Walled garden harbours damp and pests

[vixylix]

Marb your produce looks great! Definitely not all bad things going on in your garden - and to a degree we all have things going wrong (out of 10 chilli plants I've had one chilli - which wasnt even hot!). Onwards and upwards and fingers crossed for a great year for you next year!

[bario1]

Marb, you've been hiding your light under a (gooseberry) bushel!

Nice to hear some positive thinking from you, tbh we've all had a pretty cr@p year with our veg. Next year will be extraordinary!

[Marb67]

I have 2 chilli plants in pots that are still giving me good crops but I can't for the life of me get rid of the whitefly and aphids.on them and in the compost. Tried spraying with garlic, mint, chilli water but they seems to come back. It's this darn horrible wet and mild weather. We need some decent chilly, Autumnal freshness.

[Marb67]

What lime wash would you recommend as I would also like to do the inside of my greenhouse to maximize light in winter ?

[Scarlet]

I have 2 chilli plants in pots that are still giving me good crops but I can't for the life of me get rid of the whitefly and aphids.on them and in the compost. Tried spraying with garlic, mint, chilli water but they seems to come back. It's this darn horrible wet and mild weather. We need some decent chilly, Autumnal freshness.

Pick or wash any off the leaves. Don't water from the top, water from below and try to keep the top layer of compost dry. Though that said come Jan the aphids are a bu@@er to get rid of.

[Nicos]

I rinse plants in pots under the tap/hosepipe to wash off the worst of the aphids before applying anything else. Boiling water to where they have landed helps see off a lot of the dislodged ones .
worth a try?

[Tripmeup]

I rinse plants in pots under the tap/hosepipe to wash off the worst of the aphids before applying anything else. Boiling water to where they have landed helps see off a lot of the dislodged ones .
worth a try?

Yep, spray with a hose, and then try the home made soapy or garlic or whatever spray...

[Marb67]

Did all that (soap,garlic,mint,chilli,hose) I am afraid and the G*ts are still there.

[roitelet]

What lime wash would you recommend as I would also like to do the inside of my greenhouse to maximize light in winter ?

If you Google Lime wash there are instructions on how to make it. I used ordinary white emulsion on the greenhouse walls just to use it up and it worked fine.

[ESBkevin]

Forgive me I haven't read all 9 pages of answers so I might be duplicating.

It is possible to sterilise the soil as would have been done to any commercial seed compost. My Father was a professional horticulturist and commercial small holder. His large (100ft +) green houses would have the soil sterilised about every 5-6 years. In the Early days (1960s) it was done with steam pumped into the soil covered with polythene. Later Bromide (iirc) type chemicals/gas became the cost effective way to manage the large spaces, again using polythene covering and leaving the covers in place for several days.
I wonder if a wallpaper stripper could be used to generate steam and work on small areas of the garden at a time. the soil needs to be forked/rotavated to a light consistency for the steam top penetrate.
BEWARE that sterilisation will kill both beneficial and harmful life in the soil, so be ready to import lots of fresh 'clean' compost to re activate the soil microbes once the treatment is done. it might be necessary to brush on something nasty like ***** fluid on all the lower walls, stakes etc. ***** is not particularly harmful to the soil in small quantities but I'd avoid sloshing it about too much. A steam pressure washer might be nearly as effective on the walls, path etc.

It would not be a small task and once started you would need to be completed so that the bugs didn't move from one area to another.

Another thought requiring less effort would be the suggestion of lime wash on the walls and put a heavy garden lime dressing in the top soil. You would need a fallow year and again then add much compost to neutralise the lime effect.

Sorry I don't know of a quick simple solution.

[Penellype]

You could try neem oil or something similar. I tried some SMC spidermite killer on my apple tree, which is similarly oil based and organic, as the leaves were literally encrusted with aphids which were being farmed by ants so the other insects couldn't get at them to eat them. The idea is that it leaves an oily residue on the leaves and coats the insects with it, effectively suffocating them. It is not that easy to apply as you mix it with water and then spray it, so you have to keep shaking the bottle to keep it mixed, but I found it did kill the aphids on the bits that I sprayed. You are not supposed to use it on flowers as it will kill beneficial insects too, unfortunately.

[Jungle Jane]

Spraying liquid seaweed on leaves is said to deter red spider mite I was reading the other day. With insects nesting in the soil,you can wash the root system with water to remove the compost & repot it into fresh compost?

[Marb67]

If this weather wasn't so unseasonably mild I wouldn't be having this problem. And yet we are told (once again) that we are in for a big freeze.

[Jungle Jane]

Whitefly overwinter in the compost. They must like your plant for survival?

[Tripmeup]

If this weather wasn't so unseasonably mild I wouldn't be having this problem. And yet we are told (once again) that we are in for a big freeze.

Don't forget tho Marb, that the mild weather will be proving beneficial in other ways and areas... For example, it is probably helping chilli's continue to fruit or toms to ripen or late sown veg to get a spurt on....
Each year is different and we have to work with what we get weatherwise and what we have at our disposal....

Your produce pic looks good btw