Bonsai Sanctum

Bonsai artists virtually all use insecticidal soap to rid their bonsai trees of pests. These days you can buy it with chemicals or natural from any garden center or online. But if you are going to have lots of plants, it's much better to learn a few simple recipes and learn to make your own soap for insect repellent Chemicals often have the edge when it comes to results, but they can be expensive, and have the potential to come with many negative side-effects that could be harmful to your plant, pets, or even your own health. Bonsai is a practice that is thousands of years old. Long before human's even knew what chemicals were, they used natural soaps like fish oil or crushed mint. These ancient remedies seem to be making a comeback today, as society deices to become more eco-friendly. Why use Insecticidal Soap? Safe and environment friendly! You can spray them around your pets, other people, and they are safe for any plant!There's no odor or residue. Just a pile of dead bugs!Super effective against the most common bonsai pests! Spider mites, aphids, mealybugs, etc.It's totally safe for other insects like ladybugs, which are very good for your bonsai! How Does Insecticidal Soap Remove Insects? You can get rid of any bug with a squirt bottle or a pair of tweezers, but they will just come back. The trick is to make the plant undesirable or dangerous to pests. It's the ingredients that count! If you're looking for the best plant insect repellent, we recommend Bonide Insecticidal Soap. It's the fatty acids which kill insects. Most of the common bonsai tree pests have soft skin that dissolve when attacked by these acids killing them. Homemade Insecticidal Soap Recipe for Plants! If you have lots of plants or want a cheap supply of pest control, it's very easy to make insecticidal soap at home. We don't recommend using normal body cleansing soap or any soap that's not designed for plants. Ingredients Soap Make sure you get soap with fatty acids. The most popular fatty acids are Lauric, Myristic, Palmitic Acid, and Steric Acid. A combination of these is preferred because each is stronger in different characteristics such as hardness, cleaning ability, lather texture, bubble size, and moisturizing. It's fun to experiment with different formulas and see which works best! Make sure the soap selection has no synthetic chemicals and absolutely no bleach or petroleum. Water Use the purist water you can. Rain water is always preferred. There's no harm in distilled water though. We don't recommend using tap water unless absolutely necessary. If you have hard water, then boil it prior to use because the minerals will not bond well with the soap. The Insecticidal Soap Mix: We recommend starting with a 2% soap solution. Take 1 gallon of water and ad 5 Tablespoons. If you need to scale the solution down to 1% then add 2.5 to Tablespoons of soap. Insecticide Soap Boosters! The soap and water will do the trick, but here are a few boosters to try and really kick your soap into overdrive! We have a method we call Stink/Burn/Freeze! Just add 1 Tablespoon of some of the ingredients below to the solution. Let us know the ones you try! Stink them out!Use garlic powder, onion powder, apple cider vinegar Burn them out!Spicy ingredients like black pepper, cayenne pepper, curry, cinnomen Freeze them out!Use Menthol, Peppermint, Spearmint, all any type of herb that leaves that leave a cool note. Linger Longer!Try mixing a few drops of cooking oil to the mix. This will thicken up the mixture a little and cause it to stick to the plant better. Make sure it's an all natural oil like coconut or sesame. Will Insecticidal Soap Damage Plants? Some plants are more sensitive than others. It's important to get the soap to water ratio correct. Test the soap before you coat your plant in it. To do this, spray a small area of the plant and watch it over 24 hours. If it damages or discolors the plant, then dilute the mix with water. At the proper levels, organic insecticidal soap will not damage a healthy plant or it's foliage. The weaker the solution, the safer it will be for your plant, but the effectiveness may suffer. It's all about balance. Applying Insecticidal Soap to your Bonsai! Make sure you shake the solution prior to spraying it onto your bonsai plant. Make sure that you cover the entire plant! You will need to get the soap on the actual insects in order to kill them. Go over the entire plant, and spray underneath the leaves and down all the way to the soil. If you spot the insect, make sure to saturate them with the spray. Be careful with new or distressed plants. Spray another coat a few days later, just to make sure the pests are all gone. Good luck and have fun!

DIY – Homemade Insecticidal Soap for Plants! 100% SAFE

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