Tag: indoor gardening pest control

Natural Pest Control: AzaMax Applications


Words from the wise: Use your AzaMax applications carefully! The best way to spray your garden with this organic pest control is lightly! Azamax is Strong not harsh.

Step 1: Read over the AzaMax instructions.  The bottle came with a little chart detailing the volume needed to obtain different strength solutions.

Step 2:  Stay on the lower end of the chart when making your solutions.  Remember – you can always spray the solution a few different times to ensure the plant is covered.

Step 3: Fill up a beaker or your spray bottle with water.  You want to use something with liquid measurement so you can easily calculate how much Azamax to add.  You will notice the Azamax has a self measuring compartment.  Squeeze the bottle to get Azamax into the measurement area.  Use enough liquid to require 2 -4 ml of Azamax so it is easy to measure.

Step 4: Mix the Azamax with the water to form your solution.  Shake the bottle vigorously to completely mix the solution.  This should only take about 10-15 seconds.

Step 5:  As you spray your plants continue to gently shake your bottle.  Continuous shaking will ensure the solution stays mixed throughout the spraying process.

Step 6:  Spray the Azamax about 6- 8 inches from the plant depending on the power of your sprayer.  The large hand pump sprays should use more distance to avoid plant damage.

Step 7: Spray directly on any pest sites or spider mite eggs.  Spray the under sides of the leaves and the top of the soil or growth medium.  Spraying the medium will kill hatching eggs nested away from light.

PrecipitatorUse the Precipitator 360to get the undersides of the leaves easily.

It takes about 7-10 days for every insect to die off.  You can spray again safely the seventh day.  If you have a really bad infestation, you could try spraying every four or five days.  If you do not have time for as many applications, try using a slightly stronger solution.  Large quantities of any type of spray will affect the taste of your final product.  Let us know how you use Azamax or any other Pest Control option in the comments below!

Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.

Does Azamax Affect Taste?

Many indoor gardeners are looking for organic pest control answers.  Some growers forget about certain natural resources they should be using to help avoid pests.  Natural pest guards are plants like garlic and fly eating plants.  The indoor gardener faces a mini pest that is hard to detect and multiplies rapidly.  The dreaded spider mite!  Spider mites are indoor grower’s worst nightmare.  General Hydroponics offers an OMRI listed pesticide that can kill spider mites.  The solution can be used up to the day of harvest and can be sprayed on fruits and veggies.

I have played with Azamax myself to find if the residue would leave a taste on my harvest.  The taste of Azamax will be left on your food depending on how you applied Azamax.  If you can avoid bugs the last week of harvest you should be able to effectively rinse it out of the plant.  Some growers use a final flush solution to clean their hydroponic plants.  Mixing Azamax in the nutrient reservoir is effective for preventative pest control, and quick solutions.  It is easy to put too much Azamax in your reservoir, but it is also easy to fix.  Just add more plain water to your reservoir to help offset the percentage of Azamax.

Foliar applications are the quickest way to kill bugs using Azamax.  I use 5ml Azamax per 2L of plain water for foliar applications.  Using Azamax as an organic bug spray is very effective against spider mites.  DO NOT WASTE YOUR SPRAYS!  If you spray too much Azamax on your plants you will be left with a funky tasting food.  The key is moderation and effective aiming.  Mist the whole plant very lightly from a foot away to give it a spider mite shield.  Directly spray the areas with the most spider mites.  Spray the undersides of the leaves to kill hatching babies.  Spider mites multiply very rapidly, but Azamax will slow down their reproduction.  Azamax can affect the taste of your crop if you use too much.  Follow the preventative pest control measures to move Azamax to your last resort.

Before harvest time spray your plants with plain water.  Start spraying them 2 or 3 days before harvest to rinse off the Azamax residue.  Don’t spray them under intense lighting because you will burn the leaves.  Try feeding your plant only plain water right before harvest to flush the remaining Azamax.  Finally dunk your crop in water as you cut it down to remove the rest of the dust, pests, and sprays.

Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.

Hydroponic Economics wants to know how your experience with Azamax has been!  Kick off the conversation in the comments section below.

