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Insecticidal soaps explained: control pests without poisons · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello there and welcome to the podcast. I'm your host Dr. Russell Sharp,
• 0:04
  the founder of Eutrema Ltd and today I'm going to be talking all about insecticidal soaps.
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  What are insecticidal soaps, how do they work and what to look for in a product.
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  Now insecticidal soaps all work by physical disruption so they're not pesticides,
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  they don't have any residual activity,
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  they don't last for a long time, killing, they're not a biocide,
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  they're not something that's going to kill anything directly through chemical action.
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  They control pests and some diseases by physical mode of action.
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  So what does physical mode of action mean?
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  It means that they degrade the waxes and the exoskeletons of the pests,
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  normally insects, but they can be mites, arachnids, and break down the waxes,
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  break down the membranes, disrupt the pores so that the insect suffocates.
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  The tiny pores that are located on the insect's abdomen. They're called spiracles.
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  And so they're considered a contact killer. So the action's entirely physical,
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  meaning the liquid must coat the pest to be effective.
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  So you dilute it, put it in your spray can, and it will be a contact.
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  So it's not systemic, which is both a benefit and a disadvantage.
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  So you can't spray it on one leaf and hope that it travels down into the roots
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  and kills root aphids, for example.
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  And you can't just spray a few leaves and hope that the whole plant is protected.
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  You just spray it on the infected, on the pests, so say you've got a plant covered
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  in aphids, you spray all the aphids and they will die, but it won't move around the plants.
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  That's a good thing because not only are they normally non-hazardous,
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  it means they're not going to travel into the fruit tissues or the flower tissues
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  or the things you're going to eat.
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  You're not going to have this poison moving around the plant.
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  So you spray the leaves of a carrot plant.
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  It's only going to stay on the leaves. It's not going to go into the carrot.
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  So that's a really good effect. And also it's non-systemic.
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  So it doesn't hang around for a long time, which is a benefit and a disadvantage
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  meaning that the disadvantage is that you can't get that,
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  prolonged control of a pest or a disease but the advantage is that you don't have this poison,
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  sat in your plant that you're then going to eat or consume somehow so there
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  are benefits and disadvantages of insecticidal soaps but they are a really good
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  way of controlling pests especially,
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  the first method of control before you go on to anything harsher,
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  any of the biocides, the insecticides, and things like this.
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  So the main thing you've got to consider though when choosing one is,
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  is it plant safe? And is it sodium free?
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  And that's what we specialize at Eutrema.
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  A lot of the insecticidal soaps on the market, especially in the UK,
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  are sodium-based products.
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  Sodium, as I've said before on the podcast, is like arsenic to plants.
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  So arsenic is this as poisonous, sodium is as poisonous to plants as arsenic is to you.
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  One of the quickest ways to kill a plant is to put table salt on it sodium chloride,
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  so you really want to avoid sodium wherever possible when growing plants and,
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  formulators have been using cheap sodium-based soaps because they're abundant
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  they're what's in your washing up liquid they're what's in detergents they're
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  what's in floor cleaner and things like this,
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  but and it's not even as if these products are cheap even some of the most expensive
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  products on the market are these sodium-based products.
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  So there's a wetting agent for sports turf called Absorb, which is really dilute sodium-based soap.
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  And so you really want to use an alternative to that. So at Eutrema,
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  we use ammonia and potassium as the cations rather than sodium.
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  So you want to avoid that. Other things like SB Plant Invigorator are sodium-based soaps.
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  These companies are making enough money that they don't need to include sodium
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  but because they've had it easy for quite a long time they are using it and
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  the other advantage of keeping it sodium free is that you're able to include a nutrient
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  alongside that so potassium and ammonia they provide nitrogen and potassium
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  to the plant it's a bit like a foliar fertilizer and there will be some sulfur in there as well okay so,
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  and the other advantage is that it's,
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  going to be far easier to biodegrade and you can use it within that integrated
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  pest management strategy that we've talked about before so we've talked about
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  insect pests so a lot of your sap suckers and things like caterpillars
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  leafy leaf eaters it'll be effective against,
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  you when scale insect is on the move it'll be effective against scale insect.
