Organic gardening isn’t just good vibes—it’s safer for bees, tastier for you and better for the soil biome that powers every harvest. Below you’ll find a battle-tested toolbox of preventive tactics, seven DIY spray recipes, and smart product picks from our own shelves so you can tackle everything from aphids to slugs without synthetic nasties.
1. Know Your Enemy 🕵️♂️
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Pest |
Tell-tale signs |
Best first response |
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Aphids |
Sticky “honeydew”, curling tips |
Blast with hose, follow with chilli–garlic spray |
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Fine webbing under leaves |
Increase humidity, spray with Green Cleaner |
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Silver streaks on foliage |
Yellow sticky traps + neem oil drench |
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Tiny black flies, larvae in soil |
Bottom-water, add Diatomaceous Earth & use T-Drops |
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Slugs & snails |
Ragged holes, slime trails |
Night hunt, set Slug Trap with beer |
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Brown bumps on stems |
Manual scrape, wipe with Neem + Karanj oil mix |
2. Prevention Is Cheaper Than Cure
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Healthy soil = tougher plants. Feed the microbiome and keep watering consistent.
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Quarantine new plants for a week before introducing them to your beds.
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Rotate crops & diversify. Monocultures invite pest parties.
3. Seven DIY Organic Spray Recipes
Pro tip: Always test-spray one leaf 24 h beforehand and avoid spraying in direct sun.
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# |
Recipe (makes 1 L) |
What it crushes |
How to use |
|
1 |
Chilli–Garlic Knock-Out 2 hot chillies, 1 bulb garlic, 1 tsp dish soap, top-up water |
Aphids, caterpillars |
Blend, steep 24 h, strain, spray foliage weekly |
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2 |
Pure Neem + Soap 5 ml Neem + Karanj Oil + 2 ml castile soap |
Shake vigorously, mist underside of leaves |
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3 |
Bicarb Mildew Buster 1 tbsp baking soda, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 1 L water |
Powdery mildew |
Spray every 5 days at first sign |
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4 |
Milk Shield 100 ml full-cream milk, 900 ml water |
Fungal spores |
Alternate with Recipe 3 |
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5 |
Herbal Oil Quick-Fix Ready-to-use Zero Tolerance |
All soft-bodied insects |
Spray, then re-apply after rain |
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6 |
Aloe + Silica Foliar 5 ml aloe juice, 2 ml liquid silica, water |
General tonic, minor pests |
Weekly health booster |
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7 |
Castile Soap Blitz 10 ml unscented soap, drop of peppermint oil, water |
Coat pests directly, rinse after 1 h |
4. Physical & Mechanical Helpers
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Yellow Pest Traps – lure thrips & whitefly before they colonise foliage. Grab a pack here.
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Diatomaceous Earth – sprinkle a 3 mm skirt of food-grade powder around stems to shred crawling insects’ exoskeletons. Stock up here.
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Slug & Snail Trap – half-bury, add beer or yeast mix and collect night raiders. See details here.
5. When You Need Backup: Pro-Grade Organics
Sometimes an infestation explodes overnight. That’s when our shelf-ready solutions shine:
|
Product |
Unique mechanism |
Best use case |
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Plant-safe essential-oil surfactants strip pests’ wax coating |
Heavy spider-mite or thrip bloom |
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Bio-based leaf conditioner with anti-fungal kick |
Post-harvest clean-up or mid-grow shine |
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Resin extract targets gnat larvae |
Fungus-gnat outbreaks in seedling trays |
6. Safe-Handling & Storage
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Mix just enough for one session—most DIY sprays lose potency after 24–48 h.
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Wear gloves & eye protection; even organics can irritate skin.
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Store concentrates like neem in a cool, dark cupboard to stop active compounds degrading.
7. Download Your Free Cheat-Sheet
Print or save the “2-Page Organic Pest-Control Cheat-Sheet”—ingredients, dosages and spray intervals at a glance.
Ready to go bug-free, the natural way?
Browse the full Organic Pest Control collection and arm your garden today. Questions? Hit us up via live chat—our grow-geeks are on standby!
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