Answered my own question here

Here is a link that might be useful: http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/psfagen.pdf

Has little effectiveness as a miticide - Neem will work much better for that purpose. And household 'soap and water' is less of an effective control than you might think and depending on the soap/detergent used, can cause problems.

About the only drawback of insecticidal soap is its sometimes phytotoxic reactions with certain types of plants.

Thank you!

Depends.
Aphids are easily controlled with just a sharp spray of water, nothing more. Certainly no poisons.
Spider mites often can be controlled by raising the humidity around the plant, no poisons needed.
Mealy bugs can be controlled with judicious applications of horticultural oils, either dormant or superior.

Detergents, mentioned above, do not make organically acceptable insecticidal sprays and will do harm to plants it is sprayed on.

Why are potassium salt detergents not organically acceptable, if they are organically certified?

If humidity can't be raised, it seems like neem oil may be the answer to many of these pests.

Also, if one sprays aphids with water, won't they just fall off the plant and come back? What if you are indoors and can't spray with large amounts of water?

Potassium salts are not detergents but many household soaps are. And in some cases, household soaps can be useful - attempting to remove sooty mold is much easier accomplished if one "washes" down the foliage with a dilute mix of dish soap and water, then spraying the plant thoroughly with just plain water. This works great on some fleshy leaved plants like camellias or citrus and does no damage to the plant.

Maintaining adequate himidity will discourage spider mites from taking up housekeeping in your plants but it alone will not remove an infestation........that's where Neem oil or horticultural oil proves useful.

Aphids have very soft bodies and hitting them with a strong stream of water will kill them. Smaller houseplants can be sprayed off with water in the kitchen sink - the plants will love this treatment anyway - and larger plants can be addressed in the shower or bath. Or if seasonally appropriate, you can take them outdoors and spray them off.

gribble, just so you have it in hand clearly, insecticidal soaps (potassium salts of fatty acids), Neem oil and horticultural oils are ALL approved and accepted organic controls. The use of terminology like 'poisons' can be confusing and misleading -- virtually any substance can be toxic if delivered in the correct dosage.

Has gardengal helped clarify it for you, gribble? Kimmsr tends to relay just enough information to be confusing to the novice.

"Detergents, mentioned above,...will do harm to plants it is sprayed on. "

Blanket statement that is practically meaningless and unnecessarily scaremongering.
I've sprayed plenty of plants with mixtures containing detergents - an incredibly broad category of chemical - and they've done fine. When I successfully (I think) grafted rhododendrons a month ago, I dipped the rootstock & scion plants in a bucket of warm water with detergent AND bleach added. I did NOT rinse off. They've done fine, and haven't become covered in mildew.

Have also taken care of odd mildew problem on a Japanese Maple seedling I was retaining for evaluation by spraying with water & a small amt. of potassium bicarbonate and a bit of dish soap as a surfactant. It's pretty hilarious, you can buy huge amounts of KHCO3 cheaply, on ebay, but if you purchase it as a "pesticide" it costs a fortune. There's some organic garden product/treatment based on hydrogen peroxide at a ridiculously low concentration like 0.005%. It's $15 for a 12 oz spray bottle...so literally 50X more expensive than just mixing it yourself from drug store peroxide.

Although these various formulations use potassium as the cation on the assumption the sodium will hurt the plant, in fact, some of the early research on bicarbonate as a fungicide used sodium and the small amount didn't harm the plant. You would not want to spray your plants with Arm & Hammer every day, but a few times to treat a minor fungal issue isn't going to kill it.

btw...sodium salt + fatty acids = just typical "soap" (not quite most bar soaps you buy these days, though)
potassium salt + fatty acids = liquid hand soap, but again, most store bought formulas are more detergent-like

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Mon, Oct 13, 14 at 19:48

While the Food and Drug Administration classifies soap0s and detergents as the same thing they are not. Detergents are synthetic and therefore unacceptable to an organic grower, just as any synthetic product is. Soaps are made by reacting the fats and oils from animals and plants with an alkali (such as lye), a process known as saponification.
The humidity around a plant can be raised by misting, several times a day if necessary.
Knocking Aphids off plants with a sharp spray of water will not have them return, although the next generation will, and that is why many think the Aphids return after being knocked off the plant.

Thanks for the conversation & advice, all!

Hello

Please advise if anybody knows about making soap spray

mohamad.noo1@yahoo.com

1 teaspoon of soap (not detergent) in 1 quart of water, or 3 tablespoons of soap in 1 gallon of water. A soap is made by reacting fats, animal or vegetable, with a caustic (lye). A detergent is made of petroleum byproducts.

kimmq is kimmsr