I have used Actinovate by itself and was pleased.

[QUOTE=Greatgardens;608336]
Most of the soda recipes that I've seen use vegetable oil and dish detergent as the "spreader sticker." Seems like a less viscous oil might yield better results, but that is just a guess. Anyone tried any other blends for the "spreader sticker?"
-GG[/QUOTE]

I was using baking soda last year, will continue this year. Didn't wanted to use soap or detergent of any kind, was using vegetable oil in start, recipe said few drops but soon I replaced it with: 1 spoon of baking soda (or something about 10 g) + 1 liter of milk + 9 liters of water.

I was satisfied with results.

[QUOTE=javafxnoob;608526]I was using baking soda last year, will continue this year. Didn't wanted to use soap or detergent of any kind, was using vegetable oil in start, recipe said few drops but soon I replaced it with: 1 spoon of baking soda (or something about 10 g) + 1 liter of milk + 9 liters of water.

I was satisfied with results.[/QUOTE]

Milk is the "spreader-sticker?" Interesting...

-GG

Not sure about "spreader-sticker" properties, but there is something I was reading about milk. Reason why I used it. Translation goes something like this:

"During treatment of plants on plant surface thin layer is formed which protect plants from pathogens. Milk protect plants from fungus and viruses, plants treated with milk have better immunity and milk enhancing use of nutrients from soil.

Milk sugar - lactose - not all insects can't tolerate. Because of this milk is good for protection of plant against insects."

Creating thin layer makes sense to me and I can verify that insects don't like plants sprayed with milk. At least my tomatoes they left alone. I guess I should put some vegetable oil too, probably this year will do it. Recipe says few drops of oil but I didn't see any effect of it to be honest. Text says much more, something about using milk as fertilizer but I am skeptical about that.

I'm thinking that any benefit of milk as a fertilizer would be from the lactose. Sugar feeds beneficial bacteria, thus increasing nutrient uptake. It's not a fertilizer in the N-P-K sense, but rather a way to make better use of existing nutrients in the soil. Having said that, if I was trying to feed sugar to plants, I would use molasses instead, and not as a spray.

Concentrated Neem Oil with a few drops of dish soap, along with some DE takes care of most of my fungal issues. In my mind DE has a desiccant effect too, so perhaps it helps in fungal control.

This year I'm using copper again.

Hi Gerado. I was wondering about using detergent with the Neem oil as a surfactant/dispersant.
-GG

I have used milk/water on powdery mildew on cukes and squash with good results.
I think milk provide a thin film that prevents bacteria/fungi frrom getting into the plant leaves. That is what soap and oil does also, covering the plant with a thin film. So that is how also Neem Oil works in part ,beside repelling insects. Oil can also stay longer on the leaves after rain. Milk also has protein that might be beneficial.

I have got good results using bleach spray ( 7 oz per gallon of water) on mold and mildew. We know that bleach kills those fungi.
I do not know the mechanism of synthetic fungicides like Daconil and copper based sprays but I use them as preventive measure.

70% Neem, why not buy pure Neem extract. Is something hiding in"Other" ingredients??

Why not just go to backing soda??Much cheaper.Use and application on YouTube.

Manzate is another effective chemical fungicide. It's a bit difficult to find and may have to be ordered online, plus it has a 7 day waiting period to harvest after spraying. This is time in the field, time indoors on the widow sill doesn't count as the time is based on weather factors. When you have lots of tomatoes ripening this leaves them outside with the critters too long.

[QUOTE=gdaddybill;699818]Manzate is another effective chemical fungicide. It's a bit difficult to find and may have to be ordered online, plus it has a 7 day waiting period to harvest after spraying. This is time in the field, time indoors on the widow sill doesn't count as the time is based on weather factors. When you have lots of tomatoes ripening this leaves them outside with the critters too long.[/QUOTE]

Caution:read the label first. Has been proven to cause birth defects and severe illness in migrant workers and their offspring. Copper is very effective against all folier fungal and bacterial agents, and is safe. It's OMRI listed , organic.

Cold pressed neem does all of this
 

The clarified hydrophobic extract from Home Depot doesn't pack the full punch.

Cold pressed neem has a mix of azadirachtin and other triterpenoids-limonoids (the class of molecules), each with varying degrees of insecticidal activity. This table summarizes the effects well.

[ATTACH]81198[/ATTACH]

Table from this publication, a solid read:

[url]http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0301-80592000000400001[/url]

And this one too:
[url]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061770/[/url]

[QUOTE=rick9748;699800]70% Neem, why not buy pure Neem extract. Is something hiding in"Other" ingredients??[/QUOTE]

Neem extract and neem oil are not the same thing. Also, I don't even know what this has to do with anything anyone has said?

[QUOTE=rick9748;699801]Why not just go to backing soda??Much cheaper.Use and application on YouTube.[/QUOTE]

Because baking soda is only effective against powdery mildew and only mildly so, and tomatoes are susceptible to a range of very unrelated fungal and bacterial diseases. In addition, the recommendation to use it is an extrapolation of the effectiveness of potassium bicarbonate. Unfortunately, a logical extrapolation doesn't equal a scientific or in vivo reality.

[QUOTE=Gerardo;699841]The clarified hydrophobic extract from Home Depot doesn't pack the full punch.

Cold pressed neem has a mix of azadirachtin and other triterpenoids-limonoids (the class of molecules), each with varying degrees of insecticidal activity. This table summarizes the effects well.

[ATTACH]81198[/ATTACH]

Table from this publication, a solid read:

[url]http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0301-80592000000400001[/url]

And this one too:
[url]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061770/[/url][/QUOTE]

Loving this post.