Jerry Baker's pest remedies-do they really work?

I've been reading Jerry Baker's "Giant Book of Garden Solutions" and was wondering if anyone has tried some of his "recipes". They have some really weird ingredients-whiskey, ammonia, etc. These would be great alternatives to chemicals, if they really work.

I should point out (since this is the organic gardening forum after all) that many (if not all) of his tonics are not organic, so if you're trying to garden organically I'd toss the book away. Just because it comes out of your kitchen cupboard rather than the garden chemical section of Home Depot doesn't make it organic (or safe, effective, etc).

As far as whether they work--there are varying opinions out there as to their effectiveness. My personal belief is that yes, the ingredients he suggests do generally contain something that might be beneficial to the plants, but many of them also carry along with them things that aren't beneficial (alcohol for example). In my personal opinion, there are probably better/safer/more organic sources for the "goodies" that his tonics provide. There are no essential plant nutrients that are provided by his tonics that can't be got in some other way that doesn't carry along with it the potentially harmful "other" ingredients in his stuff that aren't really meant for plants.

I would also advise you if you do try these, follow the recipes to the letter. There was a post earlier this year from someone on one of the beginner gardening forums who accidentally used weed & feed lawn fertilizer instead of plain lawn fertilizer when making one of his concoctions and managed to kill (or at least damage) a number of her plants.

Just my two cents!

Thanks ecrane3. That's good advice!

Just one comment. Ammonia is certain death to the earthworm population. There is nothing good about killing them off.

That's the risk in using any pest control I guess-you also kill the beneficials. I've stopped running to get the bug spray everytime I see a pest, but blister beetles did SUDDENLY appear in my tomatoes and melons. Massive numbers of them. I sprayed only the worst spots with Sevin (trying to avoid getting spray on blossoms) and it did the trick. The label says that Sevin does break down pretty fast. That's why you can eat tomatoes 3 days after sraying. Though I wait longer! Ammonia might not break down as fast, therefore actually doing more harm than good, esp. since it kills earthworms.

Sevin is not even remotely close to organic--I'm sure there are organic products out there that would have taken care of the beetles with less potential negative effects.

According to what I have read, blister beetles can be killed with rotenone, sabadilla, or pyrethrin, but I am not sure of the organic status of these three pesticides anymore. Probably someone else here knows.

I had a similar problem with bugs on tomatoes that would not be killed by organic methods. It was some kind of shield bug, I think they were stinkbugs, stinging the daylights out of my tomatoes when I was growing them in the garden plot. Nothing organic worked, not even spraying them directly with pyrethrin, which for me was a very extraordinary measure (the only pesticide I keep on hand is insecticidal soap). They would fall off but then just get up and go back to work later. Because of this, I now grow my tomatoes in big pots, and actually, they grow better, make more tomatoes, and there are no bugs on them at all, no evil eye. I've been doing this for the past several years now with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Now the whole problemdoes not even arise.

Sometimes the only solution is to do things differently next time.

There are organic pesticides that contain naturally derived pyrethrins (as opposed to synthetic pyrethrins which are in the non-organic versions). Personally I'm not a huge fan, the natural ones aren't any safer or friendlier than the synthetic ones so I would use it only as a last resort. I'm not familiar with the other two you mention, so I have no idea if they're organic or not.

I thought they had been removed from organic status, but apparently not:

http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/VegFruit/organic.htm

This explains a little about what they are, too. I don't think I would ever use the nicotine sulfate that is listed, no matter what was happening in my garden.

I wouldn't use a lot of those things, even though they're approved for use in organic gardening some of those things are still nasty and toxic, just as bad in my opinion as a lot of the synthetic chemicals. I try to avoid using anything stronger than the garden hose--only time I make an exception is if I start to get fungus or some sort of insect in the greenhouse over the winter, there I have so many plants close together and things can spread very quickly, so I'll break out the neem or insecticidal soap. But other than that, the garden hose is my best friend!

Hot pepper spray knocks them out too. I don't like chemicals of any sort, no matter what Jerry Baker says. Ammonia, and whiskey, and this, that, and the other, the next thing you know you've spent a fortune. When a few moments spent mixing up a fish emulsion brew, or manure tea, would be much better for the plants and you in the long run. And let's not forget, hand picking and crushing insects is still a good way to eliminate them. Soapy water drowns them, and coats their bodies and suffocates them. I like Dawn dish det for that job, and it works too. Just my 2 cents.

Is there a place here at DG where the recipes for these different solutions are? Like the hot pepper spray, or the soap? Are both of those safe for the beneficial insects and soil?

Soap will kill some beneficials as well, don't know about the hot pepper spray, but as a rule of thumb, any chemical (whether it's natural/organic or not) that kills some sorts of insects is going to kill some good things as well as some bad--some things are more benign than others, but there's nothing special about bad bugs that makes them more susceptible to chemicals than beneficial bugs. That's why there are many people who try to avoid all use of chemicals even the organic ones.

As far as recipes--hopfully someone will remember exactly where things are, but if not I'd just browse around this forum, I know people have posted recipes for various things from time to time.

The insecticidal soap I use is very effectful, and it has an old familiar smell, as I recall, back in the day while in the army, I spent more time than most on KP.The lie soap that we ran through a # 10 can, with holes in it to wash every thing in the kitchen had the same smell.The soap is heavy, and I wonder if it isn't one and the same.I will not use any comershal bug spray, but I am going to try the lie soap for cost effciency.Mike