Insecticidal Soap, not just any soap

I always thought soapy water was the recipe for controlling bugs on tomatoes and peppers but it turns out soap is not just soap. I'm researching because my usual dish soap and water mixture this year is not working and I may have lost my tomato plants early. 

An insecticidal soap is a potassium fatty acid soap (aka -- natural) as opposed to a synthetic detergent. It's much more like what would have been made in the home 150 years ago before chemical engineering designed something that will clean better. These old timey soaps work well for simple dirt but not well for stains. Here are a few that are considered insecticidal ---- Zote, Fels Naptha, Roma, Dawn(?)

Insecticidal soap works best on soft-bodied insects and arthropods such as aphids, adelgids, mealybugs, spider mites, thrips, jumping plant lice, scale insects, whiteflies, and sawfly larvae.

Soap Spray

Combining insecticidal soap with water makes a concentrated form of insecticidal soap spray. In order to make the concentrate, grate about 1 inch from a bar of Zote soap, put the grated soap in 1 quart of warm water and stir the water gently until the soap dissolves. The concentrated solution should be stored in a clearly labeled container. When you're ready to spray your plants with an insecticide, place 1 quart of water in a spray bottle or garden sprayer, and add to it 1 teaspoon of the Zote concentrate you made. Don't use a stronger solution. Although insecticidal soap spray is safe for most plants, a high concentration of it may damage plant foliage.

Whitefly damage - worse year so far

Shaving pieces off a bar of Zote

Soap dissolving in the sun

........ Simple video for the idea ......

It's the Garden again

The cherry tomatoes are coming out in bunches now and it's like an Easter Egg hunt for Nahima every day she comes over. Right now they are at her eye level but soon she'll be asking for help to reach them. With 6-7 plants I'm gonna need help eating them. The Roma tomatoes are still very small.

Four in a group

The second crop of chilies from seeds Hugo planted. I'm gonna have to make a decent bed for them and try again. This was the only plant healthy enough to produce.

The big Neem came down a few months ago but a 4 foot stump was just taking up room for other things. Hugo excavated around it and chopped it down to about a meter with a machete and then called Juan to come over with his chainsaw. First he's chopping off bark that was below ground and may have rocks embedded and then the saw. He even hauled all the pieces out to the street and wouldn't accept a peso.

Better planning for my tomatoes

I don't know if I didn't remember last year when my Cherry tomatoes grew to over 12 feet or if I doubt they will even come up. Whatever it is I'm going to have to plan better for the next crop because tomatoes go crazy here and they probably will all year. I had so many come up I transplanted a few into buckets and they will use the chain link fence on my driveway for support

The biggest issue is supporting them so I'll build some sort of cage in the planter for the next crop.  Also move my herbs out of that planter and put them in pots As well need some mulch to slow the soil from drying out. The Coco Coir plant near Cihuatlan throws fiber out by the highway and I'm going to ask if it's free. They also sell a Coir powder that is a lot like Peat Moss. A place over toward Barra has cow manure very cheap and I haven't been over there for awhile because of their road. For now we'll just keep tying them up and in a few months redesign their space. 

Planted in January and got our first red tomatoes yesterday

Here's some and I've been pruning the non fruiting branches

This is supposedly the typical Mexican Roma tomato

So may Cherries came up I transplanted a few in buckets

Coir fiber for mulch

Casa de Roma

At least that's what one of the workers calls it. It started out me just wanting better shade and rain protection on that side of the house and ended up considerably more fancy than imagined. I chose the width and angle but workers came up with the rest. The flower beds which will have a cement cap on the top edge was an after thought.

Still needs to be painted, sealer put on the roof and lots of odds and ends. Next week will start on a single step around the palapa and maybe tile the palapa floor. I've got a bunch of tiles left over from the house. The lawn is extreamly tired from all the traffic but will hopefully come back  The roof will one day be covered in with the red curved roof tiles but first to get it sealed before the rains.