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Take a 2 litre plastic bottle. Remove any labels or stickers on it.
Make markings at the base of the bottle. Mark a cross at the base to divide it into 4 equal flaps. Carefully cut it out with a saw blade or hot knife. You should get 4 equal flaps. Then make holes on each flap. Make holes near the bottle neck exactly in line with the bottom flap holes. This is important for equal opening of flaps for fruit picking.
Now take some nylon strings like these. Fix one end of the string to the flap hole by tying a knot and take out of the bottle mouth through this other hole. Do this for the remaining three flaps. Tie all four strings together. Check the movement of the flaps as you pull the string knot. Adjust accordingly if any issue.
Optionally you can paint and decorate the bottle as per your wish. Now take two pvc pipes. One is a 3/4th inch diameter pipe – the length depends on the height of the trees. Another pipe about 1 foot long and 1 inch diameter. The smaller diameter pipe must slide easily into the larger pipe. Now tie another large string to this junction and bring it out through both the pipes. Fix the pipe to the bottle opening with screws.
At the lower end of the pipe put a bottle cap with the string out through a hole in the cap. Tie a knot to prevent string slipping out.
Your fruit picker is ready to use. Just slide the bottom pipe outwards to open the flaps and pick fruits.
Take a 2 litre plastic bottle
Remove any labels or stickers on it.
Mark a circle with a diameter of about
3 to 5 inches depending on the fruit you wish to pick.
Mark a beak on the circle towards the bottom of the plastic bottle.
Cut this out carefully to create a hole of this shape.
Fix the bottle to a pole or a pvc pipe of your desired length. Your simple fruit picker model 1 is ready to pick fruits.
Air pruning means when root tips are exposed to air, the root tips are effectively “burned” off, causing the plant to constantly produce new and healthy branching roots. promoting more branching of roots. If roots are not exposed to air, they continue to grow around the container in a constricted pattern making them root bound. Hence air pruning promotes better growth of plant within a limited space.
To build an air pruning pot you need a larger plastic bottle like atleast a 5 litre can. Remove any labels or stickers. You also need a pvc pipe of about 1 inch diameter and 1 foot height. Mark a circle on the bottle cap and cut it out. This is to insert the pipe through it. Make multiple tiny holes on the pipe. Any number of holes, the more the better. Put a cap at the bottom of this pipe. Take another smaller plastic bottle. Mark and and cut out a funnel. Fix this funnel to the upper end of this pipe. Screw it tightly.
Now cut a small window of any shape on the bottle. Then make multiple holes to insert your cuttings over the bottle below the level of this open window. Insert the pipe into the bottle and cap it. Add potting mix into the container. Make sure it contains atleast 30 to 40 percent compost. Your air pruning pot is ready. Now you can insert some mint cuttings into these holes. You can water every alternate day through the top funnel. You should see nice and fast mint leaves growing in about 2 weeks using the principle of air pruning.
You can root your cuttings faster using this simple plant Cloner. Take any plastic bottle. Remove any labels and stickers. Punch multiple holes around the bottle, large enough to insert cuttings easily. Take some of your plant cuttings. Make sure you make a cut at an angle of about 45 degrees for faster rooting. Insert the cuttings into the holes. You can tape the cuttings to hold in place or tie a string around the bottle to hold the cuttings. Pour water into the bottle. Add a little bit of rooting hormone powder if you have. You can also add about half a tablet of Aspirin 350 mg dispersible tablet to induce faster rooting. If you want to further accelerate the rooting process, place air stones into the water and connect to an aquarium pump. Switch it on for few minutes for atleast twice daily. This oxygenation helps promote rooting faster. We have made similar advanced Cloners earlier using the principles of hydroponics. You can check HERE.
Simplest method of slow drip irrigation is using one bottle per container. Just make a tiny hole into the cap. Full the bottle and insert into the pot for vacation watering of already 7 days. Make sure you make a small hole at the top of the inverted bottle for drip to flow through.
Another alternative is to use these little bottle attachments with a drip control knob to adjust the number of drops per minute. Just fix it to the bottle and insert it and adjust the drip knob.
Model 1: this nozzle can is recommended for your expensive succulent plants for careful watering without wetting the leaves and thus avoid fungal rot. Take any plastic bottle. Make a hole in the cap and fix a pipe into this hole and glue it from the inner side.
Model 2: this is just a simple shower bottle. Make multiple tiny holes in the bottle cap. That’s it. This is especially useful to water your seeds and seedlings and avoid heavy pressure of your garden hose damaging the seeds or the little seedlings.
Model 1: take any plastic bottle and fix this type of simple hand pressure trigger nozzles to spray pesticides or foliar feeds on your indoor or outdoor plants.
Model 2: you can also attach an adjustable pressure nozzle or pump type of nozzle easily available online at amazon.
