Quote:
Originally Posted by Aphid
It may be the other way around,
unfortunately weak plants are like aphid magnets, from my past experiences,a heathy plant never has much problem with infestation.
when I was using strong pesticides my problems got worse every year.
I know it sounds cliche' but once I went the organic route no more severe bug problems.
|
No it wasn't the other way around because a friend who was totally organic gave up due to the aphid infestation this year. Virtually all of my soil amending is totally organic and most spraying is too; but there is a point where it becomes downright counterproductive to allow the bugs to eat more than I do. I had no blight symptoms for nearly 6 weeks but had some aphids on a few very healthy plants particularly Aunt Gerties Gold and Wes. I used some soap sprays and kept waiting for the ladybugs to leave my beans and other plants and get to work on my tomatoes but I waited too long. The plants I set out after the heavy aphid influx have had almost no signs of disease nor have the disease resistant hybrids. Only problem is I am growing mostly heirlooms trying to find the few that can tolerate these conditions. So far Berkley Tie Dye, Gregori's Altai, Kosovo, Gary O' Sena, JD's Special C Tex, Neves Azorean Red, and a couple more are showing great disease tolerance of the new ones this year. Last year Marianna's Peace did great but only when planted a little later.
I live in an area surrounded by commercial tomato growers and as a result the sucking insects seem to be huge vectors for disease. Most of the commercial growers have gone to growing very resistant hybrids. They used to grow Rutgers, Atkinson and even Big Beef but not much anymore because their livelihood depends on production. Not even many home gardeners will venture into growing heirlooms in this area. I am trying to change that and gave away hundreds of heirloom plants this year. Hopefully their results will also help determine which ones get another shot next year.