3 Homemade Sprays to Ward Off Garden Problems

In an ideal world, our gardens and plants would be happy, and healthy and need little in the way of pest and disease control. But, we all know that is not how it works. 

To keep chemicals and poisons at bay, there are lots of homemade products that you can concoct that can help kill weeds, deter pests, and ward off fungal diseases using simple and safe ingredients that you will likely already have in your pantry.

Though companion planting can go a long way in helping to manage such garden dilemmas, sometimes, you just need a little bit of extra help. 

Basic Rules

• Each of the recipes below can be poured into spray bottles to have on hand when your next gardening challenge arises.
• Be sure to ALWAYS LABLE bottles with exactly what is inside and when you made it.
• Apply the sprays on and around your plants as needed. You might have to reapply after heavy rain.
• Though the sprays are all non-toxic, be sure to wash your edible plants before eating them. You might not want everything to taste like garlic and hot pepper.

1. Pest Repellant Spray

Source: Creative Explained/YouTube

Garlic Spray- As well as warding off vampires and friends if you breathe on them too much after eating garlic, insects and other garden pests are rather repelled by garlic, too. It’s the sulfur compounds in the garlic that do the trick.

All you have to do is blend or crush up a few cloves of garlic and put them into a jar of water. Leave the garlic to infuse into the water at least overnight. Once you have a nicely pungent liquid, strain the garlic bits out and pour the water into a spray bottle.

Now, spray the plants that you suspect might attract aphids or other pesky bugs.

Pepper Spray- Simply, the compound capsaicin, present in hot peppers, works as a repellant.

Hot pepper spray makes the leaves and fruits unappealing to many animals, just as it might humans. For many pests, just the smell of the pepper is a deterrent.

You have to be careful, though. A pungent hot pepper spray can be quite unpleasant to work with. Spraying on a breezy day could result in your getting covered in the stuff. Not nice. Wear gloves and goggles is needed.

You can use any hot peppers—jalapeños, cayenne, or habanero. You just need to chop or blend them up and put them into the water, just as you did with the garlic. Using hot water can help the capsaicin leach into the water better.

Leave the mixture to brew overnight, or longer if you can. Strain it out and pour the liquid into a spray bottle. Spray it on the leaves and fruits of your plants as needed.

2. Fungicide Spray

Source: Project Diaries/YouTube

Baking Soda and Oil Spray- Powdery mildew is a common disease found on cucumbers, roses, and squash plants to name a few. While baking soda is the magic ingredient in this mixture, the oil helps to make it stick to the leaves infected with fungus or mildew.

The ratio to use will depend on how severe the infection is, but you could start with 2-3 tablespoons of baking soda to one tablespoon of cooking oil. Add this to a gallon of water. If you have an eco-friendly dish soap, you can add a tablespoon of it, too, to help the oil mix into the water.

Next, spray plants that are susceptible to getting powdery mildew. This acts as a deterrent as well as a cure.

3. Weed Killer Spray

Source: Daisy Creek Farms with Jag Singh/YouTube

Before you start zapping those weeds, you should check and see if they might be useful to you in other ways. Many ‘weeds’ are incredibly nutritious and delicious, make great green manure, or are a natural medicine.

However, if you don’t want them around, and you are tired of pulling them by hand, here is a completely safe solution.

Vinegar Spray- Vinegar will kill off weeds in a heartbeat. The problem is, it will kill off all plants in a heartbeat, too. Make sure to spray your vinegar solution directly on the plant you want to get rid of, rather than blanket spraying.

You can let the vinegar down with water if you don’t have a heavy-duty problem, but neat vinegar will work best. Just pour it into a spray bottle and direct it on all your pesky weeds.

Related Content:

• 10 Double-Duty Plants, from Weeds to Trees, to Help with Erosion Control
• Wild Edible Weeds: Mullein
• 10 Amazingly Healthy Plants That Grow Like Weeds
• Tips for Getting Rid of Weeds Without Petro-Chemical Killers
• What Weeds Are Telling Us and Why We Need to Listen

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