Cut out few rings like these from plastic bottles. Use these around seeds and seedlings to prevent Slugs and Snails crossing over and eating your little plants.
Cut the tops off the plastic bottles. Remove the caps and cover these over seeds. This creates a mini greenhouse effect with nice humidity to germinate seeds faster.
Cut the tops off the plastic bottles as done in the previous hack. This is an easy funnel to transfer either seeds into a container or potting mix or even watering, mixing pesticides and so on.
You need one large plastic bottle. Make the markings and cut it through. You get two pieces. The bottom one is the water reservoir and the upper part is the actual pot to grow plants or seeds. Optinally you can paint this for good looks. Now take a piece of cotton rope. Make two holes in the bottle cap and insert the cotton wick through it. The lower end of the wick should be placed in the water reservoir.
You have two cotton wicks now. Now fill with some potting mix to about half and bury one wick. Then add more potting mix and then bury the other wick. You can plant seeds or small plants into this. Whenever the soil gets dry it will suck the water through the string and keep the soil moist.
12. Plant Labels:
Just cut some strips off the plastic bottle and use them to label your seeds or plants.
Plastic bottles are excellent for storing your left-over seeds. Just pour the seeds in a bottle and close the cap. Make sure you place a small sachet of a silicon desiccant for any moisture absorption to prevent fungus.
Take a plastic plate or a small tray. Fix the bottle cork to the center of this tray. Bolting this is a good idea to make it sturdy. Also try to prevent any leaks by sealing with glue. Make holes like this near the bottle mouth. Fill the bottle and cork the tray to the bottle and invert this set up. You can hang this simple DIY water feeder for birds in your garden using some strings and attract beautiful birds to your garden.
Model 1: For growing Greens. Take a large bottle and cut out horizontally. You get a wider container for growing your greens. Fix a cap at the bottom with the help of some screws. Optionally Paint it or decorate it as per your wish. Make few drainage holes at the bottom. Fill it with potting mix and plant your seeds.
Model 2: Cut a bottle near its base like about 5 to 6 inches from the bottom. Optionally pain it or decorate it as per your wish. Make some drainage holes. Fill it with potting mix and grow seeds or some small plants.
]]>In Today’s post, let us look into 15 household items and their miraculous uses for plants and garden.
15. Soap: Bar soap apart from cleaning purpose, there are some really powerful uses in gardening. You can scrape your nails into a bar soap before handling a potting mix and stuff like that. The dirt won’t enter your nail beds and this hack allows you to clean your hands easily after the job.
Liquid soap or even shampoo is used as a simple pesticide if you do not have any pesticide. Just add 10 to 20 drops or 1 or 2 teaspoons of liquid soap to 1 litre of water and spray on the affected plant. This will clear pests like mealybugs, whiteflies and aphids which are the most common pests in garden. Dish washing liquid soap is actually more potent than handwash liquid soap.
14. Chalk Sticks: Chalk is chemically Calcium Carbonate. You can take white chalk sticks and bury them into the soil while planting your veggies. That’s in initial stages. This really works wonders for plants like Tomatoes, Peppers, squashes, egg plants and almost any vegetable plant. You can bury two chalk sticks per container for these vegetable plants safely if you soil PH is around 6.0. For other plants to provide slow release calcium source, you can bury one chalk stick per container.
13. Turmeric: Turmeric powder has many effective uses in garden like: It repels ants when sprinkled around the plants. You can get rid of soil pests particularly fungal root rot and fungus gnats in the soil by mixing turmeric in soil. You can mix about 1 tablespoon per gallon of soil while making potting mix or 1 tablespoon of turmeric in 1 gallon of water or 1 teaspoon per liter of water and thoroughly water your affected plant with this solution. Its also helpful in healing tree wounds and in grafting as it prevents fungal rot. Another common use of turmeric is in rose die-back disease.
12. Vinegar: You can use vinegar to clean your rusty garden tools and pots. To make your soil more acidic for acid loving plants like hydrangeas, rose, hibiscus and so on and increase flowering in these plants. To do this, Mix one table spoon of white vinegar to one litre of water and water you acid loving plants with this solution once every 15 days to reduce the soil PH. Vinegar is also a strong pesticide. Its almost 100% effective in clearing powdery mildew fungus. To make this spray add One cup of White Vinegar to 1 litre of water and shake well and spray it on the affected leaves. It is also effective against white files and mealy bugs. It is also an animal repellent. Just soak some pieces of cloth and stuff them at entrances or behind pots to deter animals that can spoil your garden.
11. Baking Soda: Apart from cleaning your dirty garden tools and stuff with baking soda, you can also use it for other purpose like sprinkle to drive away Foul Smell from your Compost Pile or compost bin. To kill cabbage worms – Sprinkle Baking soda + flour like wheat flour in 1:1 ratio on the cabbage or broccoli leaves. The worms munch on this and die within 1 or 2 days. Baking soda also encourages flower blooming. Make a solution of 1 teaspoon baking soda in 1 litre of water and spray on your plants with flower buds or unopened flowers.
