"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...

IIRC, horticultural oil will take care of both of those.

Sorry but that is not true. I bought Organicide (oils) and so far the
whiteflies are still on the plants, as are the spider mites. Neem Oil didn't
work either. It's been well over a month since I started spraying the
plants and so far so response. What did work, but can't be used on
Vegetables, is the Systemic I used on the flowers. That worked in about a
week. The flowers are clean. The veggies, stinking like cod liver oil are
still infested.

Insecticides do not work very well on spider mites because they are not
insects. Kelthane is a miticide that works OK, but I don't know if it's
on the market right now. It was taken off for a while because it
contained traces of DDT from the manufacturing process (maybe that's why
it worked so well), but I think it's back.

I am very familiar with Kelthane. I couldn't find anywhere online that sells
it. As far as I know it does contain DDT and is persistent where sprayed.
Two sprays and the mites would be gone - and stay gone! I've use it in the
past. I was told it's no longer sold in my state. The horticultural sprays
don't work on the SMs and WFs here. Perhaps their overuse by organic
gardeners has caused tolerance.

Wife's miniature roses had spider mites this year -- like every year. I
sprayed them with water (mites hate that), but what I did that really
helped was fertilized the plants. They were stressed because they were
nitrogen deficient. I mixed a generous pint of **** in enough water to
make 2 gallons (the capacity of the sprinkling can) and watered them with
that. Did that twice in one week. It must have been a little strong
because it burned a few of the leaves, but the plants took off growing and
once they were healthy the mites left. Don't tell my wife that I peed on
her roses. Later, I scratched a little superphosphate into the soil.

Amazing!


I've been using the same "liquid fertilizer" sparingly in my vegetable
garden this year. It's a lot cheaper than fish emulsion, or even 10-10-10
for that matter.

I noticed today that the tomatoes need spraying with a fungicide. Gonna
do that tomorrow. One of the "brown bottle" chemicals, because I think
Bordeaux mixture (I have that too) will burn tomato plants.

Bob