That's part of the reason why I don't grow cole crops, Zach! They're WAY too susceptible to aphids in my opinion. When I tried growing Brussels sprouts many years ago--more than one year--they didn't just "get" aphids, they were ENCRUSTED with aphids!

You can dip or spray them. If you spray them you MUST get all surfaces covered, so if they're small--and if you're able to keep the soil from falling out of the pots--you can dip them.

Fill a bowl or pot that's "deep enough" with "plant temp neutral" water and put a couple "squeezes" of Palmolive dish washing soap in the water and mix it in well. Invert each plant and dip it in the soap water, swishing it around a bit to be sure all parts get soaped. Then let them sit, out of sun, to dry. Can't tell you exactly how much soap to use, but as long as they're not gonna be in sun for a while you can use quite a bit! When I fill my sprayer I put in enough that the water is "slightly green."

Odds are that you'll need to repeat it at least a couple times since the "baby" aphids get into the tightest places in the new growth where, no matter how much you swish them, they're still gonna stay out of the soap.

If you spray you must get the undersides of the leaves covered and the bud on top saturated, and you'll probably need to repeat it over and over since no matter what you do it won't "cover" as well as dipping.

With dipping you're gonna wind up with perlite and bits of peat and whatever in the water and it'll get really yucky! When I do occasionally dip something and the water is getting "too" bad I just use my hand to "fish the floating stuff off of the top of the water!" If the plants are a real mess when you finish let the dried soap stay on for a while and then stick them in the sink and wash them off with the sprayer!

The theory of why soap works, as I understand it, is that it washes the "protection" of the aphids off of them and they "dehydrate" and die! Not a scientist! Don't know that for sure--but it makes sense to me! It works for mites too, but odds are you need to repeat it much more.

In the yard I keep a pressure sprayer filled with soap water all summer and as soon as I see "anything" going wrong on a plant--including all those nameless tomato diseases!--I spray really good (when it's out of the sun)--and surprisingly often it "fixes" whatever the "problem" was! It's my Magic Cure-all--that doesn't ALWAYS work!

Happy bathing,

Skybird

Edited to add: I thought you were talking about cole crops! Don't know why I thought that! I came back to ask why, with cole crops, you had brought them inside, and when I looked again I saw you're talking about "other stuff!" Bathe on!

Awesome Skybird! Thanks for the instructions and the quick reply! Im not growing any cabbage crops, just peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. Usually aphids aren't a huge problem for me, but every once in a while they get really excited about peppers.

So far not a serious infestation (just saw a handful crawling around this morning) I want to try to nip the problem in the bud before they DO start to "encrust" the poor plants.

Off to start bathing seedlings! Thank you again!!

Also I think I will keep a sprayer of it for the summer, too! A general purpose cure all sounds pretty good to me, even if it doesn't ALWAYS work.

You lucked out this time, Zach! Because of the "covering" thread I decided to stay signed in right now, so I'm not getting the popup! Otherwise I wouldn't even be reading--as usual!

Come back and report in a few days or a week how it's working for you so others will have more info about Soap Baths!

Skybird

I had a very unusual aphid infestation on one specific iris plant this year. I've been spraying it with the hose almost every day to knock them off and they just come back. I've never seen them collect on iris like this before. The one concern I have is that there is a rose bush right next to it.

I was prepared to go buy some spray or maybe just let a box of ladybugs free in the house, then I remembered you saying something about dunking plants with aphids before. Lucky you were still hanging around indeed!

Well, it's only been about 24 hours since their baths, so maybe not long enough to say for certain, but so far so good with the aphids. Popmama, are you going to try the soap spray once everything thaws out?

If this snow storm didn't whack them, I'll give the soap spray a try.

I just found aphids in my gargantuan mass of Shasta Becky ( thanks Skybird! for the Beckys -not the aphids ) already! This happens every year. I was supposed to have divided them already a few wks ago but with all the rain and being told by my doc to take it easy, they're going to have to wait another yr. Meh! Anyways if anyone is doing the soap bath. Just make certain you get a soap that isn't anti-bacterial! There are good bacterias in which we do not want to kill off. I've often gotten good results spraying in the evening as the sun is going down and will be doing that when I finish work. speaking of which I need to get back to it lol!