"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Marie Dodge" wrote:
"Isabella Woodhouse" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Marie Dodge" wrote:
OK guys, my tomatoes are still covered with whitefly and their small
green
babies that look like minute aphids. My friend, looking at them today,
said
she believes they also have spider mites. Her eyesight is better than
mine.
The NeemOil did almost nothing nor did the Seven dust or Malathion or
Bug-Be-Gone. I also sprayed the garden with 1 Tbs. Epsom Salt per
gallon
of
water and if anything, the failed peppers and infested tomatoes look
worse
today. Any suggestions to save our crops this year? The squash are
too
far
gone with millions of white fly and borers. The squash crop will be
removed
and burned tomorrow. It's impossible to get the sprays under all the
many
thousands of leaves. Suggestions anyone... other than to torch the
three
entire gardens.
While we don't usually have this happen in the gardens, I keep some
plants on my deck and they have a tendency to get whitefly when it is
especially hot and dry. To forestall this, I spray the foliage every
day with the hose after the late-afternoon watering, paying special
attention to the undersides of the leaves. That works about 70% of the
time for me. When it doesn't, I use those sticky yellow traps (like
cardboard) and those catch gazillions of whiteflies and aphids.
However, you need to situate them so that the birds cannot sit atop
them
and get stuck. I think there are pheromones for them as well.
I can really identify with your squash problems. Those squash vine
borers are really horrible. I can't tell you how many times my DH has
had to do "surgery" on the vines in the past to save them. This year,
for the first time, we put row covers over the zucchini (four different
cultivars) and they are all producing and doing well. I go out early
every morning and hand-pollinate the female flowers with a little
brush.
This is not at all difficult with squash flowers. We've never, ever
had
summer squash this nice before. We use the lightest weight 8 foot
wide
Agribond (like cloth not plastic) over a make-do lashed wood frame. We
started with tensile steel hoops but the plants were much to large and
vigorous for them. Our beds are 4 feet wide and we're smack dab in the
middle of the country.
We're going to use row covers on some fall crops as well, both to keep
out pests and extend the season. Best thing since sliced bread.
The cost of trying to grow some of our own food is more costly than we'd
pay
at the store we're finding.
So you'd rather pay a lower price to suck down pesticide residues?
Just no accounting for some peoples taste.
And just how are you avoiding sucking down pesticide residues with the
things you do buy in the store? Or do you buy nothing edible in the stores?
Are you saying you filter all your water and grow every bite of food you
eat? You raise your own pesticide free grain to bake your own bread? Do
you raise your own livestock and how do you feed them without them sucking
down pesticide residues from the commercial feeds which is transported into
their meat? What are you feeding your hens for 100% pesticide free eggs and
meat? Or your hogs and beef cattle? And knowing there are toxic chemicals
in furniture and carpets these days... are all your furnishings wood you
grew yourself to make sure it's pesticide and preservative free? If no to
any of these questions then you are both absorbing toxic chemicals as well
as sucking them in every day. Get off your high horse.
What did these row covers cost you if I may be
so bold?
Isabella
--
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"
-T.S. Eliot
--
Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related