Using neem tree extracts as a natural pesticide

I have 27 tabs open on my phone right now. At least six of them are about neem. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole searching on them.

I began using neem oil on a very piece of land behind my house about four months ago, after aphids basically declared war on everything green there. I was told by a farmer just outside Kumasi in a very casual way. How people mention something that has been obvious to them for decades and I went home and started mixing batches that same week.

The biggest surprise to me about using the neem oil is that it actually works but works slowly. It isn’t slow in a bad way but you must definitely adjust your expectations if you think it'll do what chemicals do. Neem does not kill like synthetic chemicals do when they make contact with the pest. It does the job by interrupting, it makes its way into the pest system and interrupts reproduction, feeding and molting of the pest. So the pest does not die off quickly, it just stops being a problem, it is almost philosophically pleasant for me.

The active compound in neem which you may already know is azadirachtin, which is found in the seeds. You crush the seeds, soak them in water and sometimes add soap to help them stick to the leaves on the plant. It has a strong odour, it's not pleasant but the vegetables have recovered from the infestation after two weeks of applying neem oil.

What has become more difficult is trying to understand how I didn't know anything about this trick when it has been there for centuries, in the soil, in the trees, in the shrubs. There's probably so much more that we can do organically we're still not aware of and we're using chemicals for.

_{Posted using SteemX}