How many mealy bugs can you fit on a tomato stalk?
I was not sure myself until I found this branch in my garden over the weekend!
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About Me
My name is Ben, and I'm a self confessed gardenoholic. My other interests include growing plants, looking at plants, drinking coffee and taking the odd photo. My wife thinks I'm mad, but is getting into the whole garden thing, possibly going mad as well.
In my spare time I'm a geologist (must be something about dirt and rocks...)- Get me on Twitter
5 Comments
Now that’s impressive!
OMG! Are the white stuffs all bugs?That’s a lot!May I know what harm can they do to your plants?
You are not alone. I have had a dozen of tomatoes before but sad to say all were inflicted with this “bugs”. I searched the internet for answers but all were for toxic solution which i can’t bear to use. I applied the detergent soap watering solution but still to no avail. Right now my tomatoes were nowhere to be found. All eaten even the stalks were not spared.
Hi!
I was reading your coments about the lovely picture of mealybugs. I work for a company that loves to help people figure out the least toxic way to control garden pests. Our goal is to help people transition from the conventional pesticide options toward more sustainable methods. Please feel free to contact me anytime. kyra@rinconvitova.com
Thanks,
Kyra
Hey Ben! I was browsing through old posts on my blog and saw your comment on my post about espalier trees. You mentioned you were giving it a go with a lemon tree. How did it work out for you?
Also, I noticed your predator deficiency in the photos above. Haha. My own solution to this problem actually comes from Australia, courtesy of PRI. It’s funny how a piece of knowledge can travel across the world just to end up practically where it started.
Anyways, my advice to everyone is to plant a perennial flower bed near your garden. This will encourage predatory insects to come to your garden and out-compete your pests.
Alternatively, I recall a wise old man telling me that infestations of that magnitude are often caused by excessive amounts of nitrogen in the plants. (I’m fuzzy on the details, but I believe the excessive nitrogen causes the plant to emit an odor which attracts the insects). If you’re using compost on your plants, make sure you’re balancing the brown and green materials in your compost. Too many kitchen scraps and the like will make your compost very nitrogen heavy. Tomatoes are pretty heavy nitrogen feeders, but if infestation is this bad, I’d also look for fertilizers that are lighter on the nitrogen.
Hopefully one of these options will help the readers here.
Now that I’ve rediscovered your blog, I’ll be keeping an eye on it.