|
Post by daylilydude on Jun 30, 2014 7:17:07 GMT -5
Ok y'all, needing a lil help... My purple hull pea bed is loaded with aphids now, but I have them planted so close together that a blast of water from a hose I don't think will be of much good... any other ideas??
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 30, 2014 8:22:06 GMT -5
I have never really found hosing the aphids off a very useful method. First, the reason you mention, that the plants are just too thick, and it seems they just reappear anyway (can you really ever hose them all off?). Last, dragging the hose through my garden can damage things.
I use pyrethrins when I get a bad case of aphids, followed by a dusting of DE to discourage any down the road. Neem oil works well, too, but is not good to use once temps get into the 90s, which I'm sure is happening in your area, since it has happened here.
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jun 17, 2019 22:08:00 GMT -5
Friends, I know this is an old thread but I am having trouble getting rid of green aphids on my tomato plants. I have been trying neem oil but they just laugh and multiply. I shake the plants and hundreds fall to the ground. Water streams don't seem to work very well as the plants are single stem and fairly close to each other. Any suggestions would be appreciated even if it has been brought up before. Aphids have not been a problem in my gardens before but they are now. We have had a really wet spring which may be the problem. Thanks everyone.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 17, 2019 23:14:38 GMT -5
Are you getting them on a lot of the tomatoes, or just certain varieties dirtguy50? I ask because I've had trouble with only a few varieties, and the ones on both sides of them got none! And I've killed them on those, and they'd be right back in a week! On my okra, I killed the black aphids with Safer 3 in 1, making sure that I sprayed the undersides of the leaves, then dusted them with DE, and I don't see any coming back...yet. But I keep close watch!
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jun 18, 2019 6:49:21 GMT -5
Thanks Dave. I have mortgage lifters and rudgers and noticed the aphids were much greater numbers on one of the two (got them mixed up). The ones next to a couple most infected do have them but in much less numbers. I will pick up so Safer 3 in 1 at work today but cannot get the DE until tomorrow at a different place. Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jun 18, 2019 9:04:35 GMT -5
dirtguy50, I got aphids on my pepper seedlings that I purchased this year and they soon spread to all of the peppers. They were still in pots and I thoroughly washed them all and the aphids seemed to be gone but then more must have hatched and they came back. I did this 3 times and I used insecticidal soap which was useless. Finally I washed them off and after the plants were dry I sprayed with Neem and they never came back. 2 years ago I got pink aphids on some of my tomato plants in the garden. I had never seen pink aphids before but there were LOTS of them. I washed the plants with water from a hose a couple of times and then resorted to Neem and again, they disappeared. Good luck with that.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 18, 2019 11:15:26 GMT -5
Thanks Dave. I have mortgage lifters and rudgers and noticed the aphids were much greater numbers on one of the two (got them mixed up). The ones next to a couple most infected do have them but in much less numbers. I will pick up so Safer 3 in 1 at work today but cannot get the DE until tomorrow at a different place. Thanks. Be forewarned - those aphids are back! The DE probably washed away with all this rain, and 3 in 1 only kills on contact, plus they are mostly on new growth areas. I'll have to try the neem oil that brownrexx used on the peppers - it's not getting too hot to spray oils yet.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 18, 2019 19:21:11 GMT -5
Now I have aphids on one of those varieties of tomatoes out there!! And only 2 of one variety - it's supposed to be Chef's Choice, but it looks nothing like it, more plum shaped. The green chef's choice, right next to it, has no aphids, and the Goliath on the other side has no aphids. "Chef's Choice", with aphids 6-18 by pepperhead212, on Flickr I hosed off as much as I could, trimmed a lot of the plants off (they were very bushy, more than all the rest), and tomorrow I will spray it with the neem oil, garlic, and hot pepper mix I used on the okra. If they come back to these tomatoes, I'll pull them, as I've done with others in the past, that were prone.
