Residue

[Heather]

I have this plant that has some neem/soap residue and consequently its' leaves are really sticky and awful. I've tried cleaning them off with warm water but it hasn't helped.

Any idea what I could use to help out my poor plant?

 

[adiaphane]

A little lemon juice weakly mixed in with water. I use that to clean the leaves from time to time. It gets rid of some residue. Hope that helps.

 

[littlefrog]

You can just rub the leaves with a cut lemon (or lime), actually. But I think that works best for hard water stains. Not sure about the goop you have. Milk is supposed to be a good leaf cleaner, too.

 

[Heather]

Thanks. I wondered about lemon juice, if that would be astringint enough.
Yeah, the "goop" ended up being pretty nasty! I made a few mistakes with this plant. Fortunately, it is on the rebound.

 

[SlipperFan]

Milk is a very good leaf cleaner, but I don't know that it would cut oily residue. If not lemon juice, maybe just plain dish soap? (diluted, of course)

 

[adiaphane]

Milk is a very good leaf cleaner, but I don't know that it would cut oily residue. If not lemon juice, maybe just plain dish soap? (diluted, of course)

Hey, maybe you can use the biodegradable stuff. I use this one called ecosaver on all my dishes, and it works really well at getting grease off of dishes. It isn't pretoleum, but plant based, so i don't think it would harm the plants. And, it's 3.50$ (I get mine at Whole Foods).

 

[Wogga]

half whole milk/half water is great for sheen for showings. half gingerale/half water is perfect for cleaning. give it a shot - it should help

 

[Heather]

Ginger Ale huh?
Hm. That's a new one to me.

I think I'll try the lemon juice first.