10. Asafoetida or Hing: The most effective use of asafetida is to treat leaf curl disease in plants. Add 5 gms of asafetida powder to one liter of sour butter milk. Mix well, leave for an hour, then sieve the solution and load your spray bottle. Spray over your affected plant. Repeat this every 3 days for 3 – 4 times. Leaf curl disease which is common in pepper and tomato plants will be completely cured by this treatment. Asafoetida can also be used to repel animals in your garden. Just hang some pieces of it in your garden entrances. Animals hate the pungent odor of asafetida. It also repels other insects and termites.
9. Charcoal: Hard wood charcoal has lots of amazing uses in garden like filling your pot bottom with charcoal pieces reduces pot weight. It can be used for mulching and garden décor. Mixing charcoal in soil can act as a good fungicide and prevent root rot, especially for expensive succulent plants. It also increases soil PH, when your soil is too acidic. It also works as a soil conditioner making the soil well draining. It also hold the fertilizers added for a longer duration and make them act like slow release fertilizers. Sprinkled charcoal powder helps deter many insects like the voracious beetles which can create havoc in your garden or on your crops.
8. Alum: Alum or Potash Alum can help to boost flowering. It makes the soil acidic for acid loving plants like hydrangeas, rose, hibiscus and so on. Just 5 gms alum powder per litre of water and water your plants once in a month. Alum is also a good pesticide in higher concentrations, like 100 grams per litre of water and spray on the plants to kill many pests including cabbage worms, cutworms, slugs and snails, etc. It is well known for mostquito control as a larvicide when sprinkled over the stagnant waters.
7. Banana Peels: Banana peel is one of the highest organic sources of potassium. It helps strengthen the plant and increases flowering and fruiting. You can make banana peel tea or banana peel fertilizer powder if you intend to store it. To make banana peel tea, soak pieces of banana peels in water for about 3 to 5 days. Use this banana tea in 1:5 dilution to water your plants once in a month. To make banana peel fertilizer powder, sun dry pieces of banana peels for 2 to 3 days till they are crispy enough to make a powder. Add one tablespoon of this powder once in a month and see the effect.
6. Aloevera: Aloevera has numerous benefits not only to the human body, but also to plants, like: It helps in faster rooting. Just insert a cutting into a piece of aloe vera and plant into soil. Rooting is faster and success rate is higher. Diluted aloe vera gel sprayed or watered to your seeds helps in faster and healthier germination. High levels of certain compounds found in aloe vera confer immunity or resistance against many plant diseases. Aloevera can also be used as a potent pesticide if mixed with other agents like neem oil, especially for pests resistant against certain pesticides.
5. Onions Peels: contain many useful substances like sulphur, quercetin, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and so on. So, do not throw away the onion peels. The simplest use of these peels is to use them for mulching. If you have time you can make a fertilizer out of these onion peels. Just soak the peels in water for 1 to 2 days and water the solution to your plants once in a month to notice the benefits.
4. Tea and Coffee Waste: Do not throw this away. It can certainly boost flowering in your plants. It contains tannic acid which helps plants like Rose and hibiscus to increase flowering. You can wash the waste for any sugars and directly add to your plants or collect this and sun dry this powder and use it for your plants. You can also add this waste directly into your compost bin for making a rich compost.
3. Cinnamon: Cinnamon powder from your kitchen is well known for its wonderful uses in gardening. It can be used as a rooting agent to increase the chances for rooting cuttings. Just dip the cutting into cinnamon powder and plant it. It also deters ants when sprinkled around your plants. Its antifungal properties also fight fungal attacks to your seedlings. Just sprinkle fine cinnamon powder over your seedling and prevent dampening off.
2. Eggshells: Though eggshells are a great source of calcium, do not add crushed egg shells directly to your plants. It takes many years to decompose and release that calcium into the soil. You need to instantly release this calcium from eggshells by using Vinegar. Make eggshell powder first and then add a cup of vinegar to it. Stir it well and leave for an hour. The acetic acid breaks the eggshell compound and release free calcium into this solution. You can then dilute this solution to 1: 10 or 1:20 and then water your plants to treat or prevent acute calcium deficiency problems like tomato blossom end rot disease and other problems like bud or flower or fruit drop off and increase your flowering and fruiting. You can also add egg shells to compost bin for a calcium rich compost.
1. Aspirin: Aspirin is acetyl salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is a plant auxin and a rooting hormone which is proven to accelerate rooting and also it confers immunity against many plant diseases. You can use a dispersible 350 mg Aspirin tablet. Just a little of it will do the trick. A quarter or half a tablet is sufficient. You can read all detailed articles on these individual stuff by searching our website for that particular stuff.
