My misadventures with Neem Oil Concentrate

For the last two years my boyfriend and I have been very interested in the local and organic food movement. We have obtained most of our fruit and veg from local farmers markets, and failing that at least from the organic section of the grocer. Last November we put our toe in the water, seeing what it means to grow our own food. I bought one spinach plant and one rainbow chard plant and then had the privilege of watching them die by means of fat green caterpillars and my own southern Californian, urban-raised black-thumbs. In January I tried again, only adding two chamomile plants to my potted garden collection. Again the leafy greens died. I thought that the chamomile was toast, and yet I still have two very happy flowering plants. I guess that was the turning point – because the stick plant is now a small bush and the former bush is slowly becoming a tree!

We started collecting the tools we would need to grow our food garden – soil, pots, seeds, spray cans, etc. Our goal was organic, so no sprays. We had an emergency planting session in late March when we discovered that a bunch of our seeds had not been properly protected from moisture and sprouted in their plastic bags. From that day forward we became farmers. Now I have a dozen melons and watermelon plants, too many cucumber plants, beats, kale, a few leafy spring mixes, arugula, basil, chard, parsley, strawberries, and dozens of herbs that I cannot identify let alone name (thank you Google!).  

When the plants stayed indoors, they were very happy… but we quickly ran out of space for the two of us, so to the backyard they went! Then we all had the fun of understanding over- and under-watering, root rot and of course, reacquainting ourselves with our lovely friends green caterpillars and sucky-bugs. I still screech and shudder every time I need to squish a big juicy caterpillar… but I am getting better! Promise! Still, we were losing ground and something needed to happen before we had no garden left. We tried the dove-cayenne pepper-water spray and other organic mixes from YouTube. No luck. Plus I was not keen on sacrificing our blender to soap duty full time…. we kept looking and discovered Neem Oil. Many many many research videos later, we decided to keep an eye out for this incredible non-toxic organic-gardening product.

May passed into June with no Neem Oil luck. And then I thought I’d struck gold – there was Neem Oil at Home Depot! (Natria Neem OilConcentration-706240B by Bayer Advanced) It worked great – in fact, too I think the stuff worked a little too well. There were several of my green squishy nemeses lying convulsed and very dead at the base of the kale the next morning. We’ve used our home-mixed Neem Oil spray twice since I bought in last month - it works very well when we use it and the squishy green guys come inching back when we take a break…. What I find interesting is the change in our plants within that one month time. Now, to be fair, I be spraying, I may have made the stuff too concentrated, or I am simply did not washing my kale enough, but my boyfriend has been complaining about an increased bitter taste. Last night my mouth went numb from the stuff from my back yard. This is a problem that I am not keen to perpetuate. I think my organic garden may not be as organic as I would like to think.

I looked at the product label today. The ingredient list was a little vague – 70% neem oil concentrate and 30% “other ingredients.” When I read food labels “other ingredients” is a red flag that includes anything from chemical preservatives to food coloring. Honestly, it could be water, but I am not about to hold my breath. The Bayer website is not very helpful because I cannot even find the product listed. I need to dive deeper into the issue and try to find out more!