Ouch, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope the damage isn't too great.

I've heard it can burn plants and a lot of people swear that it depends what KIND of soap you use. I just did my beans a couple days ago, left it on for just a little while and sprayed the plants again with water to wash it off. I've never had it burn the plants, but I tend to use it sparingly.

I used Dawn for mine. What soap did you use?

I used dawn as well. And a little bit of canola oil.

Dawn is a detergent, not a soap, and will burn plants very easily especially if sprayed on the plants after the sun starts to heat up the world.
The insecticidal soap mixture should be 1 teaspoon of real soap, a soap made from lye and animal fats, but even that can burn plants if applied at the worng time. Either early morning (before 9:00) or early evening (after 5:00) is the best.

I have heard in so many places, and from a couple people on GW to use Dawn, that is so dissapointing!

Is there a brand that is appropriate?

A note on soap - real soap is made with lye but should not contain any lye when properly made. There shouldn't be any concern with lye as an ingredient when using real soap.

The "soaps" in Dr. Bronner's liquid soaps, while made with vegetable fats and not animal fats, will work as an insecticide. I THINK Fels Naptha laundry soap is animal fat - if you find it, it's a bar, so you have to shave off the amount you want and dissolve it in the water - or Ivory Snow flakes (that one may be vegetable as well). I do not suggest anyone try to make their own as a one-off thing - you have to heat the lye and the fat before combining them, and hot, OR cold, lye is something to be VERY cautious with - lye burns badly. However, if you went on-line, or went to a few craft fairs, you might well find a soap made with vegetable fats and lye and maybe even with animal fats as well. I know of at least 3 brands/bars of soap made with olive oil, so vegetable fat soaps aren't unfindable.

Dawn has been recommended to wash off Poison Ivy, but I don't recall reading about it as an insecticide - if it were, I think it would have been corrected, as now.

And I will repeat Kimmsr's advice NOT to spray anything on a hot sunny day.

Let me amend my last to add to the final sentence, "...NOT to spray anything on a hot sunny day", the words, >...unless you WANT to kill it<. those are just the conditions i would suggest for spraying vinegar on poison ivy instance.>

To make soap with animal fat and lye, something you do not really need to do since these soaps are available, all you need do is mix the liquid animal fat with the lye and the chemical reaction that takes place will heat the mixture up. Other then what is necessary to make the animal fat liquid no heat is necessary in that chemical reaction.
Yes, one never, ever is that nothing be sprayed on any plant when the sun and heat of the day could, possibly cause an adverse reaction.

Soap solutions kill insects by disolving their wax cuticles. Unfortunately plants also have wax cuticles, and will often be killed easier than the bugs you are trying to kill. Once the wax goes the plants leaves lose moisture and dry out, showing symptoms of leaf burn. Dishwashing soap will kill insects better than commercial insecticidal soap, but will also kill the plant better. The commercial stuff has stuff in it to try to minimise the wax dissolving on the plant, but it also ends up being less effective on insects. See page 106 of the book "The truth about Garden Remedies".

The best thing about commercial insecticidal soaps is that there are explicit directions. Directions about how much to use, when to spray and when NOT to spray, plants to avoid, target insects, etc.

What I recall about recipes for making your own soap sprays is that twice the amount of soap needed to kill insects will kill plants. So it could also be the eyeballing thing, and a little too much detergent went in. We use whatever type of hand dishwashing liquid we have. Sometimes it is detergent and sometimes soap. Hasn't seemed to matter, haven't hurt my plants that I have noticed. I have also used the technique where after spraying the insects in question I wait a bit and then spray the plants with plain water.

I don't use soap spray very often, my bugs are normally balanced well between good and bad, plus we have a lot of birds in our yard that eat the bugs. But this year I have been mixing up a LOT of soapy liquid to pour on all the ants taking up residence in my many raised garden beds. A really big year for ants here in SE WI. Fortunately it has mainly been in places I hadn't planted yet.

Marcia

Soaps once had to be what was made from saponified fats, but apparently the manufacturers of detergents have gotten that changed so you need to look closely to see what you are buying. But making your own insecticidal soap is quite easy, if you get the proper ingrediant, soap. 1 teaspoon of soap in 1 quart of water, about a 1 percent soap mixture. Commercially available insecticidal soaps are that mixture.