I used Canola oil as well. I had trouble finding cottonseed locally but a quick search basically said that most vegetable oils are effective although cottonseed was the best. I can now confidentially say that the canola substitute does work! Came back from a quick vacation to a terrible case of mites that almost had me running for the torch. But I said WTF and got the ingredients as a last ditch hope, Mixed them up using canola instead of cottonseed and sprayed away. I had to cut alot of tops of due to the webs but after another application a few days later, for good measure, ive been pest free… This was 6weeks ago so hopefully those bastards are gone for good.
Thanks a shit ton for this @JohnnyPotseed and your anonymous buddie
With temps getting cooler outside, pests come in as always. Got some here, including mites, so I did some all-in-one this week end. Only deviation of the recipe is the use of purified water and pharma ethanol (90%, cut with mostly isopropyl and water, and a tad of acetone). Will try it asap. Thanks @JohnnyPotseed and anonymous for the recipe, hope it’ll work as well as shown here.
I have one question though: after some time on the shelf, the liquid tend to separate in two layers, one yellowish transparent, and the other milky yellow . I assume the former probably being water/ethanol with acids, and the later being oil and polysorbate. It takes a few shakes to mix back the solution, so I’m not worried. But have you also experienced that? Still wonder if it means my mix is off somehow.
Also I had to convert the recipe for I live in EU. I’ve used the main agent (cottonseeds oil) as the base for the conversion. That seemed to be the most relevant. So for the sake of other people like me, here’s the recipe in milliliters and grams. Maybe that could be pasted in the first post?
This stuff works like no other. One and done for sure between hitting plants and soaking the soil didn’t see any more of those bastards. I picked this little guy up at home Depot for $10 or so works great for this and any foliar application.
@funkyfunk thnx for the info/conversion. The mix does separate after sitting awhile, all it takes is a few good shakes to blend again. Oil n water, lol.
One thing I notice is you mention use of Isopropyl, which shouldn’t be used on flowering plants. Not sure how much of it you used? I hope it wasn’t very much?
As for the conversion getting posted, it looks like you’ve already done that!
It’s too early for me here, to even think about going through everything/ checking the numbers and such,.so let’s just leave yours where it is and folks should see it. I’m not big on US ounces to liter converting, sorry.
Yeah that’s why I thought it may be normal. Thanks for the confirmation!
My ethanol is a pharmaceutical one (easiest here). It’s cut with 10% of mostly water but also isopropyl and acetone. I don’t think there’s much of the latests in there, and it’s futher diluted during prep, so I tried it.
Sprayed the plants this morning using the converted recipe. They handled it well. They’re in veg though.
Isopropyl is known to be bad for flowering?
No probs to keep the conversion here, I’m not so good at that too, there might be mistakes. You’re right, let’s peer review that!
ISO kills the THC, cuz
Not sure how much it takes to destroy a crop in flower, I just don’t use any, period. lol
I find it hard to accept that regular 100% food grade Ethanol can’t be found anywhere?
Sometimes the ‘easiest’ isn’t always the best… just MHO
I don’t think isopropyl will be particularly worse for the plants than ethanol is. Isopropyl melts the trichomes - i.e. “kills the THC” - but so does ethanol. That’s why they’re both used for extraction. Isopropyl would be more dangerous to actually consume, to be sure, but if what we’re spraying is actually being consumed rather than evaporating/breaking down under light and heat, it’s a problem regardless. As far as whether it’s as good for forming an emulsion with oil, water and polysorbate I’m not sure - can’t find any similar research regarding isopropyl. Of course, at 10% ethanol the study shows it doesn’t have much effect on the droplet sizes, it’s at 30% or so that it helps emulsify.
Obviously, ethanol is proven to work - we haven’t seen any evidence one way or another on how isopropyl works in this mix. If you want to be 100% certain, use ethanol. Just saying I don’t see why ethanol would be required and isopropyl wouldn’t work, if that’s the case. Anyone know for sure?
Looked into it a bit and you’re right; in root zones, ethanol and isopropyl are both bad for plants but methanol can be helpful. For foliar, though, ethanol and methanol are both good in small amounts. Learn something new every day.
Always glad to see you, and hear any opinions you might want to impart, my friend! If I don’t agree, lol I’m not arguing. Just expressing something I think/know. Sometimes I’m wrong… lol
Folks will see more separation with the lighter oils (Soybean, Canola, etc) It’s not a big deal, just reblend or shake up the concentrate before measuring it out…
For the growers in foreign lands, they would be much better off just using a high proof booze!
Acetone will actually break our oils down to some extent and has absolutely NO GOOD usage in plants!!
It’s not a drench, cuz. It can be sprayed on everything though. To kill mites, thrips, aphids, and other soft bodied pests, we spray the entire plant top to bottom, the top of soil, the outsides of pots, the walls, floors, ceilings, etc.
NOT for use as a ‘soil drench’ to get at pests in the roots. Have no idea how effective, or not, that would be. Probably more wasteful than not.
trust bro
works wonders !
lol