Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Hyacinth on October 12, 2006, 12:35:58
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The plants look healthy, v. little damage to their leaves & sprouts forming. But clouds of whitefly when I go by them.
My first year growing them - solution please?
Thanks.
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Well, you could spray - I know 'Bugs Away' has on the bottle whitefly. Mine are the same, I keep hoping a cold snap will bump them all off.
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This has been mooted before - can't see any damage on any of our brassica.
But who knows!!
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I had whitefly on my sprouts last year and I really do prefer not to spray, first cold snap and whitefly gone!
Mine aren't too bad this year, but I have planted them next to my indian bean tree and the undersides of that are like sticking plaster for small flying bugs ... so I waft the sprouts about a bit and try and get as many as I can stuck to a leaf ... sad I know, but hey it amuses me!
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I put them as far away from the path as I can, on the bottom lottie... so they don't bother me... can be counter productive if they get pigeoned though!
;D
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Thanks all. I'll leave them then. Now......what makes some of the sprouts all open and blowsy? Anything I've done wrong? One plant is absolute rubbish..
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Soft ground I believe Lish. I stamp them in and give them a stake for support.
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Is that all EJ? Thanks for that. 8)
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Hi Lish. Having the same problem on my sprouts. I have never seen so many, even more that last year. Mine seem sticky . I think someone suggested one of those battery operated mini vacuum cleaners some time ago, which sounds quite a good idea, So I will have to give that a go to squish them up - worth a try! ??? busy_lizzie
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As Wellies says - just annoy them!!
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Tried garlic spray wash yesterday,and it seems to have worked !
Regards,
Mark.
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The first today - not too bad. Lots of very cross flies!!
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Nice sprouts Tim - no flies on you, eh? ;D
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I am guessing the garlic spray is just crushed garlic and water?
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Mine are covered in whitefly, and I tried to wade through the plants today to tidy up a bit, and it was impossible - in my mouth, in my hair, yuk. What I want to know is, are you supposed to remove the dead/dying leaves from bottom up ? An allotment neighbour has trimmed all his off, then covered the remainder with a bag made of old net curtain. A lot of mine are blown too.
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I can't see that the dead and dying leaves are beneficial, so.....yep! mine have gone too. Your neighbour's plants must look like giant sticks of candyfloss D. Those whitefly are horrid but with the reassurance we've been given that they'll die off when the cold comes, I've left them.
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Definitely get the yellowing leaves off! Beat the whitefly with them?
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On the same basis as the garlic method you can also use rhubarb.
Put a load of old &/or dead rhubarb leafs in a bucket or barrel of water with a lid and then let it ferment for a week+ when its warm, longer if cold weather. The water turns putrid and smelly, disturb all the white fly by walking past, gentle shake plants etc then use a watering can of the fermented water over the plants and surrounding area. The science is that they don't like the smell and also the smell is stronger than brassicas so the flies can’t find the plants to return to.
You can keep topping up the barrel with any old rhubarb & water during the year so less wasteful than using garlic bulbs.
Points to note A) It's smelly B) the flies may then seek out other plants so if you have some that are not effected water those with the mixture first.
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Not only does it smell, it's full of oxalic acid so any insect it gets on will end up slightly dead.
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::) I found a site on Google but do you think I can find it now? no way so I will type some of the interesting stuff I found. ::)
Safer-Soap® works well and helps to dislodge the whiteflies from the plant, spray weekly and follow directions on bottle.
Home-made remedy: Remove leaves with egg patterns. (They'll be sucked dry anyway) Cut out a piece of yellow cardboard and coat with petroleum jelly or Vick vapour rub. Stick the coated cardboard into the soil next to the plant. Shake the plant and the flying insects, attracted to the yellow colour, will unwittingly "stick" themselves to the cardboard, do this every day until you no longer see the tiny white fliers flitting around anymore.
