Growing vegetables without spraying pesticides: homemade insecticides work better, and you can eat with peace of mind.

Anyone who has grown vegetables knows that as long as you grow vegetables, there will be all kinds of pests. Among leafy vegetables, the cabbage caterpillar (Pieris rapae) does the most serious damage; among solanaceous and fruiting vegetables, the whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) troubles many vegetable growers; and among chives, root maggots and other soil-dwelling pests are especially hard to control. Generally speaking, insects on vegetables are especially hard to control, so vegetable growers spray pesticides over and over again, using larger and larger amounts and increasingly toxic formulas, which also causes serious harm to human health.

In fact, some homemade insecticides are not inferior at all in effectiveness. The reason they are used relatively little is, first, that people are rather lazy, and making your own preparation is less direct and convenient than simply using a pesticide; and second, many people still have blind faith in pesticides and always feel that only spraying pesticides works. Actually that is not the case. At least I have tried all the methods below, and the results were quite good.

1. Plant ash liquid for pest control. Plant ash really is a good thing: it can be used as fertilizer to improve the soil, and it is also a very good preparation. Its filtrate can control aphids. The formula is: 10 kg of plant ash soaked in 50 kg of water for 24 hours. Applied to the roots, it has a very good effect on maggots and can be applied to the roots of Welsh onions, chives and garlic. The specific method is: per mu, apply 20-30 kg of plant ash in furrows or by broadcasting, which both controls maggots and increases yield.

2. The urine-and-detergent mixture is especially effective against vegetable aphids. Many people have used it, and it is a fairly old method too. The specific preparation method is: make a mixed liquid of washing powder, urea and water in a ratio of 1:4:400 and spray it. When spraying the urine-and-detergent mixture, be sure that the urea is fully dissolved before spraying, otherwise it may burn the vegetable leaves.

3. If you grow radishes, using table salt to prevent root maggots is very effective. The specific method: when sowing radishes, make small holes by hand, sprinkle a little table salt into the holes, then sow the radish seeds in the holes and cover them with soil. In this way you do not need to drench the roots with a liquid preparation, nor take other preventive measures. The radishes not only avoid root maggots, but also have smooth skin and store well.

The methods above are all quite good. If you are interested, you can give them a try, or if you have any other good pest-control methods, let us discuss them together.