]]>Well, This can be a very nice high school project for kids, to grow two similar plants, one in a transparent container and one in an opaque container and then compare these two. As you can see nothing happens to the plant grown in transparent containers. The actual concern is, root exposure to AIR and even the heat from sunlight that can cause drying and can damage your plant. But still you are advised to keep the roots in the dark. This is because of algae growth due to light and your roots are not getting enough oxygen because the algae is stealing the oxygen and nutrients for itself. So light as such does not hurt the roots, but air, heat and algae hurt the roots and kill the plant.
There are many studies and researches conducted on this topic. Basically, Plants lack a nervous system – that is a brain and other neurological structures like nerves and pain receptors, so they should not feel pain, unlike in humans and animals where we have specialised pain receptors.
But according to some researches, “Plant can know of themselves being eaten” because studies have shown that plants release defence chemicals in response to caterpillars munching on them.
Other points include: Plants fight for territory, seek out food, evade predators and interestingly trap prey like what your see in carnivorous plants like the venus fly trap. They are as alive like any animal, and – like animals – they exhibit behaviour.
This is False! Many people recommend you to provide support to these young slender plants due to the risk of wind blowing them and things like that. Unless it’s a strong wind, tying a sapling or young plant to a support stick or any kind of support will actually do more harm than good. Research has shown that trees without support, over a period of time will develop thicker trunks, more supportive roots and more resistance to breakages.
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There are many signs to know whether your plant can still survive. If your plant is looking dry and has shed its leaves, most of us think its dead. But actually, it may be alive or can be revived. Please watch my detailed episode on this topic demonstrating how to save a dying plant. I have linked that video in description below.
Yes! Some, but not all plants can be propagated from just a leaf or a section of a leaf. Leaf cuttings of most plants will not generate a new plant; they usually produce only a few roots or just decay. There are many ways you can grow leaves into a new plant, like 1. from a leaf petiole, 2. by dividing a leaf into multiple pieces for example fleshy succulent plants like sanseviera or the snake plant and other succulents. Other methods of propagation like cane or stub cuttings, root cuttings, leaf bud cuttings and so on.
Water proofing the terrace is not always necessarily, unless you plan to build raised bed terrace garden. If you grow in container, you only need to check whether the water draining out of the pots is easily flowing out of the terrace and not stagnant.
Now let us now install a grow light for our indoor plants. Grow lights are not expensive now a days. You get simple grow light bulbs for smaller plants, full spectrum grow light panels which even support flowering and fruiting. I have shown them all in my earlier episodes on indoor gardening.
Now, coming to this led grow light strip. This is a good option for certain areas in your home and add to the beauty of your home interiors. These led strips come in various lengths like in meters. Depending on the requirement you can order these grow light strips from amazon or any other reliable shopping website. These are waterproof strips and come with a sticker at the back surface. You can see this partition panel and I have created these two compartments for indoor plants. I have done wiring from inside for power supply. The most elegant way to install these led strips is to use these aluminum profile light channels which again come in various sizes. Here I am using 17mm channels. You need to cut a groove for this 17 mm channel.
Now let us first assemble these led light strips. You can measure the length of the strip needed and how many strips you require and make a cut at this point marked on the strip. This not rocket science. Its simple DIY thing. If you want to join two strips together, you can use these connectors of proper sizes to hook in the ends of the strips. Or you can just solder wires to the ends. Make sure you have a color coding for positive and negative terminal and not to reverse the polarity. It’s clearly marked on the strip.
Depending on the specifications of your strip, you need to provide proper power supply, like in this case its 5 volts power needed for this strip for which you can connect it to any mobile charger or a socket with USB charging facility which has 5 volts supply. You can solder or join the wires from any USB cable to this led strip. Then you can stick the strip to the aluminum channel and fix the channel to your plant compartment area. That’s it. You can power these on for 10 to 12 hours a day depending on the plant you are growing under it. Make sure the distance of plant is not too much from light source.
]]>We all know that Composting can return a significant portion of the nutrients we waste back to the Earth, where they can do so much good for plants, animals and also humans. Conventional methods of composting like Bokashi’s anerobic method or even the conventional method of aerobic composting can take a lot of time like atleast a couple of months, before we can use the finished compost for our plants. And these methods involve quite cumbersome procedures and techniques like turning the compost pile every other day and stuff like that. I have done a detailed tutorial on Composting A to Z like the Basics of Composting, various methods of composting, what are greens and browns, etc. You can check that post HERE.
In this article, we will demonstrate you an absolute fastest way to compost your food waste in less than 24 hours. Thanks to the latest technology by reencle which brings you this Kitchen-to-Garden-Fertilizer-Composter. Its an electric composting machine which can turn food scraps into garden fuel.
Let us unbox and test this fastest composting machine and check how fast it can compost food scraps within few hours. This handy gadget effectively composts up to 2 pounds of food waste every 24 hours and returns 90% of it back to nature!