There were other ideas with the use of adhesive on cardboard but my fingers are too tired to type anymore, sorry. :P ;D
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Neat trick Roy 8) Am now on a yellow cardboard hunt :)
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I went over to the lottie yesterday to pick some sprouts and I definitely needed a mask as I too got covered in them, as well as breathing some of them in, there was so many of them. :-X busy_lizzie
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Hi
Best and cheapest method i use is a diluted solution of washing up liquid in a fine spray bottle, (the pressure type, that you pump) you won't be able to get them all, but it does reduce numbers and is very cheap and quick.
brian
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I never know how much washing up liquid to use. Is there an optimum measure?
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Oddly enough, although I've never had as many white fly as this season nor have I ever had such a good crop of firm and tasty sprouts.
I spay regurlarly with cold water, this batters the white fly to the ground and many of them just stay down.
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Washing up liquid ??? What's it made of? Isn't soft soap & water spray a more 'organic' method? But...I'll go along with a plain water blast or just drown the little bs when I wash the sprouts - assuming I ever get any firm ones. Have stamped down the soil really well, staked them & done Roy's vaseline trick - after consulting the Yellow Pages 8) - just knew I'd got some yellow card somewhere ;D
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Have stamped down the soil really well, staked them & done Roy's vaseline trick - after consulting the Yellow Pages 8) - just knew I'd got some yellow card somewhere ;D
;D Now that's what I call a keen recycling lotty person ;D Bet you can rip em in half too :o ;D
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I use a bit of washing-up liquid, maybe a small squirt and fill the bottle up with water. Your sprouts look great, Tim! Now, how to kill all those $%£@! snails nestled in the sprout leaves...
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I have a tiny bottle of washing up liquid I keep in the shed. When I spray, I put a few drops in the spray bottle, which acts as a surfactant, and enables the spray liquid to adhere to the plants (or pests). The amount of washing up liquid is trivial, and the bottle (0.25 litre size) has not yet been refilled in the 6 years I have had the plot.
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Thanks for starting this subject, mine are covered with the little fellas, no damage though, cant believe the amount for the time of year, guess its where it has been so mild. I did spray mine with "bug away" or something similar, earlier in the year but the packet says only to spray them once, so I'm 1 - going to try some of your ideas and 2 - hope for a frost soon!
The good lady is just boiling the first picking ready for tea!!
Regards
Matt
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Not 'boiling' MattyJC, not literally I hope!
Here's the way my wife does them - and they are always delicious: Prepare the sprouts, put a thingy of butter into a heated pan and tip the sprouts in when the butter has melted. Then add about a half a teaspoonful of flour (sprouts for two people), then a little salt. Move the sprouts about so they get well covered in the butter mixture then add about one cupful of water and leave to simmer and finish. Just stirring occasionally.
Same with sprout tops, carrots, cabbage, etc., no need to boil at all!
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I don't know where 'thingy' came from, I wrote 'thingy'.
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Strange: I didn't write 'thingy' this time either - I wrote k n o b.
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;D Spelt knob ;D Tee hee.
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;D I don't know where knob came from I wrote knob ;D what's going on?
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The program has a nasty dirty mind and censors anything it imagines to be smutty. So there are a lot of harmless words like cock, pussy and knob which get turned into 'thingy' or 'woman thingy'. Which is a lot more suggestive once you realise what it's thinking!
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I don't know, "thingy of butter" has a certain ring about it!
Thanks for the suggestion, I passed it on to the good lady....looks like ill be having a go at the weekend!
Regards
Matt
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....looks like ill be having a go at the weekend!
sometimes it doesn't matter how you spell it ;D
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When I took over my lotty I had a look at neighbouring lots to get some ideas of what to grow. When I saw sprouts next to me I thought they take up a lot of room and the whitefly it was everywhere when I asked my neighbour Sid how does he control them he replied with great difficulty, even when he dug them up they was still in the soil. I'm with Roy on the vasaline or grease on the cardboard trick I never grew them so missed out I do love a sprout but my lot dont eat them so I rarely eat them, I suppose I'll have to wait till christmas around me mum and dads. Might even have a thingy of butter on them.
May the corn be with you. :o
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Alot of my sprouts don't seem to be forming very well or are very small. Do you think i'll get some for Christmas dinner?
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Same here Rosy,we could be sending out for reinforcements on Christmas Eve. :-[