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Originally Posted by HoustonHeat
Thanks Bill. Actually I have been following you closely as my mentor. First year grower and I am already way ahead of the curve thanks to you. I appreciate the advice and sharing info.
Our longitude is the same so we have simiar problems. The DE mix has worked great. I have the TTL and watering 1 gallon mix per plant every 2 weeks, but am also adding some Triple 13 or Tomato Tone once a month. I am going to add the Clorox treatment this weekend. I do not have Copper concentrate for mite mix,but do have Daconil and curious if that suffices?
The only thing I wish I could change is not killing the good bugs. I am curious if you have ever ordered Ladybugs or Lacewing larvae and used for control?
I also am curious about using your mix but replacing Permethrin with Neem oil earlier in season. Maybe that would provide same results without total innialation of predators?
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I don't use the Permethrin and DE together until a really bad pest problem arises and that is usually after most if not all ladybugs have left the garden. I will have lots of ladybugs in the spring but soon after it heats up in late May or early June they just disappear and then return in the fall. I really don't usually have a problem with spider mites before June except one time years ago they started in May and I tried controlling them with Neem and was unsuccessful and on top of that the frequent spraying of neem badly damaged my leaves but left the bulk of the spider mites. I will pull out the DE and make the mix if I have a bad infestation of stink bugs early but that is rare and they can usually be gotten rid of with just Permethrin and Dawn unless there are a whole lot of them.
You should be able to get a copper spray in your area without too much trouble. I use the Southern Ag brand and it works great. I like the Daconil for prevention of some diseases but have found it wanting with some of the speck and spot diseases and ineffective in preventing gray mold.
I went out this morning and sprayed my whole garden with the bleach spray but used a slightly lower concentration because I wanted to really spray the bell peppers well. Most of them are suffering from bacterial leaf spot and I found that the last time I sprayed them with the bleach spray it did slow it down and kill off some of the worst affected leaves so I thought I would try it again. Although my peppers are making great they are really starting to look bad from the diseases and I'm not sure if they will make it to the fall if I can't slow down the diseases on them. I have been applying copper to them every week and it also slows down the diseases but certainly doesn't stop them. Even though it has been dryer lately we still are getting a good rain every few days and the humidity is terrible. It got over 103 yesterday which is about as hot as it gets around here. A few more days like that and my peppers will all be scalded. I had to go out and pick off a bunch of scalded ones this morning.
The good news is that some of my tomatoes are setting new fruit despite the incredible heat. The ones setting the best the past week during the 100 plus days have been Spudakee, Berkely Tie Dye Pink, ISPL, and IS. Surprisingly some of the others that you wouldn't expect to set in these extreme conditions have set a couple of tiny new fruit. They are Limbaugh's Legacy, Red Barn, Kentucky Wonder, 1884, and most amazing of all Cowlick's Brandywine.
Bill