The Secret Ingredient: Garlic Powder for Thriving Gardens

I don’t think I have ever gone a day without having garlic powder in my home. It’s really therapeutic as well, and I use it into almost every Savory recipe I make. It is also priceless for every household. But did you know that garlic powder can be used in the garden as a bug repellent?

It is accurate! On the homestead, garlic serves a variety of purposes and is a surprisingly effective fungicide and insecticide. What many gardeners have known for generations is even supported by scientific investigations.

Continue reading to discover some uses for garlic powder in your own yard.

What Kind of Insects Can Garlic powder Control?

The sulfurous components in garlic are what give it its strong burning taste when eaten. Very few people can eat raw garlic without getting sick, and it affects insects and other mammals in a similar way.

Garlic contains active ingredients such as diallyl disulfide, diallyl tetrasulfide, and dimethyl trisulfide. While many bugs are repelled by these substances, others find them poisonous or even lethal.

Garlic has the ability to repel a variety of animal and insect species, including: Aphids, Ants, Grubs, Mice, Moles, Moths, Rabbits, Cabbage Flies (adults and eggs, not larvae), Caterpillars, Cutworms, Deer, Fruit Flies, Gall Midges (adults and eggs, not larvae), Groundhogs/Marmots, Rubbs, Rabbits: If consumed, garlic can kill pet rabbits. It can also kill root borers, slugs, snails, spider mites, and spined army bugs.

Weevils, whiteflies, termites, squirrels, and yellow mealworms (and their larvae): potentially lethal reactions

Different approaches can be used to repel these species, but we’ll discuss that in more detail later in this post.

How Do Pathogens Affect Us?

Yes, without a doubt. The reason why garlic works so well in treating human illnesses like athlete’s foot and candida is because of its inherent fungicidal qualities. As a result, it can also be used to treat fungal infections found outside, especially those that tend to lurk in the ground and wait for unsuspecting hosts.

I’ve treated powdery mildew, downy mildew, and rust on a variety of species with garlic powder infused water in addition to treating soil against damping-off disease.

Is There a Possible Risk of Garlic Powder to Pets or Plants?

In this case, the easy answer is “no,” but there are a few things to consider. Using garlic as a fungicide or pesticide is unlikely to harm your plants because it is an organic substance and you will be diluting the juice considerably.

The biggest problem that could arise is if you mist your plants during the hottest time of the day. Water droplets on leaves and stems can serve as little solar magnifiers. Your plants may therefore sustain some painful burns.

Spray your plants early in the morning, before the sun reaches its maximum, whether you’re treating them for fungal problems or insect pests. In this manner, extra moisture can dissipate before they get a chance to burn.

When it comes to pets, almost all animals steer clear of garlic. The spray won’t hurt them, but they usually can’t handle the smell of it. Fortunately, most people don’t consume it either.

Pet rabbits are the only animal species susceptible to the effects of garlic. Alliums, like onions and garlic, have the potential to depress a rabbit’s immune system, which could result in an allergic reaction. Luckily, they tend to avoid it as much as possible because they can’t take the smell.

Regarding plant health, bear in mind that garlic shares its good neighbors with its bad ones. Make sure you are not intercropping garlic with incompatible species if you intend to use it as a pesticide.

Garlic, for instance, can impede the growth of beans, parsley, asparagus, carrots, and peas. Moreover, it dislikes being planted close to any other alliums, such as scallions, onions, shallots, and chives. This is due to alliums’ fierce competition with one another for nourishment and general lack of harmony.

Which Garlic Powder Is Best to Use?

The strongest garlic varieties are the ones that work best. This refers to the ones with the most intense, flaming flavor—the kind that, when tasting, burns your lips and brings tears to your eyes. Aim for strong strength when using garlic because you’ll be spreading its oils and aroma throughout the region in order to repel pests.

