...at least garlic and tomatoes GO together. Preflavored tomatoes, ripe for the picking!
Brevity aside, I know garlic has all sorts of beneficial properties to humans, such as blood cleansing and such. Didn't know if the same benefits could apply to plants. What a neat concept.

What are your thoughts?

*****

Mixed thought Douglas, mixed thoughts, and it's good to see you posting. ( smile)

I can't speak to the garlic concentrate, but for four years I had maybe 30 plants at a neighbor's garden and Steve would plant cloves of garlic in a circle around the base of each plant, both his and mine.

There were no less stinkbugs, Colorado Potato Beetles, or no less foliage diseases.

I would assume that garlic organic compounds are secreted into the soil and might be taken up but I can't even say that for sure. Actually I've argued against that when it comes to folks who say that basil is a companion plant to tomatoes b'c it makes them taste better. I could never figure out how any product of basil could be secreted and then trael thru the soil to be taken up by a tomato plant roots which would be needed in order to alter the taste of the fruit, or at least I assumed that.

There was a huge patch of stinging nettle that was near the garden and Steve also made a foul smelling concoction from that and sprayed it on everything. And I couldn't see that that did any good either. But he did things that his German father did and he did have a gorgeous garden and grew organically.

The only time I ever saw hom waver from his organic approach was when in one bad summer his precious potatoes were being decimated by Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot. He asked me what he might use to save his potatoes and I told him about , shall we say "D", and he did buy it and use it and thank me profusely, as he let his and my tomatoes become progressively defoliated. Sigh.

I know garlic extract primarily for its anti-bacterial properties, but I can't see how it would in any way mask the attachment sites for the tomato bacterial foliage pathogens any more than I can see how foliar absorbed garlic would mask the attachment sites for the fungal foliage pathogens.

So I guess I'll sit back and let you try out this product and then report back to us. ( smile)

Carolyn

Of the 65 heirloom tomato plants we grew last year, one plant, oddly, was infested with aphids. I sprayed it with garlic spray and they were gone the next day. Never came back all season. We normally use garlic spray to control aphids in the rose garden where it works well.
Lou

garlic spray does work pretty well against aphids and mites i have some 'natural' insecticidal soap around for mites etc and it's made mostly of garlic and other oils. works great against mites.

I've also used garlic spray for aphids with great success.
Tom

"I could never figure out how any product of basil could be secreted and then trael thru the soil to be taken up by a tomato plant roots which would be needed in order to alter the taste of the fruit, or at least I assumed that."

Couldn't the oils basil excreates into the air adhere to the surface of the fruit. That's how the eucalyptus note gets into some wines - it's the oil on the surface of the grapes from nearby trees.

Do you buy garlic spray in a store or do I need to make it myself? If so, how?

Thanks!

I ordered mine over the internet. I don't know if I can state brand names on this site. I'll send you an email tomatoes4ever.

matersforever:
Try this I have done it every year since I got a booklet with a Blue sruce I was planting.
bouta-teaspoon or two of the plain (not antibacterial dishsoap)double the amount with mouthwash,in a gallon jug.
I take some citrus fruits, GARLIC, and steep it on the stove,(I make a seperate one but add a glob of chewing tobacco)
Mix in the milk jug then hoseend spray all over the place!
Get alot under the leaves of the maters.
The little leaf munchers will suffocate and drop dead , the rest don't like the samplings and move on.
I use the other with tobacco all over the patio, grass, arbies, flowerbed, siding, nieghbors, DW.....whoops.... not really.
For about 48hrs(without rain) there are no pests in the form of bugs anywhere whatsoever. (no squiters on the patio at night!)
It lasts longer on the foilage because of the soap sticker.
I am trying another method this year as I only have 25 plants out.
Iv'e spotted so many good predators in the garden I am not wanting to chase them away so, ... It's handsquashin the ones they don't get this year.

http://www.greenchronicle.com/gardening/garlic_aphid_control_spray.htm

Looks like this went slightly off topic. Hi Douglas! I never heard of using garlic as an anti-fungal, though most replies here commented on it as a pesticide. Ironically, I ran out of room for a few hardneck garlic varieties from Martin and the extras ended up getting planted in the pumpkin patch. I don't know if there are any benefits and will have to wait & see, and don't have any info on if it may even be antagonistic. I figure it being on the far end of the "patch" all it may do is keep the groundhog away, and it would probably be harvested by the time the vines reach that end...

I thought I read somewhere to plant nasturtiums for cuke beetles...

As for tomato & pumpkin pests, I believe in companion planting more than others on the forum, though it's nearly impossible to do any control type tests. Since I've grown Borage & Bee Balm near the tomatoes and Datura near the pumpkins, I haven't had any hornworms and maybe less than 5 total cuke bettles in the last 5 years--and one was a 12-spotted on the corn nearby. These are just my results and can't prove it was because of companion planting, though maybe more than coincidental.

I don't know any organic remedy as effective as Daconil or Ortho Garden Disease Control. Maybe the next best may be the neem products or bicarbonate type products. Good luck this year.

Mark

Thanks for all the replies. It's good to see you posting Carolyn, as well. I hope all is going well with you.
Good luck to you too, Mark. Companion planting is interesting to me. I'm not cuke beetle free, but much fewer than last year. Is it the garlic, or coincidence? I don't know if I'll try the garlic on a few tomato plants, or not. We'll see.

This may or may not relate, but I have a large raised bed, half of which is planted with garlic. The garlic is healthy. No bugs have attacked it that I've seen. Even the squirrels leave it alone for the most part.

Recently I planted some canteloupe seedlings in the other half of the bed. Within HOURS, they were skeletonized by flea beetles.

I hadn't sprayed garlic on the canteloupes. I tried Neem oil and diatomaceous earth, neither of which had any effect.

Thanks oregon_veg