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[nobody]

Organic pest control
This is a foliar pest control recipe I have used for years and it has almost never failed. (almost = ants and slugs)

8 hot chili peppers
1 clove garlic
1 hand full lemon grass

Chop or blend the garlic and lemon grass, add to 1 gallon (3.8L) container. Crack the peppers and add to container, do not chop the peppers. Fill container with water and add a air stone, let sit for 24 hours. This solution should be mixed with 3 parts water.

This can be used as is but I have always used it in conjunction with my weekly foliar feeding regiment.
I mix the above with a diluted worm casting / guano tea with some neem oil and insecticidal soap. This provides a quick knock down of existing insects and larva control (neem).

Some notes:
If lemon grass is not available look around your yard for plants insects seem to avoid and use a few leaves from that plant, DO NOT use anything poisonous to humans i.e. potato greens. This might take a few tries to find something in your area that will work.

Please remember to spot test this, some species of plants will not react well to this spray i.e. tomato.

The addition of insecticidal soap is used only when I spot thrips or aphids, aphids are not so common when using neem regularly as it kills the eggs.

[Mandrake]

Thanks for this, I haven't used lemon grass so far and now I'll definitely give it a try. A couple questions:

- Ever had success with it against spider mites? Say, better results than with plain diluted potassium soap.
- Do you think there is any safety margin after applying this mix before harvesting leaves/flowers for consumption?

[nobody]

The spray works against spider mites as long as the nutrient tea is not added, but the thing that worked best for me was insecticidal soap mixed with neem oil. The soap suffocates the adult mites and the neem kills the eggs by permeating the thin membrane that separates them from the outside world. I had a very bad spider mite infestation in a room a few years ago, I sprayed every day for 7 days, then every other day for 7 days, then every 3 days for the rest of the month. After that I never saw another spider mite in my room. It was my fault though for buying a used light and not cleaning it properly.

Regarding consumption of leaves fruits, do not spray for the last week before harvest. For continual harvesting plants just take care to not spray the sections you will be harvesting in the next week. I harvest jalapeno and habanero peppers once a week and never had a problem with any leftover residue, just wash thoroughly as usual.

The reason I use lemon grass is we have no insects here that will eat it, not even ants. That and the locals have been using it forever:)

[Cannettuce]

Will thai chili peppers work?

[nobody]

Yes, Thai chilis will work.

[Cannettuce]

Where do you get ur neem oil from? And os it from a plant? I've never used it before, so I'm just curious

[nobody]

Almost any garden supply shop will have it. It is made from the seeds of the neem tree.

[Cannettuce]

Im about to grow ghost peppers, will those work, or just kill the plant?

[Caium]

It's not that good to keep all insects away from the plants, they need polinizers and symbiotic fungi/bacteria disseminators. Consider the possibility of using the spray only when necessary, for some target damaging insects.

[Cannettuce]

Of course, so use it for spot control, then area coverage before flowers?