Now, Let us quickly learn How this gadget works? Reencle’s technology emulates the animal or human digestive system, that’s pretty much similar to how the beneficial microbes in your gut help digest what you eat. The specific microbe that does the job is the Reencle-Microbe, They have just named it as Bacillus. Like in Human digestive system the process of digestion starts by breaking of larger chunks of food by the teeth, this work is done by Reencle mixing rods which chop larger food waste particles into smaller ones. In Human system, the Stomach churns the food, secretes Gastric juices and enzymes that help in digestion – that’s both mechanical and chemical action. In Reencle composter, this job is done by the Reencle Microbe Bacillus which breaks down and transforms food waste into compost. This Bacillus has great ability to decompose organic matter such as Carbohydrates, proteins and even fats.
Now, Lets quickly look at the this Elegant gadget. What’s in the Box?
When you order a Reencle, you get 1 x Reencle Prime Composter, 2 x Reencle Prime – Carbon Filters (1 x pre-installed, 1 x replacement filter), 1 x ReencleMicrobe Packet, 1 x Reencle Handy Shovel, 1 x Power cable, A user manual with 1-year warranty, and also a composting guide sheet.
Let me show you the parts of this composting gadget. This is the Small lid, The bid lid, the stirring or the mixing tank with rods and blades. These are the touch buttons. This is a foot motion sensor which automatically senses and open the door when you approach near the machine. This one is Purifier carbon filter behind, you get another spare filter with your order. These knobs on either side for lifting the composter. You can check complete details and order at Reencle website reencleus.com. You can find the link in the description below. This is not a very expensive gadget. It costs about 499 dollars with the new year sale going on.
Now let’s Start Composting using Reencle.
The first thing to do is to prepare or activate the composting microbes. This looks like saw dust powder initially with lot of useful stuff in it. You can also see paddy husk, activated charcoal pieces and lot of stuff. Just open the lid and pour the entire packet of this microbe powder into the machine and then add about 1.5 litres of clean water to it and close the lid. Turn the machine on and leave it for 24 hours. After few hours you can open the lid to check. If its looking too dry, then add or spray some more water. Water condensation on the underside of the lid is a good indicator of sufficient hydration of the compost mix.
After 24 hours, you are ready to start making your first compost. Simple concept here is – the new activated microbes are not strong enough to digest too much of load and all types of food waste in the initial 3-4 weeks. You start with lighter foods like Rice and bread first. Also its better to make smaller pieces of the food items for faster and smooth composting.
Now, After 12 hours, you don’t see any food waste, its all disappeared. Its really fast. It completely composted after 24 hours. So this way for initial few weeks you can add lighter foods.
After this period, you can add most of the food waste, except a few items which I shall mention shortly. Make sure you cut large-sized food waste into smaller pieces. Also rinse and put salty and seasoned food waste.
Acceptable food wastes which can compost faster include – Fruits, Vegetables, Cooked Meat and Fish, Grains, Noodles, Cookies, Bread, Cooked egg, etc.
Acceptable Food Wastes that can slowly decompose include – Pizza Crust, Watermelon peels, banana peels, Radish, Cabbage, Cucumber, Sweet potato and other Raw vegetables.
Unacceptable Waste includes – obviously plastics, Bones, Butter, Cream, Oils, Raw Meat, Roots, Uncut Fruit and Vegetables, Large seeds of Stone Fruits, Hard shells like walnuts, Egg shells. Eggshells will not decompose but will only be broken down into small pieces. Egg shells take a long time to decompose. You can check my detailed post on egg-shells and its uses in garden.
I am sure, you will have a lot of questions in your mind about Reencle composter. You can check their website and an online guide book that answers most of these questions.
If you want to take composting to the next level and generate a 24 hour supply of nutrient rich fertilizer for your home garden, this is a great gadget to invest and I would certainly recommend this product. You will be really happy to see the compost ready in 24 hours which can never happen in conventional methods of composting. I shall use this compost on my plants, experiment more on this and get back to you with an update later on.
Happy Gardening and A very happy new year!
]]>Aloe vera is sometimes known as “the plant of immortality” – because of its properties to heal, soothe, and refresh. This is because Aloe vera is rich in nutrients, enzymes, and antioxidants that offer numerous benefits to the human body. So, what if I told you that aloe vera can provide many of those same benefits to plants too? Yes! It’s true! Let’s list out the top 6 benefits of Aloe vera for plants and your garden.
6. Seed Germination: Aloe vera is not only a rooting agent, but also promotes healthy seed germination and strong seedlings. Watering your seeds and seedling once in a week will improve the overall growth and yield. Mix 1 teaspoon of aloe vera gel per litre of water or 1 table spoon per gallon. Spray this over the seedlings or water them once weekly.
