Neem oil, prevent or only treatment?

Can neem oil be used as a prevention, and if so when should it be applied. Seedlings are 12 days old. Fighting off gnats a the moment

@garrigan62

I hit mine once a week for prevention. As far as seedlings just a light mist should not effect them at all Always just before lights out or my outside ones once they start getting shade in the afternoon. I have also been using Captain Jacks Powder bug killer and top dress the soil. It’s been working great for the ants. I tried DE but they just made condos out that!

3 Likes

There is Neem oil for applying as a foliar spray. 1/2-1 Tbsp (7-15ml) per quart water and about the same amount of bio degradable liquid soap as a carrier because water and oil don’t mix well.

As far as the gnats try watering the saucer underneath and allow the soil to soak up and wick the water up and keep the top of soil relatively dry to keep the green algae fungus from growing that attracts the gnats that they eat.

I use Neem oil spray mix for preventative as well as reactionary reasons. Mostly I use Neem meal cake mixed into soil or too dressed.

If you want to be proactive for gnats get some product that contains BTi a bacterium that kills gnat larvae which breaks the cycle.

1 Like

I put mosquito bites and de on the soil, and put the yellow sticky cards, and i have hanging traps, i havent watered in 4 days ,soil is pretty moist 3 inchs down, think i am getting rid of the gnats ,i bought neem oil just incase so i dont run into problems,. I have 4 plants in soil now 2 look great , 2 look so so ,think they were stunned. They are all autos

1 Like

The gnats are an indication of over watering. Sounds like you are getting on top of that and once done, Neem oil is not needed. I’m not a big fan of it and prefer to use either 50/50 3% peroxide and water or straight 3%. It kills most pests and sterilizes the surface while not harming the plant. In fact you can use it all the way to harvest (and I wash my harvest in peroxide too).

1 Like

I found that Captain Jacks powder works pretty well as a preventative to. I had ants :ant: all over and used DE on them only to come back to see they made condos outta that. Sprinkled some of the CJ powder and BOOM gone!!! Thanks for turning me onto the CJ love it.

2 Likes