A lesson about Neem Oil

Here was a plant I had growing for 23 days, here are the pics from day 11 to 23, I added neem oil that I got a tip about from a post here but the poster didn't mention about diluting or about spraying it just before lights out to prevent burning, or frying in my case.

I clipped off the super fried leaves and tried to let it re-coop but I just scrapped it and buried in the sand on the beach nearby as a r.i.p. that was my first grow, under two flourescents and a cfl. I've upgraded my next one to be 3 cfls and improved ventilation and with a more restricted schedule for watering and etc. It's day 8 of my new grow and maybe I'll start a journal about it.

Safe to say I will never use neem oil again even if I did it incorrectly, if I can help someone prevent this then I'll be glad. Thanks.

aw man that's sad! haha yea you def need to dilute the solution and spray the leaves...very little neem oil at all!! and the water needs to be HOT, add a little SOAP so that it dilutes well...

then let it sit until room temp (dont' want to burn your plants) and ONLY spray leaves at night or VERY close to lights out, cause you will get burned. this goes for any liquid.

i've had a lot of success with NEEM oil, VERY diluted tho.

so sorry again man, i got rid of fungus gnats and spider mites with them, so if you ever have those problems might want to it again (following this post)

good luck rep it up

Yea I know and whats funny is I didn't even have a real problem, I saw it being used as a prophylactic (preventative) measure and thought I'd just be applying it once a week, but oh well. Thanks again, you too.

haha yea it is real preventative, keeps the leaves nice and shiny and protected, usually...

I use 1 tsp per liter of water, and about 8-10 drops of unscented biodegradable dish soap. Works really well, just shake it up as you spray and get top and bottom of leaves. Then I pour a little in the soil and let the plant take it up as a systemic. It has helped a lot, especially against thrips.

It can be a bit strong for young plants, maybe because it actually has nutrients in it. Yep, neem oil actually feeds your plants, instead of poisoning them.

So sorry....I have used Neem oil for the last four years on a regular basis and on all of my plants from babies through a couple of weeks before flowering. It can be a bit tricky though. I've had the best luck with Einstein oil, a neem product and I dilute it depending on the size/age of the plant from 1/2 to 1 1/2 tsp. per liter of room temperature water. I use a spreader sticker with it (Penetrator by Dutch Master) and shake it often during the spraying of both top and bottom of plant as well as spraying lightly on the top layer of soil. It is best to use it just prior to lights out. I really saturate the leaves so that when the eggs hatch (spider mites) they have no choice but to ingest it. I spray every three or four days. I have also added garlic, italian dressing, and other ingredients to make it even more effective. I don't use it as a systemic because it is an oil and at some point it will ball up and possibly interfere with nutrient uptake especially in soil. Try it again on one or two plants as it is nature's pesticide and it really does work! Maintain.