Pat Meadows wrote:
On Sat, 7 Jun 2003 18:58:05 -0500, "Rona Yuthasastrakosol"
wrote:


I am just about to plant some cantaloupe and tomato plants. The tomato
plants will be in large containers, one to a container, and the cantaloupe
will be in the ground. I read that cantaloupes are especially susceptible
to aphids, and I think I once read that tomatoes are, too. I know that I
can plant basil near my tomatoes and that will help keep away pests.


I've never had an aphid problem with tomatoes. I've had
them with other things, but never tomatoes.

This doesn't guarantee that you won't have the problem...but
I have gardened in about six different locations, and never
had a problem with aphids on tomatoes.

In fact, I've rarely had a problem with aphids at all:
nothing that a blast with water from the hose wouldn't cure.
I've always thought they were more a greenhouse problem than
an outdoor-plant problem.
[snip]

Same here. Never even seen any aphids on tomatoes. They do seem to like
my young eggplant seedlings and I have to use a soap spray on those a
couple times before the ladybugs show up. Once the ladybugs are on the
scene, not an aphid to be found. If you don't have any native ladybugs,
you can buy them to release in your garden. It's not the adult ladybugs
that do the job, although they eat aphids too, it's the ladybug larva
which are the voracious aphid eaters. Yellow sticky traps help too.
Aphids are irresistible drawn to yellow and get stuck in the glue.

My big aphid problem is on an English Ivy in a hanging basket when I
bring it in for the winter. No ladybugs indoors in the winter. I have to
give it a soap spray about once a month.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Cicero