Washing up liquid, what strength?

I now have some pesky critters on my runner beans and a few other plants, its time to strike back at them, washing up liquid is my only option today and i've read that some of you spray with this, but how many ml of liquid per litre of water? I'm gonna start with 5ml per litre as I dont want to harm my plants, but would be greatfull if someone knows a toxic does to the critters without burning my plants? many thanks.

Plant Potty.

 

I've always understood the dose to be a tablespoon ( 15ml ) of liquid soap to a quart ( 946ml ) of water, but you might want to start off with a slightly weaker solution, just to be on the safe side, and see how that works.

 

Thanks skinner , I've just given everything one 3rd of that strength, I've give them a couple of days to see any effect on all my plants then if they still persist I'll move to 10ml, 2rds, leave a couple of days then rinse and repeat, I'll increase strength on my flowers first tho, I would rather lose them than my veggies

Many thanks, Plant Potty.

 

You do realise that Washing up liquid contains some rather nasty chemicals I hope. If you need to spray then why not use a Horticultural soap based insecticide. This is made from naturally occurring plant soaps rather than the stuff used to make soap.

 

Ironic, 5 minutes ago I used washing up liquid on my nasturtium for the first time and then I see this thread!

Does it kill them? (blackfly) cos they didn't seem to fall off the plant..

 

With all due respect, I dont believe for one second my ingestion of any nasty chemicals from washing up liqiud on my plants at 0.5% in solution, is anything near my annual ingestion of washing up liquid left as residue on plates/glasses/knifes/folks and any thing else used in the kitchen as a fraction, we could do the math? in my first post I did say....

hence the thread:WINK1: Idont have a Horticultural soap based insecticide, I have a 50 pence spray bottle and fairy liquid at hand.

from what I can tell so far, no they dont drop off, my black fly outbreak came from my nasturtiums Ironicly enough:D I had about 60/70 plants around the garden, biggest clump was my front boarder.............



I took them all out on Friday, I spayed infected plants with a stronger solution before composting, it was prob near 1.0%, it did appear to kill black fly over 24 hrs, but they still did'nt drop off, I'll moved to 10ml on Tue and letyou know the effect:WINK1:

Plant Potty.

 

.

Cricky, guess what I washed the dinner dishes with tonight?

Just hope this is not my last posting on here!


.

 

Such an underrated plant when it's in full bloom, I like the yellow flowers with the red specs

 

Agreed, the photo below was about a month before they were at their best, but here's a yellow with red specs for you after early spring rain.....



the red almost bleeds colour into the yellow, like I said I've taken them all out but have saved a cupfull of seed for early ground cover next year

Plant Potty.

 

I've been saving seeds off of them, should come in handy.

Do any of yours trail? I have some which get thick long stems which go across flower beds and wrap round stuff...

 

They were three year old seed saved from plants left in a kitchen draw, they all trail and will get behind bricks/fence panels growing to about 3~4 feet in any direction lol I've got a cup full of seed saved from these, some are the red and yellow you liked, if you want some pm an addy and I'll send an envelope free for you.

Back to the washing up liquid strength question? due to rain and high winds last week it was pointless spraying most days, however 5mil per litre did clear black fly from my beans for about 3 days, Monday I moved to 10mil per litre, this seems to be keeping them in check on Beans/peas/pumpkins/Glads/toms, I've tested this strength on other insects, some are fine two days later, other types die in minutes!

Another thing I've noticed from the last two days in the garden that might be relivent (or not lmao) is the white cabbage butterfly, I've watched them lay eggs and track their way around the garden, they home in on cabbage by choice, but will stop and lay one or two eggs on peas n other stuff, but once you spray cabbage it appears they loose track of the plant they are looking for? they just fly past it again and again, maybe WUL is a two sided sword? some insects it will kill and others it will block whatever way they hunt my cabbage I'm thinking the must be tracking plants by smell/chemical smell and the WUL just clears their radar?

Anyway I'll stick at 10mil for the next week and post up the insect death count:yess:

Plant Potty.

 

You are probably on to something there... I've noticed they don't pester my broccoli since it was sprayed.

On a similar track, I had read that if you add half a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda to the solution the sodium penetrates the body of bugs and kills them, so I tried it and now I wish I hadn't... yes it kills off the pests but IT ALSO BURNS THE LEAVES. That's a mistake that I won't be repeating!

 

I watched the butterflys for about 20 hours, I started running around like a fool trying to buff them tho I did mannage to kill two with a direct shot from my spray bottle to knock them down, then a size ten boot to finish the job:WINK1:

the bicarb has just been posted again here, not sure about that on my plants without testing first, I've got a ton of blackfly sealed in the compost bin, I'll try it on them @ at 2.5mil Bicarb, 10mil of Fairy WUL to 1litre of water, then see what happens

Plant Potty.