Organic Sprays, Soaps, and Oils

What organic controls do you use?
I'm trying to figure out what I should buy next year.
- I had an issue with fungus on some tomatos.
- I had ants and aphids (water did the trick if sprayed daily).
- I had lots of Japanese beetles.
- I had LOTS of issues with squash vine borers

I'm considering milky spore, surround, and some sort of insecticidal soap and oil.

I haven't been using many sprays, etc. - preferring to rely on companion planting, crop rotation and tenting, among other methods. But I do read and sometimes order from the Gardens Alive! catalog. Good illustrations and explanations of what the natural product can be expected to do. Yuska

I'm with Yuska, I think you end up with fewer pests in the long run if you do more of an integrated pest management approach. Plant things that encourage beneficials, use a strong jet of water to control as many pests as possible, and only use chemicals as a last resort. While organic chemicals may be better for the environment than non-organic, they still will kill good bugs along with the bad, so in my mind the only benefit of being organic but still using a lot of sprays is you don't have to worry about the pesticide residues in food you pick out of your garden. Which is a good thing, but my ultimate goal is to have a well-balanced garden where you just don't develop major infestations of stuff in the first place, and using lots of chemicals even organic ones won't get you there, it kills good along with bad and means every year you're going to be fighting the battle. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now!

For the tomato fungus, you should plant your tomatoes in a different location in the garden than you have been. Watching the amount you water them can also help. The fungus lives in the soil, and if you keep planting tomatoes in the same spot in the garden, they will likely keep getting infected every year but if you rotate them every year or two you'll have less problems. If you plant something else that's not related to tomatoes in the spot where you've had the tomatoes, it's not as likely to be susceptible to the fungus, so you don't need to leave that spot in the garden empty. For ants/aphids, a strong jet of water every few days should keep them knocked down to a reasonable level, or you could also try bringing in some lady bugs. I don't have Jap beetles or the borers so I'm not sure what the best way is to control those, I'm assuming the milky spore would take care of the Jap beetle larvae so that's probably the best way to go for them. I also second Yuska's recommendation to look at the Gardens Alive site, it's a great source of information.

Heebie, I'd be looking at the nutritional balance of the soil and testing the pH of the plant sap. Insect attacks are related to plant tissue pH above 6.4, which shows an imbalance of anions, such as nitrogen, phosphorus or sulfur. Diseases such as fungus or mildew are related to plant tissue pH below 6.4 and an imbalance of cations such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. Please note that the pH mentioned is of the plant sap, not the soil. You can use foliar feeds to help correct the imbalances more quickly.
Have you added calcium or rock dusts to your soil to remineralize?
This is a good place to get a Reams type soil test & recommendations:
http://www.aglabs.com/

Jerry Baker wrote a book called "Giant Book of Garden Solutions" with many natural remedies to handle pests. Here is an example:
For whiteflies - glue yellow paper to cardboard and spray with cooking oil. Poke a string through the top and tie a few feet off the ground. This works - the flies are attracted to yellow - like the yellow tomato flowers. Another trick for whiteflies is a yellow bucket with soap water. They are attracted to it and drown... He also has remedies for fungus - like blight which can wipe out tomatoes, etc. - 1 tsp. light horticultural oil, 1 tbsp. baking soda, 1 gal water - spray. I've used all these methods before and haven't had any problem with blight or whiteflies. My first year growing tomatoes was a disaster... Your library may have the book.

I'm always looking for new organic solutions. I frequent BBC garden sites and found this one interesting. I'll be planting coriander under my brugs and see how that works: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/organic_companionplanting.shtml#planting_recipes

Check out Louise Riotte's "Carrots Love Tomatoes" -- I sat up last night until midnight making notes for my soon-to-be-planted garden.