Hi everyone, my watermelon plants have been infested with aphids. The aphids have not spread to all of them yet. I wanted to stop them from spreading so I looked up a recipe to kill them. I found this recipe. 2 cups-water 1 cup-veg. oil 2 tsp. soap I mixed up this recipe with olive oil, water and a natural soap called Miracle 2. I then sprayed my plants with the solution. I cam back about 3 hours later and the leaves of my water melons had turned dark green and had wilted. I think I may have killed those leaves. What did I do wrong? Thanks and God bless, Rachel
Uh, Rachel, Welcome to the Stew. Glad you found us...Too bad you didn't find us before you fount that "recipe". It sounds like waaaaaaaaaaaay too much oil in the mix. Did it really say 1 CUP of oil? I would have thought maybe 1 teaspoon or 1 Tablespoon, but not 1 cup of oil. Hopefully you didn't kill your plant along with the aphids, but you shouldn't have any problems with the aphids now . but I am not real hopeful for your plants at this point. How big are they and what is the temperature there? that may play a part in the loss or recovery of the plants. My advice is to go cover them quickly with a sheet or something and keep the direct sun off of them for any hope at all to save them.
Okay so that is what I did wrong. I only sprayed a small portion of my 6 watermelon plants. (thank God)So I still have quite a few aphids on my other plants. Should I use this recipe but cut the oil back to a tablespoon or so? I think the plant I sprayed will be fine, if I can get rid of the aphids. The leaves I sprayed are probably going to die though. :'( Do you still think I should cover the plant? My plants are pretty good size. They have lots of blooms and the weather is in the upper 90's to 100's.Thanks, Rachel
Hi Rachel, good thing you only sprayed a small part of them. I would still cover them if I could, if it was mine, but do what you need to. Remix the spray using 1 t. oil and 1 gallon of water and 1-2 t of dish soap.( I use dawn) Then spray another small portion of the plants to see if that works, but a strong spray of water may work, too. Hope you are successful. It is a great year for melons so far, here. I hope yours do as well as mine are doing. considering nothing else is doing as well with the drought.
Can`t imagine anyone telling you to use that much oil. Especially in the heat, it literally fries them. However the melons do not need the leaves that much except for shade and whatever melons are on them should be ok. I just use the soap and water without the oil and instead I add 1 tbsp dog or cat shampoo rather than dishwashing soap to a spray bottle. Takes care of all those aphids and other insects.
