Tea foam...neem oil ok?

[Buddy Hemphill]

The first tea I made was BounTea System. His instructions said add a tbsp of cooking oil to control foaming..

I have used it on my teas for this purpose since then.

would using neem be beneficial or harmful.... or neither? Seems harmless enough.

I have been totally bug free for 6 months and I am INto preventative maintenence on the garden pretty hard.

I had this thought as I sit watching this nasty mess foaming in my bathtub...lol...was heading for the kitchen and thought neem may work...

TIA homies...

 

[Shredder]

I have never worried about foam on my teas but using neem should work as well as other oils, and you have a smidge of neem protection in your tea, seems like a good idea to me if your using oil anyway......shredder

 

[Seamaiden]

Neem or a horticultural oil should be ok. Lipids disallow formation of the foam.

 

[mrbong73]

Fish Hydrolysate will kill the foam also.
I've never tried neem oil in a tea or soil drench. It may be hard to dissolve and just stay little clumps of oil.

 

[Udyana Peace]

Fish Hydrolysate will kill the foam also.
I've never tried neem oil in a tea or soil drench. It may be hard to dissolve and just stay little clumps of oil.

Emulsifying the oil before adding it to water might be helpful and probably necessary to get any level of equal distribution in your tea/mix.

UP

 

[CT Guy]

I wouldn't use the fish unless it's part of your original recipe, as it would be too much of a microbial food source.

UP bring up a good point about the neem. I would think that it would just clump unless emulsified first, as your brewer temp is probably lower than it's melting point.

 

[Von]

Fish Hydrolysate will kill the foam also.
I've never tried neem oil in a tea or soil drench. It may be hard to dissolve and just stay little clumps of oil.

Yucca extract will also do this. You can complete the brewing cycle and add the yucca extract to the tea and within minutes all of the foam will disappear.

V

 

[hashrip]

This is interesting. Although I am very skiddish when it comes to adding things that I'm not sure about. I read that you can put any organic fertilizer or compound in a container with earthworms to find out if the product will harm microbes. If the worms are attracted to it, you're golden. If they stay away then the microbes probably won't like it either. You could do this experiment with the neem oil and cooking oil and see what happens. Let us know what you find out if you try it.

 

[CT Guy]

I've already done lab testing with SFI and found that regular old vegetable oil works just fine and doesn't affect the microbes. You're looking at a tsp or 2 in a 5 gal. brewer. Hope that helps!

 

[Whippleschnitz]

Neem oil is fine for a soil drench if used with a spreader sticker or something else to emulsify the oil into water. It works great against fungus gnats by interrupting their ability to feed. I see no advantage to be gained by adding it when you are not having any problems in your soil. Neem can also be used in a spray (emulsified properly) but never use on the leaves while exposed to light because it can be phytotoxic and burn the leaves.

 

[Bandit]

Also try Neem oil with protekt as a foliar spray. Fan try.