Neem Cake for Organic Gardening (5 lb)

I prefer to use natural methods of pest control in my north Florida garden. Lantana are colorful and hardy perennials that attract butterflies and other pollinators, however, lace bugs have become a problem. They damage the foliage and the plants will not produce flowers. I have tried neem oil spray but it must be applied with care, and it is difficult to direct the spray to the underside of the foliage where the pests live. Neem does not kill on contact, but disrupts the feeding cycle of the insects. Using the neem cake was easier than using the spray. The cake, which is actually a powder, is mixed with water and you simply water the plants with it. It becomes a systemic insecticide and acts as a fertilizer as well. Because it affects only insects that are feeding on the plants by piercing the leaves it does not harm pollinators that are visiting the flowers. I watered my lantana weekly this summer; the lace bugs were eliminated and the plants thrived. It just takes patience and perseverance, but is a good alternative to harmful chemicals.

I probagate (take slips and make new plants.) at the end of summer. I have 85 plants. I mixed up 2 gallons and used it as the water medium in the soil. I put water in gallon container and 3 1/2 heaping tsp per gallon of water. Let sit 2 hours. Every plant was done this way. It has been 5 weeks and I have not seen a single gnat. Now, you can't mix up more than you need and save for later, because it will ferment and smell bad. As for some of the people's reviews, I did not have a bad smell in the plants. Maybe they added too much to the top of the plants. But no overwhelming bad smell at all. Thankful for this. product.

I bought this to add to my hydroponic nutrient tanks to help prevent the spread of fungus gnats. While fungus gnats are generally billed as being harmless, their larva can be deadly to seedlings (which happened to 2 of mine). Adding a tablespoon or so of neem cake to my nutrient tanks seems to be helping keep the population down, but I still see fungus gnats (well, 1 or 2) from time to time. Given my past experiences with these gnats, the neem cake looks to be doing a great job. I think I just need to dial-in the correct dosage for each of my 12 gallon reservoirs to get rid of them completely. BTW, this stuff is also supposed to work on other soft-bodied parasites like aphids. It works on them by disrupting their hormones so they lose interest in eating. Takes a while (read weeks) to make a noticeable change. Safe for mammals and non-toxic.

TL:DR fungus gnats hate this stuff, it seems to have fixed my gnat problem, but smells bad and molds easilyI, like most other reviewers, bought this to clear my houseplants of an endless fungus gnat problem. I had tried insecticides soaks, pyrethrin-based sprays, and could never get rid of them, until now. I took handfuls and sprinkled it generously on all of my houseplants before leaving on a week long business trip a month ago, hoping it would resolve, or at least temporarily stall, the growing gnat population. Immediately upon sprinkling in my more affected houseplants, the gnats were flying out and away as fast as they could go, like sailors abandoning a burning ship. They clearly HATE this stuff. When I came back after a week, I found essentially no gnats roaming the topsoil, and a large number that had drowned in my dogs water bowl. I saw a few flying around here and there, and the population dwindled for a week or two, but as of now I have not seen a single gnat in my apartment for about two weeks. Most people recommend continuous watering with a neem "tea" solution to completely eradicate the problem. I chose only one major application (reason below) and it seems to have deterred them from my plants. Based on their one month life cycle and the severity of my gnat problem before, I think they are all gone.That being said, this stuff smells pretty badad. As you can expect, it smells strongly of neem, kind of a funky spoiled peanut smell is as accurate of a description as I have found. When I came back, my entire apartment smelled like neem for weeks. I have been burning candles whenever I am home, waiting for the neem smell to dissipate. Once the neem completely dried out, the smell seemed to go away. However it still comes back in wafts when I water my pants.The other problem MOLD. This stuff molds more than a soggy piece of bread at a landfill. When I came back, all of my houseplants topsoil was COVERED in white fuzzy mold. I have never before had/seen a mold issue with my plants, it was almost as if every piece of neem was inoculated with mold spores. Even individual, well ventilated, sun exposed pieces were coated with it. The neem cake also gets a bit sticky/slimy when wet, so when I had thoroughly covered my topsoil with neem and watered, it formed a hardened disc-like layer of dried neem cake and soil, which the mold loved. I ended up removing about a centimeter of topsoil from each plant, which looked like an Oreo cookie made of soil/neem cookie and white mold frosting as I threw it all away. It made me question that maybe the fungus gnats were actually doing me a favor.After drying, then removing all of the neem and affected topsoil, the visible mold has also ceased. But given that the fungus gnat population was so large at the beginning, and how much mold I saw at the end, I think I need to re-evaluate my houseplant care, and might actually have an unseen mold problem. I will probably look for a less odorous alternative if the fungus gnats reappear. I'd give it 5 stars for the fungus gnat removal, but minus one star for the potent smell and ensuing mold battle.

I was using this mixed with water to rid my house of the fungus gnats in my plants. It works but does take a bit. I have tried several other things without success. I have a few left but had thousands before.

I bought this for my indoor plants as well as my vermiculture bin. It took care of the fungus gnats but I chased the HORRIBLE onion smell for WEEKS. Additionally, my indoor plants never had mold...until now. It's a fine, white mold that I've had to scrape from the surface of EVERY plant I put it in.

Works for the purpose of getting rid of nasty plant gnats/fruit flies...however, it does stink. It smells like ramen noodle seasoning...only extremely strong.I added some neem cake to water and used it to water my plants. I also sprinkled it onto the top layer of my plant soil. About a week later, I noticed that there were hardly any bugs left...however, I had the smell to contend with.I did not care for the smell in my home...but it is what it is.

It does what it's suppose to do but it smells terrible. The smell didnt bother me at first but when it was time to water the plants it got really bad. The next few days it started to smell like a garbage truck all throughout the house. It was so bad my husband put all the plants out on the balcony. Needless to say, they're not coming back in. Lol.. But the bugs are gone.😂😂😂