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  It won't be effective against sort of root aphids because obviously you can't apply it there.
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  Mites, so red spider mites, russet mites, things like this would be good against.
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  It won't give you complete control. So again, you need to use integrated pest management.
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  And then a couple of diseases as well. So powdery mildew suppression is the main one.
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  Really primarily used for soft-bodied insects, but it will have some effect,
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  against powdery mildew. and if you've got some other diseases,
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  you might have some effect against rust and things like this, disrupting the.
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  The growths that appear especially the fruiting bodies that are producing spores okay so,
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  one of the other things we might want to look at is tank mix compatibility especially
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  for our customers in sports turf who are wanting to mix a number of products
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  together in hydroponics and house house plants.
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  Don't tend to do much tank mixing you just apply one product whereas if you're
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  wanting to you know you're getting on a tractor you want to put as many products
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  down as possible normally,
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  the key thing to remember is that soaps in their nature are out mildly alkaline
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  so anything that drops the ph or anything's got really,
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  a lot of metal content could could disrupt that soap forming ability now the,
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  from the utreema catalog our ultimate iron our magnesium plus are liquid gold,
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  humic and fulvic acid, nitrogen, amino acid powder, they're all compatible.
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  So that's a lot of products.
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  So if you wanted to get loads of nutrients in, liquid gold.
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  If you're looking for a quick boost, green up of your lawn, for example,
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  32% nitrogen or magnesium plus. And if you're looking for darkening of that
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  foliage, ultimate iron.
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  And then as far as biostimulants go, humic and fulvic acids and amino acids
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  don't tang mix it with seaweed extract
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  you will get the you'll get a scum a scum forming and that's not good because
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  not only are you getting potentially blocking filters then you could be,
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  removing the activity of both,
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  and products that you're you're applying so there you go that's.
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  The advantages and how insecticidal soaps work zero residues,
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  won't be systemic which is good and bad no effect on eggs really so you're only
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  going to be affecting adults and nymphs the young okay.
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  You may need to apply more than once because of that lack of residual activity.
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  You probably were going to want to apply every five to seven days if you have an infestation.
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  You don't want to apply too often because you'll be breaking the waxes down
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  on the leaf surface and you could harm the plants if you apply it too often.
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  But if I had an infestation, I wouldn't have any problem with applying it every five days.
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  They can cause some phytotoxicity if you apply too often, especially if it's
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  hot. So don't apply them above 30 degrees Celsius. You shouldn't really be putting
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  any foliar, spraying anything on your plants above 30 degrees Celsius because
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  you're going to feel a world of pain if you do that.
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  But yeah, you want to be applying every five days if you've got an infestation. Don't overdose.
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  Eutremus insecticidal soap is very
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  concentrated. It's not one of these watered-down products ready to use.
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  Follow the instructions. It comes to all the eutrema products.
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  We have very concentrated products that are for professional use.
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  If you apply too much or if you glug it into the tank rather than measuring
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  it, you could cause problems.
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  Okay and then don't expect it to work on,
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  adult beetles so things like black vine wheels
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  it won't work on those it's only really soft-bodied insects aphids white flies
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  spider mounts thrips even caterpillars it may struggle with if you did want
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  to have an effect against caterpillars
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  i'd probably mix in some lime sulfur or something like this so that's something
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  to consider so let me know if you've used insecticidal soaps and you've got any feedback,
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  or if you've got any other top tips for when using them i'd be really interesting
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  to hear whether whether you're in hydroponics or sports turf or even in agriculture
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  whether you've used one of these products okay so an alternative to pesticides an alternative to some,
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  bio fungus some fungicides,
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  and if you're looking for an organic insecticidal soap then check out yucca extract,
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  by eutreema our yucca extract is a natural plant soap that's extracted from
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  yucca plants in new mexico and that's organically certified it can be used on
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  organic crops so it's not just eutreema's insecticidal soap we also have,
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  our yucca extract as well so check that out as well all right thanks very much
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  for listening until next time goodbye.