Processing cabbage from pests with ammonia: how to do it right

Processing cabbage with ammonia will suit both ardent opponents of chemicals and loyal amateur vegetable growers who use any effective means for feeding and pest control in their gardens.

Composition and properties of ammonia

Traditional use of ammonia in everyday life: removing stains, cleaning suede shoes, washing mirrors, glass. At home, with its help, people are brought to their senses during fainting. You can buy ammonia freely at any pharmacy. An aqueous solution of ammonia is sold without prescriptions.

Alcohol is packaged in small bottles (40 ml). In appearance, it is an absolutely transparent liquid, the pungent smell of ammonia is difficult to confuse with anything. For gardeners it is of double interest. Firstly, the smell can repel insects, and secondly, ammonia contains nitrogen in a form available to all types of plants.

Nitrogen value for cabbage

With a lack of nitrogen, cabbages do not gain the required mass in white cabbage, the leaves of young plants are pale green or yellow-green, in adult plants, old leaves lose their green color, turning brown, dry out prematurely.

To fill the nitrogen deficiency in cabbage, an aqueous solution of one of the fertilizers is traditionally used:

urea (nitrogen 46%);
ammonium nitrate (nitrogen 35%);
ammonium sulphate (nitrogen 21%).

Inquisitive gardeners have adapted a medical preparation to eliminate nitrogen deficiency. For comparison, ammonia contains 82% nitrogen.

Ammonia instead of fertilizers

Growth retardation, pale color of cabbage leaves - alarm signals, indicating a lack of nitrogen. When preparing the solution, you need to know how to dilute, and take into account the high concentration of nitrogen. An excess of nitrogen is no less harmful than a deficiency. Yes, and the summer resident does not need extra nitrates in heads of cabbage.

Popularly, there is a proven recipe for cabbage, which includes 10% ammonia. For 5 liters of water you will need 50 ml of the product. An aqueous solution of ammonia is required to pour the cabbage under the root. A single top dressing will not give a result. To achieve the result, ammonia therapy is carried out several times at weekly intervals.

Feeding can be stopped after the symptoms of nitrogen deficiency disappear.

Ammonia against cabbage pests

Cabbage leaves, when grown from seedlings to a tight head, are attacked by pests. The sad picture of leaves eaten by caterpillars is familiar to every gardener. Cabbage is eaten not only by caterpillars, it is loved by bears, slugs, aphids, white butterfly, small cruciferous flea, scoop, cabbage moth larvae. After a single treatment of cabbage from pests with ammonia, insects will not disappear, you will have to process several times, the number of treatments depends on the type of pest.

How to get rid of slugs and snails

Voracious slugs and snails, crawling out at night, cause significant damage to cabbage. If you let the problem take its course, do not actively fight slugs, they will destroy the entire crop.It is difficult to fight against night gluttons, they eat leaves at night, and crawl into earthen minks during the day.

An aqueous solution of ammonia helps against slugs on cabbage. Just 40 ml of ammonia mixed in 6 liters of water. First, carefully spray the lower surface of the outer leaves with ammonia water, pour the root zone with the remaining solution. Maintain a 30-minute pause, repeat the procedure in the same sequence.

Insects under the action of ammonia will crawl out of their hiding places. Then it all depends on the dexterity of the gardener, the faster he removes them, the more benefits from this treatment. This method is not instantaneous, but it is absolutely safe for human he alth. While watering cabbage from slugs, it is fed at the same time, other fertilizers containing nitrogen are not needed at this time.

Destruction of cabbage aphids

Suffer from cabbage aphids young cabbage plantings.It is difficult to notice a small pest in time, the light green color of the aphid makes it invisible. They learn about the problem after the appearance of many corrugated holes on the leaf surface. Leaves eaten by aphids curl. Young cabbage may die.

There are many recipes for getting rid of aphids without chemicals. Use laundry soap and ammonia against aphids. Cooking won't take long. Grate the soap or cut it with a knife, dilute it in warm water, pour it into a bucket (10 l) with water. Before processing, add 3 tbsp. l. ammonia.

Soap is an essential component of a folk remedy, it creates a film on the surface of the leaves after spraying, prolonging the duration of the folk remedy. The treatment will have to be repeated after 2 weeks. By this time, new adult aphids may appear from the larvae laid by the females.

How to protect cabbage leaves from cabbage whites

A familiar picture - on a sunny summer day, white butterflies flutter in the garden, which is not an idyll. But if there are at least a few heads of cabbage in the garden, the mood deteriorates. After a mass summer of white butterflies, caterpillars must be expected. The caterpillar lives a little less than a month, pupates and turns into butterflies again. In temperate climates, with no struggle, expect up to 3 generations of voracious caterpillars.

There are many ways to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage:

stretch transparent mesh;
plant marigolds;
use insecticides;
use safe folk remedies.

Folk remedies are safe for humans. Most often, they prefer the use of fragrant repellent herbal infusions. You can get rid of caterpillars much faster with ammonia and vinegar.

A bucket of water will need 50 ml of ammonia and 1 tbsp. l. essences of acetic acid 70%. You can’t water the cabbage with the resulting solution, you can carefully spray the cabbage from pests in the evening. Keeping in mind the breeding cycles of the white butterfly, process the cabbage several times over the summer. The use of such a solution helps to get rid of not only caterpillars of the white butterfly, it is effective against caterpillars of night butterflies: cabbage cutworm, cabbage moth.

Ammonia from Medvedka

Medvedka prefers cruciferous plants Her favorite food is cabbage. Dealing with a bear is difficult. The insect quickly moves through the air, settles in the ground, digging holes in the same place, and multiplies. To exclude the use of toxic drugs, experienced gardeners carry out a number of preventive measures:

deep digging of the ridge (25-30 cm) is carried out in autumn;

in the spring, before sowing cabbage along the perimeter of the ridge, marigolds are planted;
dung traps are prepared in the ground in autumn.

All these measures will not give a 100% result, if in the spring, after planting seedlings of cabbage, the ground is not treated with a solution prepared from water and ammonia. You need only 10 ml of ammonia, diluted in a bucket of water and water each plant. A single watering in the spring is sufficient. All summer the bear will not encroach on this ridge.

Treatment of Chinese cabbage with ammonia

Beijing cabbage is planted by many summer residents: fast, tasty, he althy. But often, tender leaves become a haven for insect pests. Holes on the outer leaves worsen the presentation of heads of cabbage, reduce the useful yield.

Most often, the cruciferous flea attacks the leaves, it is especially dangerous in the initial period, when the leaves are not yet curled into a head.Gardeners, in the fight against cruciferous flea, resort to ammonia. Beijing cabbage is not forbidden to eat in the near future, without fear of consequences.

The cooking process is very simple: take a bucket of water, dissolve a small amount of liquid soap in it and add 2 tbsp. l ammonia. Pour this water not only on the leaves, but also on the ground. The cruciferous flea can be found not only on the leaves, it, jumping, moves along the ground. Such watering will additionally be the prevention of diseases, since with the help of ammonia it will provide plants with nitrogen in an easily digestible form.

Each vegetable grower decides for himself which means of struggle to choose. The main criterion is minimal harm to he alth.