Plant drench

Can't remember what you all used to put in your house plants to bring inside for the winter.. Cool weather has me thinking about it.

Hi Bluepoppy,

I read somewhere to sprinkle diatomaceous earth in and around the pots before bringing them in for the summer. I use the food grade DE, but still wear a mask (when I remember) to avoid inhaling the particles.

I haven't had any issues with bringing bugs indoors using this method.

I know on hostas some growers use an ammonia drench, but I think that's mostly to help control slugs.
I try and make sure all debris are removed from the pots and we often use neem before returning plants to the house. Just be careful of sunburn.
The GH is much the same, remove debris, these I treat with a systemic spray and granule, and may even use a synthetic pyrethrin canister. Once everything is crowded into the GH individual treatment can be difficult. I got some spider late in the winter and never really eradicated it till the plants moved out, come spring.

I use an aggressive treatment using Merit. By using ten days apart the possibilities of bringing anything inside with the potted plants are pretty small. That's part of my program one percent that is not organic. The other three hundred and sixty three days I am absolutely using only organic or mineral additives for my potted plants. I have never had a big problem inside since beginning the use of Merit one time involving two application days. Google will lead you to a lot of Merit data. I use 1/8th of a TS in a quart of water and follow the label application suggestions.

another option which Ric mentioned once- I had good results with buying the 'No Pest Strip', hanging it in our shed or little-used extra basement room, and putting plants in with it for a few days of fumigation. Making all plants go thru this quarantine before coming in for good. THe No Pest Strip has nasty warnings about not using it in areas where people are more than four hours a day. So I keep it to where it can be closed off, and then move the strip to the shed for winter.
I don't know if this would fully treat bugs in soil. It seemed to help spider mite.

Yeah the "Pest strips" work well, but as Sally said heed the warnings. Once the plants are aired a bit it's relatively safe. Since I have the GH I may just gas most of ours with synthetic pyrethrins, they have some of the lowest LD50s of any pesticide, they can leave a bit of oily residue on the leaves, as long as the cat doesn't lick ALL the leaves you will do no harm.