Plant food and insecticide

Question

Hi,

I have a question regarding plant fertilizer and insecticide.

These are the plants I currently have,

Aloe Vera Plant

Gardenia jasminoide plant

Flamingo plant Anthurium Prince of Orange plant

Snake plant (Black and Gold)

Peace lily.

Chinese evergreen.

Is it ok to use the following insecticides on each individual plants below? One is natural and the other is chemical. When the time is right.

http://www.wilko.com/insecticides+pest-control/bayer-garden-bug-free-ready-to-use-1l/invt/0429941

http://www.wilko.com/insecticides+pest-control/provado-ultimate-bug-killer-ready-to-use-1l/invt/0149816

Would the second one be too strong for some of the plants?

If these insecticides are no good could you point me too an insecticide for each plant?

I was also wondering if it okay to use the following plant food for these plants:

http://www.wilko.com/plant-food+fertilisers/miracle-gro-continuous-release-all-purpose-1kg/invt/0240321

Thank you

Miss Lynsay Yip

Answer 1

The first link is to a product that is no longer available. The fact that an insecticide is “all natural” doesn’t necessarily mean it is safer to use.

Using broad-spectrum pesticides designed to eradicate many different pest species is not healthy for you or the environment and is usually overkill. It is best to identify specific a pest and use a product that is formulated to eradicate that pest. The label on any registered pesticide should have a list of plants that it can be used on, as well as what pests it can treat. Using pesticides as preventive is not a good idea because pests will build up tolerances to pesticides. There are many very safe and effective home remedies, including dish soap, alcohol and mineral oil that work well on most indoor plants pests.

Fertilizers are over promoted and largely irrelevant. They are not medicine and should never be used on ailing plants. fertilizer is intended for healthy plants that are growing vigorously and using lots of nutrients. Even for those plants, it is best to use a liquid formulation that can be diluted to half strength.

If you are having problems with your plants, don’t look to pestides and fertizers to fix the problems. Plant pests generally occur on plants under sytress due to improper light or water. It is possible to successfully treat the pests, but still lose the plant because of an underlying problem with light or water.