We’ve been so excited to get our first crop of Tomatoes in this season…but our hopes are being dashed by some serious pest issues. I’ve read a great deal of information about the array of uses for the Neem Tree (known as the “arobaini” tree in Swahili– menaning “40” for its many uses), including it’s use in pesticidal sprays. Apparently the tree puts out an incredibly potent oil that keeps most bugs away from your plants.
In the spirit of keeping our garden as chemical free as possible, and only growing with locally available resources, I made a batch of this Neem Spray to apply to all of the plants in our garden.
Here is the recipe I followed, taken from Anamed’s handbook on Natural Medicine in the Tropics:
Take 1 kg. fresh Neem leaves and boil for 10 minutes in 5 liters water, allow to cool for 3 hours, filter, and use.
Everything I’ve read on the Neem Tree says that it is better to use the small fruits it produces for pesticides, but as these are only available once yearly, I’ve been using the leaf preparation.
We applied the preparation using a simple hand-pump sprayer, being sure to get the under-sides of the leaves (where many insects hide during these hot, dry days) and avoiding soaking the soil as much as possible– we want our soil to be full of bugs…just not our leaves and fruits.
So far we’ve had good results, and are continuing to apply the spray once weekly as it is easily washed off by watering.
For more information on Neem and it’s multiple uses:
