A sheet of foil laid down as a mulch is supposed to eliminate the safe place that thrips usually visit on the plant -- the underside of the leaves.

In a study, it was more effective than any of the strongest, most toxic pesticides available.

Interesting, Feldon. I always have my first TSWV sighting on new growth at the top of the plant, I guess because they like to go into the newly opened blossoms. Now that my plants are around seven feet tall, I'm wondering if laying foil on the ground would do any good. Foil is cheap though, so it's worth a try. Thanks.

Yes, I thought about this too. That it would only protect the bottom few inches of the plant. And in Houston, because of fungus, we generally prune off the bottom 12"-18" of foliage once the plants are 3'-4' tall.

*****delete*****

Sevin won't protect you from TSWV. The little bugs that spread the virus, thrips, go [I]inside[/I] the blossom and that's how the plant is infected. I am using the blue sticky traps that are supposed to attract the thrips but I've lost two plants to TSWV so far this season. Last year I lost almost all my tomatoes to this virus. I feel your pain, believe me.

FYI for people doing pie tins or tin baking sheets. . . make sure you stake them into the ground somehow because strong winds make them damage your stems (even if you've prepped the hole with tape). . . :oP

[quote=lakeshorenc;63651]Well I'm pretty upset because all most all my tomatoes are infected with this. What I would like to know is if I would have continued with putting sevins dust on my plants from the beginning would I have this problem. I happened to post at another site that I was doing that and was made to feel a fool of. Now I am not going to have a good season because I let people influence me. Hey digdirt if your out there THANKS ALOT, Theresa (lot of money and time spent for a big disappointment)[/quote]

Welcome to Tville! I concur with shelleybean -- it's unlikely Sevin would have helped you. The only way it [B]might[/B] have the potential to help (in theory) is if one is able to keep plants coated top to bottom 24/7.

On a side note, digdirt is not a member here as far as I know. But I didn't find his post to you to be totally unreasonable over at GW, and in my opinion, he generally has worthwhile information to offer.

I'm pulling about one a day now, 28 out of 32 left. I sprayed the heck out of them 2 days ago with a miticide, fungicide, insecticide spray(concentrating on the blossoms). I had this last year and thought it was speck. Even my upside down tomato got the virus. Its very depressing to pull up 6 foot tall tomato plant with 20 plus little green babies on it . I'm just praying for my others ,though I've seen spots on most but not the wilt yet. I'm waiting until I see the wilt to pull them and cutting off the spotted leaves from the others although this is probable useless. Theresa

Egads!
To sound redundant, I also feel your pain.... It's really a bummer to pull a plant loaded with tomatoes because of wilt. As an experiment, I've taken to vigorous leaf trimming of some of my plants I suspecy have "the wilt". Oddly enough 2 of the non heirlooms- brandyboy and big beef are pumping iron. I've had to shade the lower part of the plants to protect the fruit from sunscald, but the plants have new and so far healthy growth. But I still intend to to look for recs. for disease resistant plants. Good luck to you!

Thanks, Feldon for this tip.
I am going to try aluminum foil also; heck, it's cheap and cheerful to boot.

Michele, are you catching many thrips on the blue sticky traps? I catch thousands on yellow stickies (when I haven't run out of them!).

TSWV ruined my approx 200 plants last season :evil: Must place an order for new ones!

Patrina

Yes, Patrina. I have both the blue and yellow traps and they are stuck on both, along with a bunch of other bugs. The blue ones are specifically for thrips. I use those up high and the yellow ones on stakes down lower. I'm not sure if it's these traps or just that we had a colder winter this year but I've only lost two plants so far, and that's much better than last year. I think I'll continue to use them every year, both the blue and the yellow.

The traps are certainly not foolproof. Found a third plant infected this morning. I'll pull it this afternoon. :(

Just found this thread tonight. Interesting as I've lost several plants with TSWV this year. By far the worst I've ever had it. I had one row with onions on each side and the other row had onions on one side. These two rows accounted for 33 out of 86 plants. But 16 of the 20 I've lost so far to TSWV was from these two rows. Some say the onions are a host for the thrips. Some say I have onion thrips. The row with onions on both sides I lost 10 out of 16. It may all be a coincindence I'm not sure. Most of the onions are ready to pull anyway so going to pull all and see if that helps. I have read several articles on the internet. Have sprayed with a permethrin spray one recommended on some and it seems to of slowed down the spread. Maybe another conincidence. I was at the point I had to do something. I probably left a few too long wanting to get fruits from some to save seeds but the majority I pulled fairly quick. It is a helpless feeling. And most of the ones I pulled had fruit on them. Some were loaded. I may try the foil some but like others most of mine are tall now except for the sprawlers. And it was them that I lost the most of. Best wishes to all on avoiding it. Jay

In that situation, I'd take drastic measures. Screen porch material can't be THAT much? Tending to the plants would be a bummer unless you make hinged sections that can be opened easily.