Dealing with aphids this spring

[Emily Peagram]

Hi everyone,

I know I'm looking ahead once again, but we're currently working on the March issue of Grow Your Own. Could you please let me know if you had any trouble with aphids last year? If so, on which crops and how do you plan to deal with them this season?

Please note that answers may be edited and used in the March issue of Grow Your Own magazine.

Thanks

Emily

[skeggijon]

I had a problem with whitefly in my greenhouse last year, which I dealt with by adding Neem Oil and a couple of drops of washing up liquid to water and spraying all of the plants in the greenhouse with it on a regular basis.

[Jay22]

Always get aphids on my pear tree and so far have not had a single flower on it, (last 4 seasons) also the leaves curled up and died. Going to try the washing up liquid in water spray, I think you can also add garlic. There is also a tomato leaf spray in which you chop tomato leaves and soak overnight, strain and use the liquid in a spray bottle. Trouble is I don't usually have tomatoes growing by the time the aphids arrive. Also according to what I've read tomato plants are members of the nightshade family so if you are allergic to this do not use!!

[roitelet]

Last year I had problems in the poly tunnel on tomatoes, peppers and aubergines. The way I dealt was this :- I kept them under control with a spray of soft soap and waited for the beneficial insect to arrive, which they did. I have insect houses in the tunnel. The reason I didn't iradicate all the aphids was that the beneficial insects won't come if there is not a sufficient food source. After the spring I didn't have a problem with aphids.

[Chris11]

Aphids are always a problem for greenhouse chillies, although it seems to be worse both early and late in the season. Maybe the good insects like ladybirds and hoverflies naturally munch most of the aphids in between?

Will be growing Limnanthes douglassi Poached Egg Plant for the first time this year to try and attract more good insects like hoverflies to help deal with the aphids.

[Bal]

I didn't have a problem with either aphids or whitefly in the greenhouse this year. However as soon as I bought the chilli plants into the house to over winter I have whitefly on them. Must admit have just left them to it and they seem it have gone

[Penellype]

Huge infestation of blackfly on the nasturtiums (and fewer on the french beans they were protecting) last year, as well as ordinary green aphids on the apple tree which were being farmed by ants so the ladybirds and hoverflies couldn't get them.

More nasturtiums this year, plus a grease band round the trunk of the apple tree to stop the ants, then hopefully the resident predators will do the rest.

[bramble]

I always plant a French Marigold in the pots with my tomatoes. One to each pot and put a couple in among the Chilli's. I have never had whitefly in the greenhouse since I started doing this about 3 or 4 years ago.

[Guest]

I lost my crop of broad beans last year to aphids and my fruit trees were badly affected. I grow marigolds (attract good guys) and nasturiums amongst my veggies (to distract bad guys). I done swapsies and got broad beans off someone else who hadn't had issues.

This year I hope to have more flowers here and there too and up the beastie homes for the good guys. Last year I learnt that bees will also feed off aphids and it is known that you can get aphid honey alongside heather honey, lavender honey etc. I will not be first in queue for that sampling though I don't like to physically/ chemically intervene too much as you don't know what the knock on effects are to wildlife.

[jackarmy]

Dont know how true it is, but i have just read somewhere that scattering citrus fruit peelings repell aphids

[vixylix]

I had problems with loads of blackfly on my courgettes last year - I used a solution of water, washing up liquid and oil which eventually sorted them out. I'll probably try that again this year - as a cure rather than preventative, alongside planting more flowers to attract more predators!

[planetologist]

It's fairly normal to get aphids on my brassicas and broad beans. I leave them, which works fine.

[mothhawk]

I give nature a helping hand to balance itself out by feeding birds through the winter, so they continue coming through the rest of the year, and providing over-wintering sites for predatory insects such as aphid lions and ladybirds, plus flowers that will attract them in the spring and summer months.

It seems easier to get predators to control aphids than to try and kill them myself, possibly destroying the would be helpers in the process. Most insecticides, and I include soft soap, washing up liquid and neem oil in that category, are indiscriminate it what they kill, blanket destroying all insects they touch.

Since aphids reproduce alarmingly fast (I believe a newly born aphid becomes a reproducing adult within about a week and then can produce up to 5 offspring per day for up to 30 days), So having predators that will actively seek out every aphid they can, and eat it, is far more efficient than me trying to find every aphid.

I seldom have troublesome aphids in the garden for more than a week. I notice them on plants, but after a few days the numbers dwindle away to nothing much.

A ladybird can lay up to 50 eggs. Each of those eggs hatch into a larva that will eat as many as 400 aphids before pupating, so one ladybird alone can potentially destroy twenty thousand aphids in a season. Stands to reason, you don't even need very many in the garden to keep aphids under control.

[KevinM67]

^^^^ There you go Emily - that post above should be a wee article on its own.

[4390evans]

I got aphids on my leeks I used the chilli and garlic mixture, worked very well.

Grind 1 garlic bulb and 1 onion. Add 1 tablespoon of powdered chilli peppers. Stir into 2 litres of hot water. Leave the mixture to cool. Strain through a fine cloth and keep the liquid. Add 1 tablespoon of soft soap and
stir well.