so, a friend who ordered a salvia cutting called me
because it developed a case of whiteflies after only
a day in the pot.
I told him I had heard "organicide" was good for that..
he bought some, used as directed, and it wiped out the whiteflies
beautifully and according to him even acted as fertilizer to some extent
(it contains fish and sesame oils)

the problem, he says, is that the smoked leaves now taste like taking
a rip off a wad of fish skin.. really strong.
he said the dried leaves were almost waxy with the oils.

this all makes perfect sense to me, but is no doubt unpleasant I would imagine.

my question, on his behalf, is....

does anyone know a good trick for cleaning leaves?
it seems a very mild, dilute, natural soap-like agent
should be used to wash the freshly picked leaves first.
any suggestions?

I've heard that a mildly soapy solution is itself good for
taking care of those little white micro-bastards..
any suggestions there?

it seems that if this is the case, the plant should maybe be
treated well with organicide once all over, then switching to the
soapy solution for the leaves while continuing to use organicide on the
soil, roots and stem.
anyone done this?


thanks!