"Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Marie Dodge" > wrote:
>
>> "Isabella Woodhouse" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>> Brevity snips.
>>
>> Two of our gardens are still producing. The west garden (squash, peppers,
>> eggplants and tomatoes) went down to the spider mites. Little is left.
>> The
>> string beans were harmed by the organic insecticides (Organicide and Need
>> Oil) and some died.
>
> I've seen Organocide (fish & sesame oils) used for blackspot & powdery
> mildew on roses which don't seem to mind oily compounds used on them
> even regularly. But I honestly don't know how well beans, which are
> kind of fuzzy plants by nature, tolerate oil applications.

Many of them didn't but nothing else was working people recommended. Peppers
don't like the oils either. I lost one Pimento pepper plant. Others dropped
a few leaves. The toms and eggs didn't seem to mind though. Neem Oil was
useless but Organicide did finish off most of the white fly and a goodly
number of spider mites. The west garden plants were so severely damaged by
the insects, spiders and sprays I doubt any will make a recovery and produce
anything worth harvesting. Our first frost is 7 to 8 weeks away. The heat
and drought isn't helping matters any. I'm glad I have 3 gardens. Next year
there will be 4. If one fails there will be the others......

We haven't
> had to use any this year but we've used Neem oil in the past and never
> had it damage anything.

It doesn't kill anything off either. It doesn't do what they claim it does.
If I hadn't wasted weeks with organic pesticides that didn't work I wouldn't
have lost the garden. By the time I became convinced Neem Oil and Rotenone
were useless it was really too late. Organicide was the last thing on the
list to try. It smells terrible and doesn't pour well. It goes everywhere
when you try and pour it, adding to the stink. And that is also wasteful.

Once plants are as far gone from insect damage
> as you previously described, it practically takes a miracle to save
> them. I sincerely doubt it was either product but I could be wrong of
> course.

Neem Oil didn't do the damage to the beans and Pimentos, the Organicide did.
Regular peppers just dropped some leaves but didn't die. That is in addition
to the WF and SMs.

>
> One problem with using mainstream insecticides like the Sevin and
> Malathion you previously noted is that they are broad spectrum,
> extremely toxic, and also kill predators which feast on some of the
> pests you mentioned.

Apparently there were no predator insects to feed on them or they wouldn't
have reached the numbers they did that stopped production dead in it's
tracks, turning the plants into those pics you saw. That was the damage
from the WFs and SMs, not the insecticides.

Once the natural balance is destroyed, it can take
> several years to restore it. I sure hope you can resolve some of these
> issues and have more fun with your gardens.

Apparently there was no natural balance to start with - see above.

>
> Isabella
> --
> "I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
> -T.S. Eliot