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jun 18, 2019 20:03:55 GMT -5
Dave and brownrexx, if this next spray or two doesn't work, I may very well pull a couple of my tomato plants. These little green monster aphid are all over the plants. Wish me luck my friends.
Keith
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 18, 2019 20:50:39 GMT -5
Good luck, dirtguy50. I remember this happening before, and the three varieties - Marlborough, Red Zebra, and Pink Thai - and the aphids not only came back, but 2 of the varieties got them when tried in other years! So I'm not holding out hope for this. Plus, the tomato doesn't even seem like what it's supposed to be.
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jun 18, 2019 21:02:08 GMT -5
Thanks Dave. I am not giving a few of these tomato plants much more time before pulling them. Went out after work and soaked them with Bonide horticultural all seasons dormant spray to try to kill them. In about 4 days I will do the neem oil and if that doesn't work...out they come. My yield may be smaller this year than I was hoping for but some is better than none. This is a new issue for me but that is just part of gardening I guess. Thanks again.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 18, 2019 22:40:23 GMT -5
Fortunately, this happens with extremely few varieties. Only these 4 isolated types in all these years of growing tomatoes, and once they were out those other times, the aphids were gone - no other plants got them. This is why I'm not giving them much time to clear up - like you, I'll get them out, and out with the lawn trash.
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jun 18, 2019 22:54:26 GMT -5
Yes sir. That is my thoughts. Very new of a gardening issue for me but, hey, that is learning from year to year. It is always interesting to me that some folks on these forum think there is a magic button and all will be well forever. We learn constantly and nothing is static. I love gardening. Thank you my friend from NJ.
|
|
|
Post by daylilydude on Jun 19, 2019 3:46:51 GMT -5
This is just me, so don't hate me, but I grow just a few plants every year , so if a chemical treatment is needed than I just follow the directions carefully.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jun 19, 2019 7:48:12 GMT -5
I have never heard that aphids are variety related. I have not had much trouble with them over the years and only ever had them on my tomatoes that one time a few years ago. They were hard to get rid of on my pepper seedlings this year and they seemed to spread to all of the plants in the tray. I had to treat them several times to be totally rid of them. I would treat the plants one day and the aphids would be back but in lesser numbers the next day. It was very frustrating. I washed with water several times and I think that I used the Neem twice. I figure that the treatment only killed the adults and that new ones kept hatching. Eventually they were all gone. Interestingly pepperhead212 , mentioned getting aphids on one variety of okra but not another right next to it so I guess that the aphids have food preferences. I just hope that they don't develop a taste for your other tomato plants if you remove their favorites. Let us know how it goes.
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jun 19, 2019 9:30:07 GMT -5
Will do brownrexx. These things must be atomic aphids. The continual rains probably aren't helping.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 19, 2019 10:19:55 GMT -5
brownrexx Good luck with battling those aphids on the peppers. The only problems with aphids on peppers that I've had was when I'd cover some with the agribon hoophouse, and many would get black aphids - I'm thinking the humidity was part of the problem there. That's when I started grinding up dried banana peels - supposed to help repel them, and it did seem to help, but did not totally prevent them under there. I sprinkled some around the base of my okra after the spray yesterday I should have thought of it before planting, though, again, it probably wouldn't have totally prevented them. I'll have to uncover my peppers, and do a check. I also had certain peppers that were more aphid prone - jalapeños being the worst. And it has always been black aphids on the peppers and okra, but green ones on tomatoes. Really strange.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jun 19, 2019 10:35:45 GMT -5
pepperhead212, I think that the aphids were totally gone on the pepper seedlings before I planted them in the garden but I have looked closely and they are growing nicely now and have no aphids anymore. They were the green ones and I am sure that they came home from the greenhouse with 2 of the plants. I had the black ones when I grew artichokes but I am not growing them this year. The ones on my tomatoes 2 years ago were pink. I have had a veritable rainbow of aphids apparently.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 19, 2019 11:54:44 GMT -5
Out of curiosity I googled aphids, and found out that there are approximately 5,000 species of them, with about 400 species that get on 'food and fiber crops'. So we are lucky we don't see more of them!