5. Plant Immunity: Aloe vera gel is fully loaded with over 75 beneficial useful nutrients and enzymes like amino acids, antioxidants, calcium, magnesium, zinc, salicylic acid and so on. High levels of acemannan and saponin found in aloe vera both provide antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. This helps to protect plants and confers resistance or immunity against certain harmful microbes, fungi, yeast, mold, blight and so on. Just water the plant once in a while – like once in a month with aloe vera solution and see the difference. It not only gives resistance against diseases but also boosts overall growth and health of the plant. Add 1 table spoon of aloe vera gel per litre of water or a quarter cup per gallon of water, mix it well and water your plant. If you start this in early growth stage of a plant, it’s actually much beneficial in the long run.
4. Transplant Shock: Certain high levels of antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral compounds found in aloe vera help plant recover from transplant shock. A plant goes into Transplant shock when you repot it or transplant it from one place to another. The plant looks wilted and unhealthy after transplant. To help recover from this shock, you can water your plant with aloe vera solution at least once after repotting. Repeat after 3 – 4 days if necessary. Add 1 table spoon of aloe vera gel per litre of water or a quarter cup per gallon of water, mix it well and water your plant.
3. Fertilizer: You can either make a soil drench or a foliar spray. To make a soil drench, take some fresh aloe vera leaves and cut them into pieces and throw them into the blender and add some water. You don’t need to peel them. Add half a cup of this gel to one gallon of water or 2 table spoons per litre of water and water your plants with this solution once 15 days. Make sure you drench this within half an hour of making, because if exposed to air, fresh aloe vera quickly ferments and begins to degrade.
The second preparation is a foliar spray or foliar feeding your plants to help them absorb these beneficial nutrients directly through the leaf stomata. You need to make a fresh aloe vera solution like one table spoon per litre of water or quarter cup per gallon. You can sieve this to prevent your sprayer getting clogged. Mix it well before spraying. Spray more on the underside of the leaves because leaf stomata or openings are more concentrated on the underside. Spray this in the evenings to avoid quick evaporation in the presence of sunlight.
2. Natural Rooting Agent: The salicylic acid and other anti-bacterial and anti-fungal compounds help promote rooting faster. There are many methods to use aloe vera for rooting: Let’s look at them one by one:
a. Dipping the cuttings into fresh aloe vera gel and inserting into soil. I recommend you soak the cutting for few hours into aloe vera gel and then plant the cuttings into soil. This will not only promote faster root development but also the success rate of rooting cuttings is high because aloe vera fights fungal rot.
b. Second method is just inserting the cutting into a small piece of aloe vera leaf and plant the whole thing into the soil to achieve the same results.
c. A piece of aloe vera can be used for Air Layering to multiply your favourite plants with great success rate. Just wrap a piece of aloe vera leaf and wrap around soil or toilet paper and tie the ends.
1. Pesticide: Aloe vera alone may not act as a potent pesticide to fight all pests and diseases. You need to other natural agents to make it a powerful organic pesticide that fights common garden pests like aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies and so on. Let’s quickly learn how to make this organic pesticide using Aloe vera leaves plus 5 more ingredients from your kitchen.
– Take Fresh Aloe vera leaves and cut into small pieces and drop approx one bowl into your blender.
– Drop four to five green chilies.
– Add 1 large onion.
– Add 1 full garlic.
– Add one bowl of Neem leaves if you have.
– Add 2- 3 teaspoons of Turmeric powder or fresh turmeric rhizomes if you have.
– Add a cup of water and blend into a fine paste.
– Sieve this solution and collect the extract.
– Mix 100 ml of this to one litre of water or 300-400 ml of it per gallon and spray it on the affected plants. Repeat this after 4 to 5 days.
It might sound weird but, there are many incredible Uses of Charcoal in the Garden. If you want to develop a healthy garden, please watch this episode till the end.
There are many types of charcoal available to purchase. But the good news is charcoal is very inexpensive to buy, though online prices are a bit on higher side than offline purchase. You get Hardwood and Softwood charcoal. Hard wood charcoal is best for gardening. Will tell you why as we proceed further. You also get special charcoals like coconut shell charcoal, bamboo coal, horticultural charcoal, activated charcoal and so on. It doesn’t matter, you can just use hard wood charcoal for your garden.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Wood Charcoal https://amzn.to/3FsyoNh
Coconut Charcoal https://amzn.to/3KTRKw3
Let us discuss the benefits of charcoal in gardening.
10. FILLING YOUR POT BOTTOM: Charcoal is porous and light weight and filling your container with pieces of charcoal at the bottom of your container, instead of using heavy weight rocks and pebbles, reduces your pot weight and you can lift or move your pot easily. This is a great boon for terrace gardeners.
