Alright!
This is John Kohler with GrowingYourGreens.com today we have another exciting episode for
you and this one is going to be a quick one at that.
What we’re going to do today is we’re going to show you 3 easy, non-toxic, low-cost
methods to get rid of the aphids in your garden, alright?
You know, sometimes I use neem oil, Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds so if you could check my past episode
on that for the hard hitter but I don’t always like to come out of the ring fighting.
I do try to play nice and then escalate as needed.
So, this are my first ways that I like to deal with aphids before I start getting out
any sprays.
So, step number one: I want to show you guys what these aphids look like.
It’s like… in this case they’re gray but depending on what they’re eating, what
plant they’re on, they’re going to turn different colors, I’ve seen them black and
I’ve seen them red before.
Basically, they show up on the bottom side of the leaves, on many times, and then especially
when the flower is… when it’s going to flower and setting seed.
It really likes the light tender shoots to like latch in to it.
What aphids are is they’re soft body insects which literally send their little fangs, like
a vampire into your neck, they’re setting their fangs into the stems of the plants and
the leaves of the plants to suck out all the plant’s juices, all the nutrition that’s
supposed to be feeding the plants so this will hinder your plant growth and can cause
challenges.
Although, a few aphids here and there are not a big deal but when you have a big outbreak
like this it can be a problem because they’re going to multiply very quickly and spread
to infect other plants which we definitely don’t want.
So it’s very important to keep them under control.
So, I want to go ahead and give you guys a closer shot of what this aphids look like
and thanks to the advance optical technology of Canon we’re going to be able to do that.
Checking out these aphids up close, check it out, I can see them on there.
Ok, we’re going to pan over, there you go, do you guys see them?
It’s those…
I’ve got some wind here but they’re on the stem there, all those little gray things
on the stem there.
So, now that you guys have seen what the aphids are; the easiest way to control them is, number
one, some sheers and we’re going to go down to the plant and basically where they all
are, they’re on the top of the plant, we’re going to just cut off this whole section.
That kind of does me a favor too because I want this plant, the dinosaur kale, to produce
more leaves instead of more flowers and shoots, although I do let some go so I can save seed.
So we can still just cut off whole sections of plants and put them in the compost and
we’re going to compost those aphids into further protein for the compost pile; that’s
way number one.
Way number two is if you have it on leaves or even on the stems, you know, you’ve got
some of the best aphis smashers in the whole world.
I can do a lot of other things with my fingers too but we’ve got aphid smashing fingers
here so we can simply find the aphids on the back side of leaves and what I like to do
is literally smoosh them.
I just rub my hand up on here, smoosh them all and I’ve got aphid fingers.
Mmmm smells like something I know, but anyways so yeah, smoosh them all.
So, these are the first two steps I may use to rid my garden of aphids.
Now, yes, this can take a bit of time, it’s not as easy as spraying some junk but you’re
not sraying anything and this costs you no money ,except some time.
Have some local kids smash aphids [for you].
The next step is another way I like to do if I have to escalate, if I have a big aphid
challenge; if there’s maybe some plants in my garden that have an infestation then
actually I don’t want to snip off.
I don’t particularly care if I cut off pieces of the dinosaur kale but I do care about my
tree collards I want them to go to seed so I can save some seed because it rarely goes
to seed and so I’m going to use another technique, so let me go ahead and hare that
with you next.
So, the next technique we’re going to use is actually this guy here which is actually
called the Bug Blaster.
So, what the Bug Blaster is this is just a special nozzle that goes on the end of your
hose to spray high pressure water in a special jet pattern that’s really going to spray
the aphids and blast them off the leaves and at the same time probably discombobulate them
and once they’re off your leaves they’re probably not going to be able to get back
on.
This guy is actually relatively inexpensive and if you want to win one of these I’m
going to be doing a GrowingYourGreens.com giveaway.
I think I have a handful of these guys to give away.
What you’re going to want to do is you want to make a video with you in it, hopefully
in front of your garden, if you have a garden currently, and tell me why you need the Bug
Blaster to rid aphids from your garden.
The 5 best winners that I pick will win.
So, make a video about it and put a link in the comments below; I’ll be sure to watch
each and every one, oh please keep it under 5 minutes long!
So, how this works is very simple, we’re going to just go ahead and take it out of
the package.
Before, I just want to let you know it works on white flies, aphids, mealy bugs, spider
mites and it also makes a great plant cleaner if you want a shiny look for your plants.
I don’t care how clean my plants look; I just want to get rid of the bugs.
So, in here it’s very simple, it’s just a little nozzle attachment for your hose and
I recommend instead of putting it on a hose, we have a standard wand sprayer here with
a standard rain pattern spray head.
We’re going to go ahead and take this guy off and we’re just going to go ahead and
screw this guy on nice and take.
Make sure you’ve got the gasket in there so we’re not going to have any leaks and
now we’re all ready to spray the aphids to heck.
So now all we’ve got to do is we have the hose here; I got the nice Crassman rubber
hose, it’s the hose I recommend you buy because I hate those piece of junk hoses that
you’ve got to keep buying them because they keep wearing out and make your water smell
and taste like vinyl PVC, not recommended.
High quality rubber hose available from Sears, lifetime warranty, nice stainless steel ends;
they go on sale regularly, the 50ft sometimes goes for sale for 20 bucks and the 100ft which
is what I’ve got sometimes goes on sale for 39-40 bucks.
One time purchase lasts a long time.
We’re just going to go ahead and screw this guy on here.
I’ve got a double on/off valve here to prevent leakage and once again we’ve got that gasket
in here so this is what it looks like.
I’ve got an on/off valve here and another on/off valve here to ensure we don’t get
any leaks and then now we can simply turn the water on and check this baby out.
Oooh it’s spraying!
But it’s not getting my camera wet that bad.
Anyways, so now we’re going to blast these bugs.
Blast the bugs!
Ok, so I got a little bit crazy there and I got too much water on the lens, not too
cool so I backed the camera up and we’re going to go for it again.
These are my green tree collards and I definitely want to try to preserve all the leaves and
not cut any tops off like my dinosaur kale because this guy despite going to flower…
will go to flower, set seed and then go back right to producing leaves for me to eat.
So, we’re going to turn this guy on and we’re just going to go here and spray this
guy down.
Hopefully, the camera won’t get too wet this time and we’re literally blasting all
the bugs off, we’re getting that stream underneath the leaves, above the leaves and
all over, just spraying water everywhere.
At the same time you’re probably feeding your plants some water.
Alright, well I think this is getting a little bit too wet for the camera here, we’re going
to go ahead and shut you guys off but those are the three ways I like to battle bugs in
my garden, non-toxic.
Number one: cut them off, number two: smoosh them, and number three: spray them with the
Bug Blaster.
Maybe the one that I would go next to would be beneficial insects before spraying any
kind of non-toxic products in my garden to control the aphids.
But then beneficial insects can get expensive and they may fly away.
This guy you literally invest in once and you’re going to have it for years to come
to blast come bugs in your garden.
So, to learn more about the Bug Blaster you’re going to want to check the website TheBugBlaster.com
So, hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode, once again my name is John Kohler with GrowingYourGreens.com
we’ll see you next time and remember: Keep on Growing!