Ethics Trading

How to Grow a Soap nut Tree

First find some seeds. I often find them in my deliveries of soap nuts but I try to take them out so my customers are only paying for the weight of shells. The seeds contain no saponin and are therefore not what my customers want. I do sell soap nut tree seeds, as a novelty, fun item but I don’t guarantee any level of success rate and I don’t recommend growing a soap nut tree in the ground. Please put them in pots as first I don’t know what environmental havoc they might wreak in the UK and second they don’t survive the British winter.

Then put your seed in the freezer. Yes, in the freezer. The seeds seem to need a cold snap before they germinate. Leave them in there for a couple of weeks.

When you get them out pop them into some basic potting compost and leave it on a warm window sill.

In a few weeks (yes it takes ages) you’ll find a spike of green leaves.

The soap nut tree forms gorgeous pale green pinnate leaves and is a beautiful plant. But I caution you all against growing a non native tree in you own soil. Firstly the soap nut tree doesn’t seem to withstand English winters when young, and secondly who knows what ecological havoc they could wreak!

From my own experience, and my own small tree, they like warmth, enjoy sun and cope with short periods of drying out, but hate being waterlogged. While they can cope with cold to an extent and despite needing to be frozen before germination, I’ve managed to kill 3 by leaving them out over the winter, so last years tree had its roots clipped in a partial bonsai and was brought indoors.

They also don’t seem to suffer with greenfly! Actually, that makes a lot of sense, seeing as the liquid cooked out of the berry shells does act as an excellent greenfly preventative - but don’t make it too strong or your plants get all frothy!

Happy planting.

Following on from Linda’s tips there are Ethics Trading’s best seller, the Soap Nut.

Essentially you can do ALL your cleaning using soap nuts. Yes, ALL.  It’s perfectly possible to clean your home, your laundry, car, curtains, children, floors, windows, patio, garden furniture, well everything really. If it gets cleaned with some sort of wet detergent, or detergent and water then soap nuts can do it.

If you need a Soap Nut Solution then the instructions for making one can be found as part of the Soap Nut Information PDF file.

They’re also good in the garden, not only for cleaning your patio and garden furniture, but as an insect repellent. Plants sprayed with a mild soap nut solution have much less green and black fly and don’t get eaten by slugs and snails. In fact, soap nut solution kills slugs and snails while it drives away the greenfly.

How much more versatile can you get?

Soap nuts, the Ultimate in renewable resources, versatile and contributing to the carbon cycle too! 

Having written a number of articles about the benefit to both the environment and ourselves in buying organic cotton. I feel that some of the benefits are negated if for the remainder of the garments life it is washed in detergents and chemicals which may be almost as damaging. So I would like to share with you some of the eco friendly non toxic methods of stain removal I have researched. Some may have been well known to your grandmother and she may have passed it on but some will be new. But please I would urge you to check labels and use your own judgment before you proceed willy nilly with some of these suggestions. One important tip to remember if you have treated a stain and put it through the wash is to check if it’s worked before you dry it. Once it has been dried it will be almost impossible to remove
For the removal of oil or fat stains even tomato sauce if it is dry try cornflour rubbed into the stain and left for about 20 minutes then brushed off with a soft cloth or brush. This may need several applications for a good result. Speed up the process if you wish by placing a paper towel above and below the treated stain and running a hot steam iron over it. Stains from fruit including wine and tomato sauce disappear when boiling water is poured over them in a bowl. Ball point ink stains can be tricky but soak in milk it may take a while and need a top up but it does work. Apparently this also works on chocolate and even blood. Rust stains can be cleared with application of a layer of salt and lemon juice squeezed over the top and then rubbed in.
Vinegar is the tops when it comes to multiple uses. For wine spots on cotton treat within 24 hours with white distilled vinegar applied directly to the stain and rubbed. Then clean in accordance with instructions on the label.
This next is not exactly stain removal but it is a good tip. To freshen baby clothes add one cup of white distilled vinegar to each load of baby clothes during the rinse cycle, it will naturally break down uric acid and soapy residue and leave the clothes soft and fresh. This treatment helps any clothes to rinse better it does not harm the fabric but will dissolve alkaline in soaps and detergents. To remove chewing gum pour straight vinegar over it to saturate this works even better if you heat the vinegar first. Another suggestion is to use basic hair shampoo (without inbuilt conditioner) on stains on washable materials, work it well into the fibres, but carefully if it’s delicate. Follow up with your usual wash. Of course one thing which is great for nappies and whites is natural sunlight which helps to bleach out stains but this is a summertime only solution here in the United Kingdom. I hope that you will find some of these tips helpful.

