July 18, 2011



Hops grown for Bellwoods Brewery as part of their City Hops Project. The plants were healthy until last week, and then over a period of a few days they were infested with green aphids AND cucumber beetles. I used Ed Lawrence's anti-everything spray to treat them. It's one part dish soap, two parts neem oil and 40 parts water. Step one - physically remove the bugs by spraying the vines with the hose (satisfying!) 2. mix the soap, neem and water in the water bottle and shake hard to emulsify. 3. spray on vines, top and bottom of leaves, and let sit for 10 minutes (some sat for twenty and seemed just fine). 4 rinse off with hose. All of this was done early in the morning to prevent the soap, sun and oil from combining into a plant scorching slurry. It's been a week and a half and the vines are still bug free.

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