- 3 days ago
Two spoons of baking soda will not magically wipe out every garden pest, but it does have one honest use that many gardeners overlook: controlling powdery mildew on squash, cucumbers, roses, and lilacs. The real trick is not soda alone, but a spray mixed with a little oil and soap so it clings to the leaf instead of rolling off.
This garden remedy breakdown also separates fact from hype on aphids, slugs, and the idea that baking soda can solve everything. The transcript explains why soap and oil do the work on soft-bodied insects, why dry soda lines are a poor slug control method, and why too much sodium can be hard on soil. It also points to potassium bicarbonate as a better long-term fungus spray because it fights mildew and leaves potassium behind instead of salt.
If you enjoy practical gardening tips, homemade pest control, organic garden advice, and honest plant disease treatment, this is a useful listen for vegetable gardens, rose care, and backyard growing. It is especially helpful for anyone comparing baking soda spray, soap spray, slug traps, and potassium bicarbonate fungicide options.
SEO: gardening tips, baking soda for plants, powdery mildew treatment, garden pest control, organic fungicide, aphid spray, slug control, vegetable garden care, rose disease treatment, and homemade garden remedies for practical search and listening discovery.
This garden remedy breakdown also separates fact from hype on aphids, slugs, and the idea that baking soda can solve everything. The transcript explains why soap and oil do the work on soft-bodied insects, why dry soda lines are a poor slug control method, and why too much sodium can be hard on soil. It also points to potassium bicarbonate as a better long-term fungus spray because it fights mildew and leaves potassium behind instead of salt.
If you enjoy practical gardening tips, homemade pest control, organic garden advice, and honest plant disease treatment, this is a useful listen for vegetable gardens, rose care, and backyard growing. It is especially helpful for anyone comparing baking soda spray, soap spray, slug traps, and potassium bicarbonate fungicide options.
SEO: gardening tips, baking soda for plants, powdery mildew treatment, garden pest control, organic fungicide, aphid spray, slug control, vegetable garden care, rose disease treatment, and homemade garden remedies for practical search and listening discovery.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00You have surely heard it by now, that two spoons of baking soda from the back of your cupboard
00:05will clear every pest and blight and rot out of your whole garden forever, cheaper than the $40
00:12bottle at the store. Well, I am going to be straight with you, more honest than the folk
00:17who sell you that tall tale, for there is real truth buried in it, but it is wrapped in a
00:23lie,
00:23and if you believe the whole of it, you will be disappointed and go right back to the store.
00:28So today, I will tell you exactly what the baking soda truly does in a garden, what it does not
00:35do,
00:35no matter what they claim, and best of all, a better cousin to it that hardly anyone will tell
00:41you about, that does the real job and feeds your plants besides. Stay with me, for the honest
00:48version is the one worth having. I am Elias, and this is one of those old kitchen remedies that got
00:55puffed up into a miracle it never was, and I would rather give you its honest, true use, for used
01:02right, it earns its place, and believed as a cure-all, it only lets you down. So, let me give
01:09you the whole
01:09plain truth of it. Quick word before I go further. The old methods my family uses, there is more of
01:16it
01:16and fits in any one video. I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com. The book
01:24is the
01:24long version. If you want it, it is there. I will not mention it again. I remember the summer the
01:31squash went down when I was a boy, the big leaves gone pale as if dusted with flour, then gray,
01:38then
01:38curling up dead from the edges in. My mother did not fret, nor send to town for anything. She went
01:45to the
01:45same box of baking soda she used for her bread, mixed up a watering can right there at the pump,
01:51and in a few days that white had stopped its spreading, and the vines held, and we ate squash
01:56clear into November, stored down cellar in the straw. It cost us nothing. But she also knew and told me
02:04exactly what it would and would not do, and that honest knowing is what I mean to give you now.
02:10First, the one thing the baking soda truly does well, and it does it genuinely, is against the
02:17powdery mildew, that white dusty coating that creeps over the leaves of your squash and cucumbers
02:23and roses and lilacs and strangles them. That white is a living fungus, feeding on your leaf and blocking
02:31its light till the leaf starves and dies. And here is why the baking soda checks it, honestly,
02:37and it is real. That fungus likes the surface of a leaf to be a certain way to take hold.
02:43A bit sour, a bit neutral, that is its comfort. And baking soda, dissolved in water and sprayed on
02:50the leaf, turns that surface sweet, alkaline, the opposite of what the fungus wants. And on that
02:57changed surface, the spores cannot get their footing and take hold. So it is not a poison that kills the
03:04fungus, so much as it makes the leaf a place the fungus cannot settle on. This is genuine. It is
03:10not just old wives talk, for the outside world has since tested it and found it holds, that the plain
03:17folk had it right all along. So for the powdery mildew, the baking soda spray is a true and useful
03:24old
03:24remedy. But here is the mistake that makes most folk try it once, see nothing happen, and quit. So heed
03:32it well,
03:32for it is the whole secret. They just stir baking soda into water and spray it, and it does near
03:39nothing, for it beads up on the waxy leaf and rolls right off and dries in useless spots.