9. CHARCOAL MULCHING: You don’t always need straws and twigs for mulching your top soil. You can use spread small charcoal pieces and enjoy the benefits of mulching. Mulching creates a protective covering over the soil surface and prevents moisture evaporation from the soil. It also helps to prevent weed growth over the soil.
8. GARDEN DÉCOR: Using a layer of small pieces of charcoal as mulch, especially around light-colored plants is a nice and unique way to create a different look in your garden!
7. AS AN ANTI-FUNGAL: Mixing charcoal to soil is an effective strategy to treat or prevent fungal infections in plants, especially succulents and adeniums which are more prone to fungal rot. Just include 10% of small pieces of charcoal in your potting mix to keep harmful fungi at bay.
6. INSECT KILLER: Sprinkle powdered charcoal over your plants. This helps deter many insects like the voracious beetles which can create havoc in your garden or on your crops.
5. PESTICIDE RESIDUE REMOVAL: The absorption qualities of charcoal powder, especially activated charcoal, helps in neutralizing the harmful effect of pesticides. Mix 500 grams of charcoal powder to 1 gallon of water (1 gallon is 3.78 litres). Spray or sprinkle this over the pesticide treated plants. This is very useful in edible gardening.
4. REDUCE FERTILIZER FREQUENCY: Charcoal will also absorb any fertilizer you put into the garden and will hold it over a long period of time, providing the plants a slow, steady supply. Here, you need to know one thing – Hard wood holds more nutrients than soft wood.
3. INCREASE SOIL PH: If your soil is highly acidic like PH of 5 or below, you need to increase the soil ph to desired level. A soil ph of 6.0 +/-0.5 is considered ideal for most plants. The potassium content in charcoal and also wood ash raises the pH balance of the soil and neutralizes the acid. Just don’t add too much ash, because if you increase the soil ph too much – like over 7, the plants may not do well, because most of the nutrient absorption in soil happens at a PH of around 6.0. So, How much of charcoal to add per container or per plant? You can add 100 gms or max 200 gms of charcoal per standard container – like a 12-inch container. Of course depending upon your soil PH level. You can read a detailed post on soil ph and its importance in improving flowering HERE.
2. IN POTTING SOIL: Charcoal acts as an excellent soil conditioner, thanks to its low cost, and in fact it’s a suitable replacement of lime in soil additive mixes. It makes the soil a well-draining soil which is very important for plant growth. It is the high porosity of charcoal that benefits plant soils because it offers more of the oxygen that plant roots need to stay alive.
1. REMOVES BAD ODOURS IN SOIL AND COMPOST: You can sprinkle charcoal powder over your compost to reduce foul odors that may arise during composting. Also, when included in potting soil, charcoal soaks up the nauseating odors of compost and manure, while leaving the nutritional integrity of the mixture intact.
]]>Many of my viewers ask a very important question – what is the correct soil ph for plants and how do I test this and how do I change it? The answer to this question is not so simple, but I shall try to make it simple and tell you what is the perfect or the ideal Soil PH for most plants and also few natural ways to soil amendment that can make your soil PH to the desired level.
Sunlight, water, nutrients—these are the basic factors for plants to thrive. But there is another crucial factor that determines whether your plants thrive or struggle to grow? It’s a soil property called ph. An ideal range of soil PH is indispensable for proper nutrient absorption by the roots.
What is PH? PH is a just a number or a value ranging from 0 to 14. 7 – that’s the middle of the scale is considered Neutral PH and anything below 7 is called Acidic or Sour in layman’s term and Anything above 7 is called Alkaline or Sweet.
So, what is the Perfect or the Ideal or the desired Soil PH for most plants? How will I measure this and How will I adjust the soil ph to this desired level?
This Value of Ideal soil pH could make a huge difference and really an important step for those looking to grow bountiful gardens. Because most of the nutrient absorption at root level happens at this ideal ph level. You may be adding a lot of fertilizers, supplements like micronutrient powders and stuff like that regularly to your plant, but if it’s not producing good results and you still have anaemic plants, then you should suspect something wrong with the soil PH, either it’s not favourable to your plant or the plant is unable to adapt to the ph changes.
For most plants, the ideal ph has to be SLIGHTLY ACIDIC, like around 6.5. but this doesn’t mean that plants cannot grow outside this range. Places with lots of vegetation and rain, such as forests, tend to produce acidic soils whereas Dry and arid zones like deserts are more likely to be alkaline. We will learn about acid loving plants and alkaline soil preferring plants later in this episode.
How do I test Soil PH at home?
Let me demonstrate 3 easy ways to test your soil PH at home. This soil testing is actually fun and you can share this with your kids to teach them simple science or chemistry.
The First Method is using Litmus Paper. This is simple school chemistry. And this is not expensive. You can buy this simple litmus paper kit at any stationary store or even online. This is just litmus paper with color chart showing a PH value for each color that matches with your test result. PH of 7 is Neutral, PH below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline. The most important thing is to use distilled water for all these tests you conduct, because the PH of distilled water is neutral.
