I was looking into the effectiveness of spinosad today and came across this paper suggesting that monosodium glutamate (MSG) like is in your favorite processed salty snack food gives codling moth larvae the munchies. I realize it is behind a paywall, but really the interesting and useful info is all in the abstract.
Something to think about if spinosad is in your arsenal. We have MSG in our cabinet, my wife uses it to make a couple party dips. Its called “Accent” (lol… sounds like a pesticide or fungicide name).
@InfiniteFruit That’s odd, the link on ResearchGate actually leads to a different, but related article. The title in your link is to the one I linked to though, some wires got crossed somewhere.
Thanks for pointing this out. In reading the paper it looks like a no-brainer to do. The only downside is rain pretty much completely washes out the MSG. The amount they used was 25ppm MSG, which is 1/25 tsp per gallon. I think I will be adding it to my spinosad from here on out.
I will personally be adding nufilm if I can - in other words, if there is no Surround I need to maintain. My guess is that will extend the lifetime of the MSG.
To measure 1/25th tsp, take 1/4 tsp and divide into 6 equal piles. Eyeball the amount and try to repeat. I will use a heaping 1/4 tsp in my 5-gallon backpack. Its OK to up to double the 25ppm according to the paper.
Use of MSG is prevalent in Far East and Southeast Asian cooking. I consider it artificial sweetner and never like it.
I assume any MSG brand will do but the brand that is most popular in Asia is Ajinomoto. If you an have Asian grocery store near you, buying it from there may be the cheapest place you can find.
I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark that nufilm wont do a huge amount to help the MSG from washing off, but I could be wrong. I guess I don’t know the permeability of the film when it is down, but I assume from the chemistry of the molecule that it is best in retaining more hydrophobic compounds (e.g. those that don’t readily dissolve in water) on surfaces (so it is great for spinosad). Since glutamate is strongly polar (forms a salt with Na+), I am not sure that NuFilm will do a ton. But since you want it there for the spinosad anyways, there is no extra cost.
If 1/25 of a teaspoon is an awkward quantity you can always make up a more concentrated stock and dilute from there into your sprayer. This is where the dumb US system of units really starts to get to be a PITA. Those calculations can be done in ones head on the fly in SI units.
Agreed on the annoying teaspoon measurements. A few years ago I switched all my bread making over to grams, I weigh everything on the scale. Its trivial to get perfect measurements and easy to change recipe ratios.
I’m sure you are right on Nufilm not working as well for MSG compared to how much it helps micronized insolubles like copper and sulphur. But it should help some at least.
MSG is actually now produced in the US and where previously there had been concerns about a Chinese Food syndrome causing all sorts of digestive problems after eating Chinese food, recent studies have shown there are very few people affected. For the rest, it was the hype that made them believe and attribute other problems to it.
It’s actually considered ‘umami’ or a particular taste…
I find it does (in very small amounts) enhance flavor and I buy it at a restaurant supply place and just refill the Ajinomoto bottle.
It’s the landlady who has the fruit trees so I’ll pass the info along to her…she’s not much on doing research but if I do
it, she’ll read it and sometimes follow through.
I gave her a recent post on spider mites and I noticed a week later that the straw she had been letting winter over (the tomato garden) is gone…
Her usual answer to every problem is to go talk to the people at Armstrong Garden Centers where she buys things. Me, I used to subscribe to the Rodale Press magazine when it was still Organic Gardening AND FARMING…
my neighbor has a brother back in Michigan with some trees so I copy useful information for him since he’s too busy reading about trucks to look up solutions for his trees. But he does read them and use them I’m told, so it’s worth the doing.
Wish I could provide useful tips but just wanted to say thanks, your words don’t fall on deaf ears, even if people don’t respond often. Thanks.
I had a few CM this year but so far almost no OFM - only two tip strikes in the whole orchard. I put down more mating disruption and have been spraying the peach tips with spinosad, maybe its been helping.
Sprayed with Conserve SC for the first time yesterday. 0.2 fl oz. (6 cc) per gal of water. I do have a life time supply of it, from the size of the bottle It comes in :)
Mixed with Indar and Nu Film17. Forgot the MSG!!! It lists effectiveness against many worms and moths including coddling moths and oriental fruit moths. Unfortunately, no plum curculios on the list. I hope it works.