AzaMax: Hydroponic Solutions for Pest Control

AzaMax by General Hydroponics has a lot of different uses and applications.  Today I will be focusing on the reservoir applications for recirculating and run to waste type systems. The amount of AzaMax to use depends on the size of your hydroponic system and type of infestation you are dealing with.  For a minor to severe spider mite infestation, only the weaker end of the product recommendations are required to eliminate the problem without over affecting crop quality.  Believe me, I’ve seen a few different pest control options, a lot of the products do work like they say, however you may have to live with the slight taste of bug spray on your prized fruits and veggies.  AzaMax is one of the few hydroponic solutions that is safe for the reservoir and can be mixed right in with the nutrient solution.  When the plant absorbs the solution this way, it pest proofs the plant from the inside out.  The inside out method is useful because the solution can be applied at any time without getting residue on fruits or veggies close to consumption.  It also ensures there will be no light burn on the leaves from the water magnifying the light.

Be warned – The AzaMax solution may change the color of your water a bit to a more milky color.  This is natural and also happens when you mix it with water for foliar applications.  Since AzaMax has the nice little measurement cup added to the bottle you can squeeze up the same amount or a semi precise amount without busting out the glassware.  For my reservoir applications I try about 5 ML of AzaMax for every 5 or so gallons of water.  That is about 1 Ml per gallon of water which is about .034 fl oz.  The solution I use ranks below the lowest end of the spectrum according to AzaMax’s chart that comes with the bottle.  Remember, those tables are guides and your application may vary from what others use.  The solution I mention is what I use as my preventative measure!  If you notice pests for weeks after your initial application, try adding more AzaMax on your next reservoir change.

Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.

Stay tuned on pest control with HPE – I’ll be posting more articles about AzaMax and its many uses in the future.  I’ll also be posting some good home made natural pest remedies soon.  If you have any comments or questions about AzaMax feel free to email me or reply with a comment below.  Stay Green!

Product Review: AzaMax – Controlling Spider Mites


Lately I’ve had a pretty bad infestation of spider mites and aphids and I have been looking for the best solution for my plants without getting into nasty chemicals that will affect the taste of my food at harvest.  Gnats are another common indoor gardening pest I have had trouble with.  A simple solution for gnats is the yellow sticky paper that you can put along the walls and on posts in the containers of your plants.  Spider mites however don’t really fly around or get attracted to the bright yellow colors.   They seem to just be attracted to the pretty green leaves of my plants!  Flattering… except spider mites are gross and I would not like to eat them, regardless of how much they want to eat the leaves of my plants.

I tried spraying some solution of Neem PY onto my plants and it takes a few days to kick in but it slows down the infestation for sure.  Neem makes the bugs slow and frankly just plain stupid.  The bugs aren’t killed instantly, so don’t feel like you’ve been cheated because all your bug problems are still there.  The neem makes the bugs not hungry and unable to reproduce.  The bugs will eventually starve to death and the babies will hatch damaged or will eat the neem on the leaves right away and become affected.   The Neem PY wouldn’t stop the infestation completely but it certainly crippled them.  No matter how much neem I used the spider mites kept coming back.  One time I used too much neem too close to harvest and I could taste its tangy flavor on my food.  It wasn’t as horrible as a I thought and was better than eating mites, but I would rather have the best food possible not just “okay” food.  Thats why I grow my own!

To get the infestation in check I picked up some of General Hydroponics’ AzaMax because two other indoor gardeners recommended it to me.  I figured it would work like Neem PY but it was actually amazing how much stronger it was.  I foliar fed the AzaMax to my plants and than poured some solution into my hydro reservoirs to ensure the plants would be bug proof.  After about two days it seems like almost all the spider mites have died or stopped moving.  It definitely helped control the gnat problem too.  I have not harvested the food the AzaMax has been applied to since it is new but I will be sure to write about how it has affected the food flavor and aroma if at all.    If you decide to go and try AzaMax I would try foliar applications at first to see if you can rid the problem that way.  This is especially good if you are still in the grow phase and the fruits you will be eating or picking have not started to form yet.  AzaMax is a little pricey for how much it recommends to use but I promise it does work well.  I will most likely continue to use Neem PY and AzaMax as a preventative and reactionary pest control solution.

Another good feature of AzaMax is that it is OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) approved.  Sometimes labels can be questionable since any company can label their products “organic.”  Look for the OMRI or other official organic labels.  Make sure to look up and research any product you think is suspicious or may be claiming to be organic.  You can take a look at the OMRI web site here.  Even though some forms of hydroponic systems use inorganic parts, I still think it is best to get the closest thing you can to organic every time.  I believe this can yield a more natural and usually sweeter tasting fruit or vegetable.

Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.