Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 8, 2013 1:59:58 GMT -5
Michael Johnson at the Tomato Depot told me about neem seed cake/meal - basically it's the leftovers after the neem oil has been crushed out of neem seeds. Unlike the oil, you don't spray it on the plant - you use it as an organic fertilizer. In addition to acting as a fertilizer, plants fed neem seed meal take in the active compounds through their roots, providing systemic protection against pests. It is also a nematicide, which is a big, big deal for me.
Here's the wiki article on it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_cake
So, thinking of the ever-present scourge of leaf-footed bugs on my tomatoes, I ponied up for some to try. I applied it to a few of my tomatoes on June 1-2. I also added additional fertilizer, because the organic fertilizer I had added to my Earthboxes at the beginning of the season was spent - some of the plants were showing signs of nutrient deficiencies. (The neem seed meal is much too expensive to use as the exclusive fertilizer.)
Before this, I had almost stripped my Kleopatra tomato bare getting rid of diseased leaves. The remaining leaves were really pale and there was little growth; much of the new growth was damaged - leaves and flower buds were falling off before opening. I was hoping mostly to keep the plant alive live long enough to ripen the larger fruit on it. But here is a picture of the top of that plant today:
Boom - new growth and healthy flowers! Most of the little tomatoes you see had been sitting there for a couple of weeks at the barely visible stage, but now they are growing visibly each day. There is also healthy new growth at the bottom of the plant.
One of my Amish Paste plants that I treated the same day is also showing some healthy new growth. The Amish Paste plant was worse off than the Kleopatra - it was truly on death's door - so seeing healthy new growth on that one was a shock. Two other boxes that I treated a day later contained plants that had didn't look bad overall, but had stopped setting fruit. Their blooms were dropping without setting, and some of their blooms were dropping without even opening, But those plants set new fruit over the past few days, and are making more blooms.
Could these recoveries simply be because the plants needed fertilizer? Quite possibly. And it is too early to tell whether this stuff will really keep hornworms, fruit worms, and stink bugs/leaf-footed bugs off my tomatoes.
So, I need to pick which boxes to use as controls, to which I will add more fertilizer but not neem seed meal. I only have enough neem seed meal left for a couple more Earthboxes, so unless I order more ($$!), there are going to have to be some control boxes, anyway.
It should be an interesting experiment.
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Speaking of experiments, I worked in some neem seed meal around my zucchini plant, too. SVBs have not gotten into the main stem yet, but I was finding them daily in leaf stems. I didn't add any other fertilizer to the zucchini plant, but the leaves have gone a deeper shade of green in the last couple of days, so I assume the zucchini has started taking up the neem. I am going to quit patrolling for SVBs and see if the plant lives. I have also re-seeded yellow squash; before sowing the seeds, I worked neem seed meal into the soil. I want to see if the plant grows without becoming SVB food.
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Even if it weren't expensive, I don't think I would use neem seed cake wholesale in my garden. Although it is organic, I read that there high concentrations of limonoids in nectar and pollen could possibly harm bee larvae. Bees don't visit tomatoes much if more attractive flowers are nearby, and I only have two squash plants, so they shouldn't be a major source of food for a hive. I will probably not use it on other plants that the bees visit.
But if it is effective on the tomatoes and summer squash, I might use it on brassicas and root crops this fall, and on fruit trees next year just after blossom drop. I figure that by applying neem seed cake just after petal fall, the developing fruit would be protected (and nematodes would be kept down in the hot months, when they are most destructive). However, the neem should be depleted before the following year's bloom, so the bees would not be endangered.
Here's the wiki article on it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_cake
So, thinking of the ever-present scourge of leaf-footed bugs on my tomatoes, I ponied up for some to try. I applied it to a few of my tomatoes on June 1-2. I also added additional fertilizer, because the organic fertilizer I had added to my Earthboxes at the beginning of the season was spent - some of the plants were showing signs of nutrient deficiencies. (The neem seed meal is much too expensive to use as the exclusive fertilizer.)
Before this, I had almost stripped my Kleopatra tomato bare getting rid of diseased leaves. The remaining leaves were really pale and there was little growth; much of the new growth was damaged - leaves and flower buds were falling off before opening. I was hoping mostly to keep the plant alive live long enough to ripen the larger fruit on it. But here is a picture of the top of that plant today:
Boom - new growth and healthy flowers! Most of the little tomatoes you see had been sitting there for a couple of weeks at the barely visible stage, but now they are growing visibly each day. There is also healthy new growth at the bottom of the plant.
One of my Amish Paste plants that I treated the same day is also showing some healthy new growth. The Amish Paste plant was worse off than the Kleopatra - it was truly on death's door - so seeing healthy new growth on that one was a shock. Two other boxes that I treated a day later contained plants that had didn't look bad overall, but had stopped setting fruit. Their blooms were dropping without setting, and some of their blooms were dropping without even opening, But those plants set new fruit over the past few days, and are making more blooms.
Could these recoveries simply be because the plants needed fertilizer? Quite possibly. And it is too early to tell whether this stuff will really keep hornworms, fruit worms, and stink bugs/leaf-footed bugs off my tomatoes.
So, I need to pick which boxes to use as controls, to which I will add more fertilizer but not neem seed meal. I only have enough neem seed meal left for a couple more Earthboxes, so unless I order more ($$!), there are going to have to be some control boxes, anyway.
It should be an interesting experiment.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Speaking of experiments, I worked in some neem seed meal around my zucchini plant, too. SVBs have not gotten into the main stem yet, but I was finding them daily in leaf stems. I didn't add any other fertilizer to the zucchini plant, but the leaves have gone a deeper shade of green in the last couple of days, so I assume the zucchini has started taking up the neem. I am going to quit patrolling for SVBs and see if the plant lives. I have also re-seeded yellow squash; before sowing the seeds, I worked neem seed meal into the soil. I want to see if the plant grows without becoming SVB food.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Even if it weren't expensive, I don't think I would use neem seed cake wholesale in my garden. Although it is organic, I read that there high concentrations of limonoids in nectar and pollen could possibly harm bee larvae. Bees don't visit tomatoes much if more attractive flowers are nearby, and I only have two squash plants, so they shouldn't be a major source of food for a hive. I will probably not use it on other plants that the bees visit.
But if it is effective on the tomatoes and summer squash, I might use it on brassicas and root crops this fall, and on fruit trees next year just after blossom drop. I figure that by applying neem seed cake just after petal fall, the developing fruit would be protected (and nematodes would be kept down in the hot months, when they are most destructive). However, the neem should be depleted before the following year's bloom, so the bees would not be endangered.