Quote:
Originally Posted by creeker
Re the first question: I have been using Bill's DE-permethrin-spap spray for a couple of years with mixed results. I really think it helps as a preventative if used early enough and regularly. It seems to me that spraying a newly sick plant sometimes helps it survive to be productive. Also PL plants seem to be more hardy and resistant. I have tried some advertised TYLCV resistant varieties. True, they didn't get the disease but produced fruit that resembled grocery store tomatoes and to me were completely inedible.
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I don't think the DE works as well on whiteflies as it does on mites and other pests. It does seem to slow them down but this year they were on everything surrounding my garden so killing the ones on my garden plants was only a short term solution and I just couldn't get out and spray often enough to keep them away. I did notice that when I got a really good thick film of DE on the undersides of the leaves that the whiteflies tended to avoid those leaves more than the ones with little or no DE sticking to the undersides of the leaves. I probably should have gotten a mosquito fogger to use on the area surrounding my garden to thin out the whiteflies on shrubs, bushes, flowers and weeds and that might have helped keep them away.
Bill