At some time during your growing career, you will probably have to deal with bugs. If you grow outdoors you deal with them constantly unless you use an effective preventative that keep them away. Indoors, bugs can be a problem too, and without an effective strategy to keep them away from your plants an infestation can show up when you least expect it, forcing you to suddenly have to battle the little invaders.
I live in an old renovated farmhouse where I grow in the attic. Bugs of all kinds are a constant problem in my grow rooms, so over the last several years I have been looking to find the best way to deal with them. I grow organically and naturally, so instead of applying poisons to my plants and my soil, I desired a natural and organic way to prevent the bugs from taking hold of my plants. I also wanted to be able to tell my patients that I grow completely naturally and without traditional insecticides, so they could be assured that my harvest is safe.
There are many natural remedies for attacking the bugs once you have them, but what could be done to prevent the bugs from invading my plants in the first place?
Sierra Natural Science has solved this problem for us. SNS 209 is a natural systemic pesticide made from a special highly soluble form of Rosemary oil. The plants uptake this Rosemeric acid (which is harmless to the plant) and distributes it to every cell. When a bug takes a bite of this acid it simply stops eating because the plant is no longer desirable to it. Without food they can eat without being poisoned, bugs will simply move on. SNS 209 provides a barrier which is harmless to the plant, but fatal to the bugs.
SNS 209 is the base of the entire SNS line of products and it is mixable with every other product they produce. SNS 209 is designed to be used as a preventative, so that a bug problem can’t start, and it is also an effective way of making sure that an infestation can not get out of control in your garden, if an invader is accidentally left behind. Outdoors, SNS 209 is extremely effective, since it makes your plants taste bad to the bugs and keeps them from making their homes there, and when given a chance the bugs simply move on to better tasting plants down the road.
SNS 209 can also be applied as a foliar spray as an insecticide, and it will cause many bugs to simply dry out and die on contact, with their eggs coated in an oily covering. Repeated sprayings of 209 and regular application repels and kills spider mites, broad mites, russet mites, root aphids, gnat larvae, fungus gnats, white flies, cabbage maggots, and most boring insects.
SNS 209 works best as a preventative, and it is most effective when applied all through the grow, from the first 4 waterings and then once a week to the very last. This will keep most bug infestations away from your garden, with the use of this one, powerful product. SNS 209 can be added to the water in both top and bottom feed situations, in all mediums, and even in hydro.
Until I found Sierra Natural Science, I had been searching for an effective way to fight bugs. I re-use soil and store it in open containers between use, so I tend to start grows with bugs already living in my rich soil. When I buy new soil, it is usually Fox Farms products, bought from a local farm supply store, where they stack the bags on pallets out in their parking lot. Rich soil attracts bugs so this is usually a quick way to bring everything from fungus gnats to aphids home with me in that soil.
Before using Sierra Natural Science products, I got my best bug killing effectiveness by using combinations of Hot Shot No Pest Strips, Yellow Sticky Cards and a 5 week systemic commercial pesticide applied to the soil. This worked, but typically I was needing to give a second 5 week dosage at the end of veg, knowing that the poison would work until mid bloom. This almost always resulted in severe bug infestations as the poison expired, right at the worst time, the end of the grow when the buds are starting to really develop. Poisons could no longer be applied to the soon to be harvested buds, and less invasive natural remedies rarely worked. Many runs resulted in disaster by following this strategy.
SNS 209 provides a solution that doesn’t lose effectiveness at any time during the grow. It is a true preventative, and one that is natural, organic and safe to use right up to the day of harvest.
SNS 209 when used as directed is safe for humans and pets, and it makes your grow room smell like Rosemary. I can not tell that this has been used on the harvested product after drying and curing because the oils and terpenes used to make SNS 209 go away completely during the drying and curing process. The botanical extracts used to create SNS 209 are all food grade GRAS, (Generally Recognized As Safe when used as directed), materials, that are fully biodegradable and not toxic to animals. It is exempt from EPA registration under minimum risk pesticide exempted under FIFRA section 25(b) and can be used on a wide variety of plants, fruits, and vegetables.
I have used SNS 209 for many years, and have compared my ability to control bugs with and without it. When I don’t use SNS 209, I can expect to be forced to deal with bugs at some point in the grow, and in numbers where they eventually become a problem that must be dealt with forcibly in order to save the crop. When I have consistently used SNS 209 from the beginning of the grow, I rarely have any kind of bug related problems and what does occasionally show up is controllable. This product works as advertised, is very cost effective to use and it is a whole lot safer than using poisons on a crop that you intend to ingest.
SNS 209 can be purchased in many sizes, with the price per application becoming more inexpensive the larger the quantity you buy. It is available in economically friendly packet sizes, to Pint, Gallon, 5 Gallon, Gallon/Pint cases and a 50 Gallon size for the larger jobs.
SNS 209 provides a solution that doesn’t lose effectiveness at any time during the grow. It is a true preventative, and one that is natural, organic and safe to use right up to the day of harvest.
I give Sierra Natural Science SNS 209 a AAA+ rating and my complete personal endorsement. They are a long-time sponsor of our Forum and there are discount codes on their information page to help our members try their products.
420 Magazine Product Review by: Emilya Green
For more information: Sierra Natural Science
