Kaolin clay/ Surround WP

August 15th, 2008

I’m starting to become a convert to kaolin clay. It’s been used on orchard fruits for awhile, with success. The great thing about it is that you don’t harm any insects, most importantly, the beneficials. (I don’t mind harming the bad guys, but so often, when you set out to kill some of them, you end up killing some good ones in the process.)

Here’s an interesting technique from Johnny Seeds (great blog!), where they actually dip seedlings in the liquid. In the video, she says it also helps with transplant shock. Interesting.

http://growingideas.johnnyseeds.com/2008/07/video-from-farm.html

I bought a bag of the Surround last year, but only started using it this year. I didn’t really have any bad bugs last year, so didn’t have much need. It’s hard to find in smaller-sized bags for the home gardener. I bought mine in a 5-pound bag from Gardens Alive, and next year, I’ll probably buy a 10-pound bag. Usually, you have to buy much larger amounts, costing over 100 bucks. Johnny Seeds also seems to have smaller bags, but I can’t tell how much “1 unit” is. Five pounds? Ten pounds?

Anyway, you mix the powder with water in a sprayer (you should invest in a good sprayer if you’re going to do this, but you should have one anyway, right, for that compost tea?). Then you spray everything and it dries to a white coating. The coating confuses bugs, plus repels them because it tastes bad and makes sticky feet. It also has some benefits regarding sun scald.

I can repel cucumber beetles (Satan), squash bugs, Japanese beetles, bean beetles, leaf hoppers, grasshoppers and so on. I’m really starting to believe in this stuff. Oh, and it just stops the flea beetles completely. I get a lot of those guys on my eggplants. (They do more ornamental damage than anything, but still, nice to stop them.)

For some reason, I find the act of going around the gardens with my sprayer to be a very satisfying task.

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