Bogatyr garlic is also referred to as “Russian penicillin” because of its potent components, which are useful in treating a wide range of illnesses. Siberian and Red Donetsk (Ukrainian) variants trail behind that. Basically, you can be sure that whatever bug you’re combating will be defeated by its powerful Slavic genes if it came from Eastern Europe.

Ways of Using Pesticides with Garlic Powder

Garlic has several use when it comes to eliminating pests. These will vary based on the types of infections or pests you’re facing. Furthermore, you can frequently mix methods to increase the intensity of your pest-kicking.

Consider this as using a topical poultice and taking medication orally or internally for an infected wound. When two complementary approaches are applied to a problem, they frequently come together in the center for the best outcome.

Partner Planting and Cross-cropping

Garlic is frequently planted among crops as a helpful companion plant.
Garlic, for instance, can be quite beneficial when planted at the dripline boundary surrounding fruit trees. Because of its unpleasant odor, herbivores like deer will not cross or tread on it in order to reach the edible tree. The same holds true for squirrels who would typically attempt to reach your crop before you do.

Beets, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and cabbage all make excellent companion plants with garlic. Aphids, nightshade hornworms, cabbage white butterflies, and other pests can be kept at bay with the help of these plants.

Use of Foliar Spray

You can brew up a nice batch of garlic water and hose damaged plants with it to make a foliar spray.
Peel the cloves from a few garlic bulbs if you have a juicer. After that, run them through the juicer along with a few spoonfuls of water to get a half-cup of concentrated garlic powder juice.
If not, you can either combine them with a little extra water in the blender or mash them with a mortar and pestle.

One tablespoon of concentrated garlic powder juice should be combined with three cups of water, then poured into a spray bottle. When necessary, spray down the afflicted plants. It’s quite cathartic for me to laugh and curse at the insects I’m spraying, and it might even increase the spray’s efficacy.

Use of Soil Treatment

Cutworms have been the scourge of my horticultural life. They’ve often taken down my corn and amaranth and generally destroyed anything I’ve attempted to grow.

When I didn’t have the time or patience to wrap each stem in cardboard to conserve it, I successfully dealt with these jerks by using garlic as a pest deterrent.

A handful of fresh garlic cloves should be minced or crushed before being scattered on the ground near the affected areas. The smell should work wonders to repel crawling invaders like ants, slugs, cutworms, and beetles.

Here, I’ve also utilized garlic powder with some success. However, this is only a temporary solution, as frequent watering or rain rapidly removes garlic powder. Consequently, the impact of finely chopped or minced fresh garlic is stronger and more persistent than that of its powdered equivalent.

In addition, stuff some chopped garlic cloves into any mole tunnels you see in your garden. Now that you’ve ruined their passageway, moles will look for somewhere else to reside because they detest the smell so much.

Soil Absorbing

This technique, sometimes referred to as a “drench,” has helped me cure soil that had previously given some of my seedlings the damping-off disease. Making a big batch of the previously mentioned concentrated garlic powder juice and blending it with water is the procedure.

One cup of garlic powder juice to four gallons of water is the ratio I use to treat soil, but you can dilute it even more if you’d like. You can also use 1/2 cup of garlic powder juice if you want to take it slow.

Using a pitchfork, turn the earth over or make deep holes in it. After that, liberally apply this liquid to the afflicted area and let it absorb. After doing this every day for a week or more, if at all feasible, let the region completely dry out.

This soak has the extra benefit of eliminating any grubs that could be hiding in the ground. Dig up one of the yellow patches on your grass that don’t seem to be there and check for grubs. If you come across any, give them the previously specified dip in garlic powder.

Apply Garlic in Your Garden

As you can see, garlic powderis beneficial for crops and garden plants in addition to being a priceless plant-based medication for people!

If you ever find yourself in need of strong raw cultivars, don’t hesitate to act swiftly and keep some on hand.

The earlier you use garlic powder to combat pests—fungi or intruders—the more likely you are to catch the problem before it gets out of hand.