chrysanthemum flowers. It is a highly effective and 100% natural insecticide. It is also one of the safest, bearing little threat to mammals. Pyrethrum degrades quickly once sprayed.

Editors note: Liquid soap is similar to Safers soap (a fat based liquid soap mixture). Safers suffocates and dessicates (dries out) insects. Works good, but can also clog leaf stomata, so a follow-up spray of water is required.

Does this change for seedlings?

I noticed what looks little white bugs crawling about the soil. Thinking spider mites since I noticed a small web as well. Anyway, is this recipe good for pre-veg states?...about 3 weeks in

after the first two weeks of flowering can you stop using neem?

How about 4 weeks in to flowering? is it best to deal with the problem than try to fix it this late into flowering?

thanks allot il give this method a try .. so far im using just pure neem oil

I just bought some Neem Oil at the a hydro store and the guy told me that the soap/neem oil/water mixture is only good for the first four hours since it was mixed. Is this true? Do I need to redo the mixture each time I spray my plants?

yes,only mix what you will use that day. You can also use a home brewed tea of crushed garlic,cinnamon,& groud cloves.It's not a kill all but is a great deterrent.

what kind of liquid soap?

Good shit man

good write up man +rep not a fan of neem oil personally. shit smells like ass, and i dont like to work with it.

I've been using neem oil exactly how you do and it works great!

how about neem oil versus Azamax? or pyrenthum?? i have a bug problem. bugs are unidentified, for real!! been going back and forth for a few days now. its not Spider Mites, Mites or Fungus Gnats. but they look like Fungus Gnats. they are not!! there is not bugs in my soil. i have some Mighty Wash. i do not think it will work. i wanted to pick up one of the following 3: pyrenthum, neem oil or Azamax. i have been hearing really good shit bout the Azamax. its a little spendy, but its well worth it at this point. i have major problems with these bugs. can someone please help me???

good post, neem oil is very effective as long term preventative, regardless of pest evidence. one thing you left out is that it is best done several hours before lights go off, and if you use a particularly heavy mixture of neem, (which i prefer to do once a week) , the ladies like to be rinsed off after 36 hours. also after neeming good air flow is important to promote the leaf shine properties

So this what I used before I saw this post. I put 3 tsp of neem oil and 1 tsp of dr broners castille hemp soap in a gallon of water. I cut the dose in half cause my plants are only 5 weeks and bit small The water was warm but I think castile soap was getting stuck to the side of the bottle. So shook up best I could and my friend suggested I used a paper towel and a funnel to filter out the heavy oil. I'm not sure if that's smart to do? I really would like to use straight neem oil. I just don't like the fact of spraying soap suds on my plants. I guess as long it's organic soap not a big deal but still just seems weird haha! Can you absolutely not use straight neem oil and water?

I think the idea is to use natural soap as a wetting agent,plus the fact that pure neem might be too strong

olaf687 said:

So this what I used before I saw this post. I put 3 tsp of neem oil and 1 tsp of dr broners castille hemp soap in a gallon of water. I cut the dose in half cause my plants are only 5 weeks and bit small The water was warm but I think castile soap was getting stuck to the side of the bottle. So shook up best I could and my friend suggested I used a paper towel and a funnel to filter out the heavy oil. I'm not sure if that's smart to do? I really would like to use straight neem oil. I just don't like the fact of spraying soap suds on my plants. I guess as long it's organic soap not a big deal but still just seems weird haha! Can you absolutely not use straight neem oil and water?

Click to expand...

The soap is used to get the neem to mix with the water and acts as a surfactant. If you don't use it the neem will not mix very well since it's an oil.

I use a tablespoon to a gallon of water with about a teaspoon of soap. The same proportions you're using. I just use liquid dish soap. I'm only spraying it on the leaves in veg and I won't be smoking those. I've been doing it that way for years.

xtsho said:

The soap is used to get the neem to mix with the water and acts as a surfactant. If you don't use it the neem will not mix very well since it's an oil.

I use a tablespoon to a gallon of water with about a teaspoon of soap. The same proportions you're using. I just use liquid dish soap. I'm only spraying it on the leaves in veg and I won't be smoking those. I've been doing it that way for years.

Click to expand...

Sounds good man, if it works I won't question it. I overthink a lot of stuff haha.