03:45What you must add, and this is the true trick, is a little oil and a little soap. A small
03:52spoon of a
03:52light oil and a few drops of a pure soap into your gallon of soda water. And here is what
03:58each does.
03:59The soap breaks the water's skin so the spray lies down flat and even and clings to the leaf instead
04:06of beating up and rolling off. And the oil makes it stick and stay through the dew instead of washing
04:12away by morning. Leave out the oil and the soap and you have wasted your time. The soda rolls right
04:19off.
04:20Put them in and it spreads and clings and works. So the whole recipe is a spoon of soda,
04:26a spoon of oil, a few drops of soap, to a gallon of water sprayed on the leaves top and
04:32bottom in the
04:33cool of morning or evening, never the hot sun which would scorch the wet leaf, and again every week or
04:40two and after a rain washes it off. And one honest care, that a few tender plants do not take
04:47kindly to
04:48it and may spot or scorch. So before you spray a whole plant you have not sprayed before,
04:54try it on a leaf or two and wait a day to see it takes no harm. Better to learn
04:59that on three leaves
05:01than on thirty. And keep it to the measure I gave, a spoon to the gallon and no more, for
05:07too strong a
05:08soda spray can burn the very leaves you mean to save. Gentle and tested is the safe way. Now let
05:15me be honest
05:16with you about the bugs, for here the tall tail overreaches. They will tell you this same soda
05:22spray kills the aphids and the soft bugs too. Now it does help against them, but hear the truth of
05:29why,
05:29for it matters, that it is not really the soda doing that work, it is the oil and the soap
05:35you added.
05:36The soap and oil coat those soft little bodies and smother them, break down their waxy coat and dry
05:43them out, and that is what kills an aphid, the soap, not the soda. So yes, spray your soft bugs
05:49with this
05:50mix and it will hurt them, sprayed right on the cluster under the leaves where they hide, but know
05:56it is the soap and oil doing it, which means a plain soap spray without any soda does that job
06:02just as
06:03well. So use it on the aphids if you have it mixed, but do not think the soda is some
06:08special bug killer,
06:09for it is not, and it will do nothing at all against a hard beetle or a caterpillar. For the
06:15mildew,
06:16the soda. For the soft bugs, the soap. No witch is doing what. And now the slugs, and here I
06:24must
06:24correct the tall tail plainly, for this part is poor advice and I will not pass it to you. They
06:30will tell
06:30you to sprinkle dry baking soda in a line around your plants to stop the slugs, that the slug crawling
06:36over it dries up and dies. Now it is true a slug is a soft wet thing, and soda will
06:42harm it. But here
06:44is the trouble, and it is a real one, that baking soda is a salt, and sprinkling salt around your
06:49plants and beds, again and again all season, builds up in your soil and sours it against the very plants
06:56you are trying to grow, doing more harm in the long run than the slugs ever did. And worse, the
07:03first
07:03dew or rain washes your soda line away, and you must lay it fresh every night, so it barely works
07:09besides. So do not salt your garden to fight slugs. There are far better old ways, and I will give
07:16you
07:16them. The finest is the old beer trap, a shallow dish sunk to its rim and filled with a bit
07:22of beer,
07:23and the slugs drawn by the smell crawl in and drown, and it cost your soil nothing. Or go out
07:29with a
07:30lantern of a damp evening and pick them off by hand into a can, for that is when they feed.
07:35Or lay a
07:36barrier they hate to cross that harms no soil, a line of crushed eggshells, or sharp grit, or wood ash,
07:43or set a board out overnight and lift it in the morning to find them gathered under it to be
07:48dealt
07:48with. Those are the honest old slug answers, and not one of them salts your ground. Now here is the
07:56honest drawback of the baking soda itself, the one the sellers will never warn you of, and it is that
08:02same salt. Baking soda is sodium, and sodium is salt, and too much salt worked into your soil over
08:09years of heavy use is bad for it, souring the ground and harming the plants. Now in a leaf spray,
08:16the amount is tiny, a spoon in a whole gallon, and that little does your soil no harm to speak
08:22of,
08:22so the mildew spray is safe used as I said. But it is why you never dump it on the
08:28soil by the
08:29handful, and why the slug line is a poor idea. So use the baking soda thin and on the leaves,
08:35never poured heavy on the ground, and it stays a help and never becomes a harm. And now the best
08:41part, the thing hardly anyone tells you, the better cousin to baking soda that answers its one drawback
08:48entirely. There is another powder, near the same, called potassium bicarbonate, and it does the very
08:54same alkaline trick on the mildew, just as well or better. But here is the beauty of it, that where
09:00the baking soda leaves sodium, salt, behind in your soil, this cousin leaves potassium instead. And
09:08potassium is not salt, potassium is plant food, one of the three great things every fertilizer boasts of,
09:16the very thing that builds strong stems and good fruit. So think what that means. The same powder
09:22that kills your mildew, instead of slowly salting your ground, actually feeds your plants on its way.