Of course we would add soap nuts as the gentlest laundry detergent in existence………… 

Reproduced with the kind permission of Linda Sones of Sones UK.  Suppliers of the finest organic cotton baby and children’s clothing, personally selected and endorsed by Linda Sones.

The sun is shining and warm and we’re just waiting for it to dry the grass a bit more so I can go and mow it.

The soap nut solution does seem to be keeping the seedlings safe from slug, snail and greenfly attacks.  So we’ll be sowing more seeds later on today and hopefully we’ll not lose so many this time!

In other news, The Portal Between is now listed all over the interent - well, on a few notable book shop sites, including Tesco.com and WHSmith. This has inspired 2 new pages on the Ethics Trading site.

The Merchandising page features t-shirts, mugs and bags all with the Portal Between cover. These are printed and dispatched by Spreadshirt and although Ethics Trading earns a small commission we are not responsible for quality or dispatch times. Do let us know what you think though as this may affect our continued use of Spreadshirt.

There is now an Amazon shop linked on the Ethics Trading site.  Again, this is an affiliate scheme and Ethics Trading has no responsibility for any item you purchase through that store. However we do control the content, so if you spot anything unpleasant or that you feel shouldn’t be on there please let us know.

Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine.  

Soap nut juice kills slugs!

It does, it’s true. We’re discovering more and more uses for soap nuts and the liquid all the time.

How does it work?

The detergent properties in the soap nut solution interfere with the slug’s slime and kill the slug as effectively as salt would.

First you’ll need to make some soap nut solution. Put a handful of shells in a big pan with around a litre of water and warm gently - do Not boil! The froth is messy… You can let it simmer gently for about half an hour and then leave it to stand and steep until cool. 

When you have your juice ready, find yourself a spray bottle and fill it a third full with the juice and top up with water. Try to be gentle or it froths up and makes a mess! Only use the liquid, strain out the used shells or they’ll clog your sprayer.

Then spray the plants you want to protect. There will be a bit of foam on the leaves but don’t worry, it keeps greenfly away as well, and blackfly and whitefly. You will need to rinse out the spray part of your sprayer from time to time as the tiny bits of soap nut shell can get trapped in the tubes and filters.

However, Do Not use this on any carnivorous plants or any plant that prefers a water based insecticide. This IS a detergent and could have adverse effects on some plant species. I’d also recommend that you try not to get too much direct on the soil as it can harm earthworms if present in high enough concentrations or if sprayed directly on them.

(first published on Qassia, adapted for this blog) 

The slugs are eating my plants. This happens every year and I refuse to use pellets. I could get copper tape but it’s expensive. I could go out with a bucket of salt water and collect them every evening but it’s very time intensive and I have other things to be doing.

Now, last time slugs got into the kitchen (I know, yuck) I used soap nut juice in a spray to clean up the slime. So I’ve been wondering if a soap nut juice dose for the plantlets will help.

I’m going to take my greenfly wash and spray the coldframe and the plants inside. I’ll post back in a few days and let you know if it works. It certainly works for greenfly.

The report back on the washing challenge on the Aleena Naylor show was today, about 1hr 35 mins in.

I think they liked them! 

Radio Derby, Aleena Naylor’s Morning show - about 1 hour in.

I don’t now if they archive these or if it’s only there for a limited time, but do have a listen. It was loads of fun, and they did ask if I’d be willing to go back and talk some more!

I said yes, of course I did.  

I had an interesting email yesterday! It was from:

a producer at BBC Radio Derby. On today’s mid-morning show, we were discussing eco-friendly cleaning products and the conversation evolved into natural cleaners - which led me the internet - and then your website.

I have a big ask: If you are interested and/or available, it would be great to interview you on the show at 1030 tomorrow (Wednesday) about soap nuts and what led you down this path. I think your story is really interesting. We thought it would be a nice touch if you could bring some bags with you and we could give some to a volunteer listener to test.

Now Wednesday is the very worst day of the week to do anything, so I gave her a ring - she’s very nice - and now we’re doing the interview on Thursday at 11.15ish. If you fancy listening or want to catch it on the listen again thingy - the link to Radio Derby is Here - Listen again to Radio Derby.

I’ve never been on the radio before, wish me luck? 

Janey Lee Grace was on The Wright Stuff this morning. Check out her forum Imperfectly Natural for tips, advice and general green type chat. It’s a lovely, friendly online space to come and play. I’m Soapnutter (the admin) on there if you have any problems please do get in touch and I’ll sort you out if I can.

The Youtube of her Wright Stuff bit can be seen here.  Oh look, soap nuts…. That’d be why the web traffic to here has gone mad this morning.

Thanks Janey!