Monday, July 16, 2012

Tomato and Aphid Update


I have tomatoes and lots of them.  My tomato plant is growing larger than it said it would grow and the plant is getting top heavy with all of those tomatoes.  I am now finding that the planter I used is too small.  Next year I will definitely buy a larger pot.  I feel like if I transplanted it now I would damage it. 


When I came home from the weekend, one of the larger branches was broken and hanging there and the rest of the plant was falling to the side.  I had to tie the broken branch to the plant itself and tie my homemade tomato cage to my BBQ so keep it from falling over.  I hope this does the trick and it doesn't grow anymore.. Well besides delicious tomatoes!


Aphid Update:  The good news is that I found something that works on aphids!  The bad news is that I burnt the leaves on my plants..  The home remedies really didn't do much of anything and it seemed like there were more aphids after two days after the application.  This Insecticidal Soap worked immediately.  I made the mistake of using it in the morning of a hot day though.


There is a lot of new growth on the bottom but most of the leaves on the trellis are burnt.  I took a few off.  Should I take them all off and hope for new growth?  There are aphids on the healthier looking sections of the plant but not as many as before.  I'm scared to spray them again until they look stronger.


Some of the vines have made it to the top of the trellis!  I haven't seen any flowers yet, but I am hoping that more leaves fill it out.  Some of the vines seemed to have stopped growing.  I hope I didn't kill them with the Insecticidal Soap. 

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Attack of the Aphids


The other day I noticed these tiny, green bugs on my Morning Glory and Moonflower plants.  I feel like I noticed them too late because there seem to be thousands.  Damn then being the exact same colour as the plants! 


So far I'm not seeing any damage being done, but I thought that I had to do something about it.  I found a recepe on eHow and decided to try it out.  Basically it is liquid soap, vegetable oil, and water mixed together in a spray bottle.  Then you spray every inch of the plant including the back of the leaves.  So far I have only used one application.  The next day there seemed to be less aphids, but today is two days later and they are all back..  It says to apply it every 10 days, but I am going to apply it again today.  Let me know if you have any proven home solutions of your own.  Wish me luck!