Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonHeat
The mite mix is not as affective on whiteflies as I hoped.
Anyone have a good control for them?
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It is the best thing that I have found but you will need to repeat it because they are very hard to kill. I have used very strong pesticides in the past that were more effective but I don't like using those deadly poisons on my food plants and I don't like being exposed to the fumes and mists either.
I used the Permethrin, DE, and Dawn spray yesterday evening on all my plants because of the heavy infestation of whitflies. I am hoping it will help. I know it kills a lot of them but new ones come into the garden constantly and this looks like it is going to be a particularly bad year for them. I don't know whether it is the rainy weather or what but they have been getting worse since July and are now to the point where they are causing some wilting of some plants they are so thick on them. I plan on fertilizing and watering my plants this morning to see if I can perk them up some and give them strength to make it through these really hot days we are having right now.
I am getting good fruit set on my plants that I set out in May and June and am starting to see some fruit set on the few I set out in July. The ones I set out the first week of August are still too small but they have withstood the rigors of being set out in that awful heat and are starting to grow so it is time to give them some food. Believe it or not I am still getting some scattered fruit set on my old vines that were set out in early March even though most of them are now over 15 feet long. I had planned to pull them up sooner but they just keep giving me tomatoes and I just hate to get rid of them. I do plan to pull a few of the older plants that have damaged stems and nothing much happening just to get them out of the way. Once the vines stop producing and are that old there isn't much point in keeping them in the garden to attract spider mites which love to attack sickly or weak plants.
Bill