Products and things that make gardening easier and achieve better results are always sort after by keen gardeners.
Years ago; I was the first garden writer to explain the benefits of Neem Oil in New Zealand as a very safe insecticide to use on all garden plants including food crops, which was verified by NZ Food Safety in an article they published which said: Dietary Risk Assessment – Neem has been determined to be of very low toxicity.
Extracts of Neem have been used historically in parts of Asia for skin and dental treatments for what has claimed to be over 2000 years.
Parts of the Neem tree are consumed in certain Indian and Southeast Asian dishes.
Neem is used in human medicine for skin and acne treatment and for the control of scabies and head lice.
The active component azadirachtin has also been demonstrated to be of very low toxicity.
Neem and azadirachtin do not represent a dietary intake risk from consumption of residues on treated food commodities.
Not all Neem oils have the same qualities as it depends on the extraction progress from the kernels of the Neem Tree; whether chemical or cold pressed.
Wallys Super Neem Tree is completely original and natural been cold pressed and a American study showed this if you care to check it here.
Occasionally people ask me why on the label does it say, ‘Not to be used on or around food crops’?
The answer to that is EPA and NZFS require expensive registrations to have that removed from the label as any insect control used on food crops has to be registered for that purpose.
If you avoid the expensive cost of registration (One test alone I was quoted at sixty thousand dollars) then you use the allowed exemption which is: ‘Exempted from registration in NZ pursuant to the ACVM act 1997’.
The aspect is that some Neem Oil products are registered and as all Neem Oils come from the same source, the fruit or seeds of the Neem Tree then obviously as NZFS said in a past article, Totally Safe.
But as Neem Oil tastes horrible all you should do is wash any food that has recently been sprayed with Neem Oil before using.
In India when they cold press the kernels to extract the oil the residue is called Neem Cake.
If only one pressing is applied that means there is still a nice amount of Neem Oil in the cake, it is very dark and smells of the oil. This is also the most expensive Neem Cake to purchase.
I have found the cake maybe pressed again and again to extract more oil and then the cake is very light in colour and low in smell and no more use than coffee grounds in the garden.
It is the smell that confuses insect pests and the oil that seeps out though rain and watering that works wonders in reducing insect pests problems.
We have our supplier in India to screen the Neem Cake to obtain Wallys Neem Tree Granules which are from small granules to larger chunks.
Wallys Neem Tree Powder is further screened to obtain a nice particle size for use in lawns against grass grubs, in potting mixes for control of root mealy bugs and root nematodes.
The powder used when sowing seeds and in the planting hole of seedlings is nice to use and handle for those purposes, lasting about 3 months.
On the other hand Wallys Neem Tree Granules will likely last from 3 to 6 months on the soil under trees, shrubs and around plants.
Sprinkled under citrus trees within about 6 to 8 weeks the tree will be clean of any pests including borer.
Landscapers have told me they put the granules around gardens they tend and find it greatly reduces the need for spraying.
I think one of the main reasons is the Neem Granules smell which disguises the smell of the host plant.
Some gardeners hang gauze bags in fruit trees to hide the tree’s fruit smell from moths at night, which is a effective control against Codlin moth and guava moths.
House plants are prone to root mealy bugs so incorporating the Neem powder into the potting mix or placing a little powder on top of the mix where you water and then covering with a little more mix helps control this pest.
Many people also don’t realise that Wallys Super Neem Tree oil is a great help to prevent or control fungus diseases on plants being the likes of powdery mildew which a spray of the oil turns the leaves from white to dark green immediately.
Black spot and rust also don’t like the oil.
Spraying Wallys Neem Oil should only be done last thing before dark to prevent any burning from the oil in sunlight.
On plants it will be broken down by UV and have a life of up to 7 Days. Add Raingard to the spray and that will take it to about 14 days.
Another use for the oil is to spray just the fruit of apples and pears with Raingard added to prevent the grubs of Codlin Moths from entering the fruit.
Spraying all the fruit of all trees to prevent damage from Guava Moths in areas where that moth has become a problem.
This is only on the fruit not the tree and what happens when the grubs hatch out, they take a bite and they get some Neem oil in their gut and that stops them eating so no damage occurs other than a pin prick scar at harvest time.
Yes Wallys Neem Products certainly makes life easier for us gardeners.
Image credit: TheSlumPanda, CC BY-SA 4.0
Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz
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