Is there a home remedy that I can make to keep bugs off my gardenias?

Question

I keep getting these black things on the leaves of my gardenia plant & it's killing the leaves & the flower buds before they have time to bloom. It ends up killing my plant. I keep buying gardenias & the same thing happens every time.I bought a chemical free bug spray recommeded by an employee from Home Depot. The spray only lasted about a week & these black spots reappear on the leaves again. I cleaned the leaves with rubbing alcohol & they still come back. A friend told me to ferterlize the plant & that didn't work either. What else can I do? I left one plant in the pot & I planted one in the ground & eventually the black spots appeared & it's killing the plant. Help!!

Answer 1

You'll have the freshest smelling yard in town with this and IT WORKS! What you need:
1 bag chewing tobacco (the cheapest works as well as the expensive)
1 bottle of dishsoap (28 oz. any cheap brand will do)
1 bottle of disinfectant mouthwash (like the brown Listerine - again cheap works just as well)
1 gallon boiling water
Garden sprayer bottle that attaches to hose
What you do:
Place tobacco in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Turn off heat and let steep 1 hour (this gets as much juice out as possible) this makes a tea. Strain the "tea". Add dishsoap & mouthwast to the gallon of "tea". stir gently. fill garden sprayer with "tea", attach to hose and spray this on plants and grasses after 7pm. That's when the bugs seem to be busiest. This mixture makes them sick and repells new bugs because of the smell. Do not rinse it off after application. repeat every 2 weeks or after rain. It will work! It makes the yard smell fresh and clean. You can use it on vegetable plants as well; just rinse well before eating.
Keep the remaing "tea" as long as you like. I use my empty laundrysoap jug to store it. Just be sure to label it- it will stain clothes.

Answer 2

Hi Sally L.,your gardenias may have a bacterial disease. You need a fungicide, I take it you have sprayed with an insecticide and had no results. If you look at your leaves and you do not see anything crawling around, then its usually a fungus or bacterial problem. For this problem if you want a chemical free spray you'll need to visit a web sight for Organic Growers. If you have other plants close to your gardenias you'll need to inspect them also. If you are buying these plant at the same place every time one die, mabe you need to go to another store. Inspect your plants, look at the leaves topside and bottomside, take it out of the pot, look at the roots, are they thick, white strong, or are they brownish and spinly. Your plant may even have a viral disease, so mention all these when you find the Organic web sight. I hope you find the solution to your problem, one insect that does strike gardenias are white fly, and mites which are generally on the back side of the leaves, aphids are little greenish/yellow insects that gather on the blooms and stems, thrips have wings and they bite so, if you feel itchy when touch your plant then you have thrips, but my guess is fungal disease, leaf spot, viral, or bacterial.

Answer 3

Are you buying your gardenias from the same place? You asked for a home remedy, sounds like you need something a bit stronger. Try Disyston, it's a systemic pesticide. directions for use are on the package.

Answer 4

bug dont like smoke, try lighting up something outside and see if that works. I do it all the time and everyone of those critters die.

Answer 5

one tablespoon of dih liquid, to one gallon of water