This weekly column, while promoting kitchen gardening, focuses on providing doable, easy and inexpensive alternatives to the readers` gardening needs. It includes a series of articles on the life cycle of any particular fruit, vegetable or herb, which also always mention the probable pest attacks and diseases that these plants may be prone to.

The column also outlines probable remedies and different spray combinations, usually organic alternatives, which might need to be sprayed, along with their required frequency and other relevant details. Sometimes, however, this part can be demotivating for a person who has recently adopted gardening as a pastime.

But it`s as important for home gardeners as it is for large-scale farmers. Just before the flowering and fruiting season of different crops, you may have come across TV advertisements, by agricultural and crop sciences organisations, aired just before the prime-time news slot. These advertisements, while enticing farmers to buy the insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides and chemicals, also scare them with the possibility of an unwanted pest attack on their crops which are worth months of effort and fortune.

A typical advertisement features a farmer walking through his farm, easily spraying the crops, usually with a backpack pesticide spraying machine, while pumping it with one hand and directing the spraying nozzle with the other. Another option, not usually depicted, is for the farmer to use a spray trolley, which is a vehicle with a small tank attached to it, containing the required pesticide.

Bigger farms and matching resources would cut down this manual labour and replace it with more advanced machines.

One such solution could be a sprayer vehicle, which would cover a large area on either side in a single go. Such vehicles reduce the time required for the activity and improve the chances of an equitable amount of the solution reaching the plant, due to their systematic mist sprays. Similarly, options such as spraying drones and robots are also being used successfully to achieve better efficiency and effectiveness while combating the possibility of any pest attack.

In this column, though, we will focus on one of the most handy and affordable options to spray water, insecticides and pesticides to fulfil your home-grown plant`s needs on a small scale.

One of my favourites and a regularly recommended option is the spray gun.

This spraying option is almost entirely made up of plastic, which means it is very lightweight compared to almost every other option, apart from the spraying pump. This feature makes it a good choice for children, women and elderly gardeners. It is also beneficial for those gardeners who suffer from bone or joint pain.

The spray gun is extremely easy to assemble, which makes it user-friendly as well. The spray gun is mounted on a bottle top, which already contains the mixture to be sprayed. For this, screw top bottles are required. Any locally manufactured plastic bottle of a soft drink would do. The grip part of the spray gun, which is at its bottom, is then wound up and tightened on the bottle top.The parts to assemble also include a valve and a straw-shaped tube, through which the solution enters the spray gun from the bottle from the negative pressure that is created through pumping. The nozzle can also be adjusted, from spraying a jet stream to providing a mist of the solution.

The spray gun is easily available throughout Pakistan and can be bought from your local plant stores. They are also available at some roadside plant nurseries and on different social media pages dedicated to gardening. The price of this spray gun ranges from Rs300 to Rs700, depending upon the place it is being purchased from. A two-litre gardening spray bottle is also available at gardening stores, with its price ranging between Rs1,000 to Rs2,000.

Those who have a smaller space dedicated to gardening or own only a few plants can always opt for the basic plastic spray bottle, which is available for as little as Rs200. These bottles are easily available at almost all grocery stores. I still find the spray gun to be the most feasible and optimal option for any kitchen gardener.

Regardless of your choice, please keep it in mind that these spray guns and bottles must always be kept out of the reach of children.

Please send your queries and emails to doctree101@hotmail.com. The writer is a physician and a host for the YouTube channel `DocTree Gardening` promoting organic kitchen gardening