White fly

[CarolineSonning]

This winter I renovated an old brick and timber greenhouse and have now planted it up with tomatoes. Last week I noticed a few white fly but they are getting worse and worse.

Never having had a greenhouse before I'm not sure if I have done something wrong to cause this problem or if there is an easy solution.

Any help would be appreciated.
Caroline

[srodders]

I use a combination of several (2 per tomato plant) french marigolds planted all around the place and also a few of the hanging sticky traps - don't have too many though as they are non-selective.

I'm also told use a hand held hoover - give the plant a knock to dislodge the fly and hoover the air to get them up!

[CarolineSonning]

I use a combination of several (2 per tomato plant) french marigolds planted all around the place

Does that just cause the flies to go onto the marigolds or does it deter them totally?

I'm also told use a hand held hoover - give the plant a knock to dislodge the fly and hoover the air to get them up!

Might get some funny looks doing that but I guess it's pretty green - especially as hoover dust then goes into the compost bin!

Thanks for the advice.
Caroline

[rustylady]

Apparently the smell of french marigolds puts whitefly off and they go away. Was going to try it by planting tagetes between my brassicas, but the snails have eaten all my marigolds.

[valmarg]

We plant french marigolds in the pots with tomatoes. I understood, and I may be wrong,that the tomatoes take 'something' from the marigolds into the plants. It does not affect the taste of the tomatoes, but does deter the whitefly. We have been using this method for many years, and have not been troubled with whitefly.

The hoovering method may sound stupid, but if you have a small hand-held vac, and the infestation has become really bad, you shake the plant to disturb the whitefly, and suck the flies up the vac.

I would have to say that we have found the best method is the companion planting of marigolds.

I'm not entirely sure why, but it certainly works (in our experience).

valmarg

[Alice]

I've never had a white fly problem in the greenhouse. I always grow marigolds and basil in there - both said to help. Maybe it works, or maybe I have been lucky. I'll just keep growing them anyway.

[srodders]

I grow basil with the toms as well. Similar to what Valmarg says I was told the smell of the marigolds deter the fly and the basil and tomatoes 'give something' to each other to make each plant better. Not sure which is correct (anyone out there know?) but it works - I've got good tomatoes, lots of Basil and no aphids of any type.

[CarolineSonning]

Many thanks to all for the suggestions.
I've recently started off some Basil so hopefully that will help and I will check out the garden centre for some marigolds and see if that also help .
Thanks
Caroline