09:29It fights the fungus and feeds the plant in the one pass, with no salt worry at all. And here
09:36is the
09:36thing that ought to open your eyes, that many of those expensive fungicide bottles at the garden center,
09:41the ones with the grand names and the high prices, list this very potassium bicarbonate as their active
09:49ingredient. That is the whole secret in the fancy jug, a powder you can buy plain by the pound for
09:55a few
09:56dollars, sold back to you in a little bottle for twenty. You can find potassium bicarbonate at a
10:02winemaking supply shop, for the winemakers use it. A pound of it costs about what one little bottle of the
10:09fancy fungicide does, and it makes gallons and gallons. You mix it the very same way, a scant spoon
10:16to the gallon with your oil and soap. And the old plain folk half knew this without the chemistry name,
10:22for they knew wood ash, which is full of that same potassium, both sweetened the soil and helped the
10:29plants. The same two truths in one. So for a long season of spraying, reach for the potassium cousin,
10:36and fight the mildew and feed the plant both, and never a worry of salt. Now one more honest bit
10:43of
10:44wisdom that matters more than the spray, that you must clear the sickness before you treat, for no
10:49spray does much on a plant already buried in mildew. So before you spray, walk your plants and pull off
10:56the worst leaves, the ones already gray and curled and coated thick with the white, and carry them clean
11:02away and burn them or bin them. Do not drop them under the plant, nor put them in your compost,
11:08for
11:09they are loaded with the very spores that will spread it all again. Take the sickest leaves away
11:14first, which lowers the enemy's numbers, and then spray the rest to protect what is healthy. And spray
11:21not just the sick spots, but the clean new growth too, coating it sweet so the blowing spores find nowhere
11:28to land. Clear first, then protect, and you get ahead of it instead of forever chasing it.
11:34Now let me say a small plain word, not a who-profits sermon, for a box of soda is no
11:40one's scheme. But
11:42notice the shape of it plain. There is a whole trade in taking a few pennies of simple powder,
11:47the very baking soda or its potassium cousin, from your cupboard or the wine shop, and putting it in a
11:54fancy jug with a grand name and selling it back to you for twenty or forty dollars, a bottle that
12:00is
12:00mostly water besides. My people would call that selling a man his own well water back to him. And
12:07the honest truth, which they will never print on the label, is that you can make the same thing yourself
12:12for pennies, and the better version besides. So folk come to think garden troubles want a shelf of
12:18costly bottles, when the mildew wants a spoon of powder, and the bugs a bit of soap, and the slugs
12:24a
12:25saucer of beer, all from your own house. That old knowing of what a thing truly is under its fancy
12:32label
12:32is worth more than every bottle on the shelf. So there is the whole honest truth of the baking soda
12:38trick. It is no cure-all, and it kills no pest forever, whatever the tall tale claims. But for the
12:46powdery mildew, it is a genuine old remedy. A spoon of soda with oil and soap to a gallon, sprayed
12:53cool on
12:53the leaves, clearing the worst sick leaves away first. For the soft bugs, it is really the soap and oil
13:00that do
13:00the work. So a plain soap spray serves as well. For the slugs, leave the soda be, and use the
13:07beer trap, and the
13:08hand-picking, and the harmless barriers, for salt has no place in your soil. Mind that the soda is
13:16a salt, so keep it thin and on the leaves. And for the long season, reach for its better cousin,
13:22potassium
13:23bicarbonate, that fights the mildew, and feeds your plants both, and never sours your ground. Do these,
13:31and you will have the true use of this old remedy, and never overpay for your own cupboard again.
13:38Now I want to hear from you. Tell me down below what trouble plagues your garden most, the white mildew
13:45on the
13:45squash, the soft bugs on the roses, the slugs in the night, and whether you had ever been sold the
13:51baking soda as a
13:53kill-everything miracle and found it fall short. And tell me your county, for the mildew comes worst in the
14:00muggy places, and I would
14:01know where you all garden. I read every one. Next time, I want to show you the making of the
14:08old plant feeds
14:09and teas, the compost tea, and the manure tea, and the wood ash water, the free feeds that strengthen a
14:16plant so
14:17it shrugs off the mildew and the bugs in the first place, the deeper answer behind every spray. The old
14:24people did not buy their garden cures in fancy jugs, they knew what the simple powders and the soap and
14:31the ash truly did, used each for its right honest purpose and no more, and kept their soil sweet and
14:38their plants strong for pennies. There is a quiet wisdom in that, in knowing a thing for what it truly
14:45is rather than what a label claims, and using it honestly for the one job it is good for. The
14:52people who
14:53built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.