So, How to Test Soil Using Litmus Paper Method?
Collect one tablespoon of soil from your garden either from container or from ground. You can take the soil from a little deeper like 2 inches below the soil.
Purchase Litmus Paper kit: https://amzn.to/3jKY4ec
The Second Method is a rough and easy DIY method you can try at home to know whether your soil is acidic or alkaline.
The Third Method is using Soil PH Testers – There are two types of soil ph meters. Manual type or digital soil PH testers. Which one of these to choose? And These are easy to use portable gadgets with probes to insert into the soil. These give instant readings. These manual type of probe testers are not so reliable but they are inexpensive and handy. But These digital testers are more accurate but little expensive. These are actually 3 in one or 4 in one meters which also test Temperature, Light and Moisture along with PH. These factors are also important for gardening. We will discuss in detail about these meters in some other episode and how to make use of these for max benefit in gardening.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Manual Ph meter:
Digital Ph Tester:
How do I adjust my soil PH if its too Alkaline or even neutral to achieve the ideal PH around 6.5.
Wood Ash: https://amzn.to/3JNjPV6
]]>Insecticidal soap a.k.a soap salts, is an organic pesticide made of potassium salts of fatty acids and is derived from plant oils like coconut oil, olive oil, etc.
The difference between soap salts and regular soap is the alkali used in making this. In bar soap, they use sodium hydroxide, whereas in insecticidal soap they use potassium hydroxide to make potassium salts of long chain fatty acids which are considered safe, non-toxic and eco-friendly and infact approved for use as an organic pesticide. As always, we always recommend you not to use hazardous chemical fertilizers and pesticides in our website.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Insecticidal Soap (Potassium Soap Salt) Concentrate: https://amzn.to/3vBBzzk
GardenSafe Ready to Spray Insecticidal Soap: https://amzn.to/3hD9MWV
Insecticidal soap acts by contact. It kills insects in three ways:
The pest treated usually dies very rapidly, within minutes of treatment.
Insecticidal soap is most effective on soft-bodied arthropods, a group that includes most plant pests like Aphids, Earwigs, Leafhoppers, Mealybugs, Sawfly larvae, Spider, mites, Thrips, Whiteflies and even Small caterpillars. Apart from these, insecticidal spray is also recommended and very effective for treating powdery mildew disease. Identify Various Pests here!
Normally, the pollinator insects like bees, butterflies, ladybugs, lacewings, etc. are not harmed by insecticidal soap.
You have two options to choose. One is Ready-to-use insecticidal soap spray that comes packaged in a spray bottle. The second option is to buy a concentrated solution. You have use some 5ml per liter of water and then spray on your plants. Many gardeners like the idea of the ready-to-use product because it’s already mixed in the correct proportions so there’s very little risk of plant damage. The bottle may be labeled as “Suitable for Organic Use,” or “Safer for Plants and Vegetables,” but if it is a true insecticidal soap, its bottle will list “potassium salts of fatty acids” as ingredients. Please check this composition before purchase.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Insecticidal Soap (Potassium Soap Salt) Concentrate: https://amzn.to/3vBBzzk
GardenSafe Ready to Spray Insecticidal Soap: https://amzn.to/3hD9MWV
Before we go to making your own powerful insecticidal spray, let’s learn how to use these commercial formulations. The ready to spray bottle is simple to use. Just shake well before use and start spraying thoroughly on the affected areas of your plant. If you have the concentrated solution of the insecticidal spray, use 5ml per liter of water or as directed in the bottle usage instructions. Mix well and spray the plant thoroughly or wet the plant completely, because It is effective only when it is wet and has no residual effect. In other words, it loses all its effect once it dries out. But the pests usually die very rapidly, within minutes of treatment. You may also perform a patch test before using it for the first time. We will discuss about it later.
The active ingredient in insecticidal soap is the soap, itself. While many homemade recipes may tell you to add additional stuff, such as garlic, chili powder, etc, the insecticidal soap is actually the main ingredient. We will make the recipe for 1 liter of water in this demonstration.
Whenever you make or use a pesticide for the first time, always do a patch test on a leaf first before spraying on the entire plant. You never know, how strong it is and may damage your plant. So, first spray it on a leaf or branch and wait for 1 or 2 hours. If the leaves start wilting, then its too strong to use. Dilute it accordingly and use.
For pest prevention, spray plants thoroughly with insecticidal soap once in 10 – 15 days. For treatment once weekly or max twice weekly. And after a heavy rain, you have to reapply the spray.
You can refrigerate it to store. But always better to make fresh solution every week.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Insecticidal Soap (Potassium Soap Salt) Concentrate: https://amzn.to/3vBBzzk
GardenSafe Ready to Spray Insecticidal Soap: https://amzn.to/3hD9MWV
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