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jun 30, 2019 21:58:15 GMT -5
These little monsters just will not give up. I was pruning my tomato plants today and they are still there. I did use a strong water spray when we got home from church as the garden was shaded. Tomorrow morning I will spray again with neem. The little critters are not wanting to go away. Maybe the wet rainy weather has something to do with this as we have never had such an investation before. Geez!
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 30, 2019 23:50:07 GMT -5
Seems that the first one that got the aphids all over it is staying clean, but the variety next to it got infested, so several days ago, I had to totally cover that with some of what I used on the other plants. The okra is also staying clean, and the Little Lucy hasn't gotten a sign of aphids at all.
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on Jul 1, 2019 0:06:20 GMT -5
Scratching my head here. NJT is a vegetable gardening forum, there's a thread 5 years old, and #1 organic aphid control has not been mentioned, Safer. That's especially effective against aphids. Never see them again after one spraying.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 1, 2019 0:29:57 GMT -5
I thought that I mentioned it, but maybe I said 3 in 1, instead of Safer, and left the safer off.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 1, 2019 0:33:58 GMT -5
On my okra, I killed the black aphids with Safer 3 in 1, making sure that I sprayed the undersides of the leaves, then dusted them with DE, and I don't see any coming back...yet. But I keep close watch! OK, I knew that I mentioned it, and used it for the okra. I thought that maybe I had left safer off, when I posted.
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on Jul 1, 2019 8:26:54 GMT -5
pepperhead212,sorry, missed that, bum eyes. Safer is the only effective organic aphid control that I've ever found. Soap solutions, water sprays, shaking, all are temporary. When I used to try to grow fava beans, they were an aphid magnet. One shot of Safer and they were terminated. As I recall, it wasn't terribly expensive and I still have the original bottle. Haven't had a need for it since. The favas were the only thing that has ever been infested. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jul 1, 2019 11:18:39 GMT -5
I Googled this product and the funny thing is that the Safer solution is a soap solution with sulfur for fungus.
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jul 1, 2019 19:23:37 GMT -5
Well, I finally sprayed my tomatoes with Safers 3 in 1 today. The rains were close but didn't happen so I sprayed them. Yesterday when I shook some of the plants, there were a lot of green aphis still falling off on the ground. I don't know what is going on but these pests will simply not go away. Pepperhead seems to like the Safer 3 in 1 so I value his opinion and did that today. Wish me luck, again.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 1, 2019 20:08:21 GMT -5
Good luck against those, dirtguy50. I was looking again today, and the ones I sprayed the second time seem to be doing well, but it's too soon to tell. It's been dry for quite a while here, so that may be helping, though I'm just guessing. I've only got one more dosage. Hopefully, I won't need more, and when it's this hot out, I can't combine it with neem oil,or any oil, for that matter.
|
|
dirtguy50
Pro Member
My avatar got in trouble for digging in the garden
Posts: 255
Zone:: 6b
Joined: February 2014
|
Post by dirtguy50 on Jul 1, 2019 20:27:43 GMT -5
Thanks Dave. We will see what happens. These aphids should be an easy fix but they are stubborn and will not go away. They just keep multiplying. My favorite home defense is my 9mm S&W but I thought that would be a bad idea. LOL
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on Jul 2, 2019 9:45:37 GMT -5
Their stubbornness is why the "mild" or easy fixes don't work. Plain soap means that you have clean aphids. Water hose means that they aren't thirsty. Shaking means that they get a free-fall thrill before climbing back up or given a lift by ants. Safer just kills them and be done with it. Went out last evening with magnifying glass to try to find some as an excuse to use the Safer. Couldn't find any. brownrexx, yes, soap is a main ingredient in Safer but it's not your generic Joy, Tide, or Dial. It's not the soap that kills them, it's what's in it. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
|
|