Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: Psi (Pronounced 'Si'!) on June 17, 2009, 11:37:21
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All
I have so many back fly that I am getting worried for my runners and french beans (they LOVED my broad beans almost to death!). So far I haven't done much and ladybirds are around but ultimately the blackfly seem to be winning...
Last night I tries a combo of rubbing them off and puttig on a soapy washing up liquid solution to deter the fly. Can I do anything else? I am trying to avoid chemicals where possible but welcome all feedback - has anyone founs anything else that they feel is successful?
Psi
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Apart from the chemicals you have done it all It seems.
Just keep squigging away with your fingers.
You need to be vigilant before it gets too muchand harder to deal with.
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Don't use washing up liquid it is bad news. Contains to many chemicals. Buy Soft Soap from garden centre or supermarket and dilute as instructions and spray on.
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whoops - ok - good advice. I might go down the nurseries and see what is available - would an organic washing up liuid be good - like Ecover??
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I don't really know but I would doubt it. It will still contain something to disolve grease.
Soft Soap is good and gentle.
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Just seen Horticultural Soft Soap from a company on line called Ladybird Plant Care a bit expensive and have never tried it but sounds like it will do the job.
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I've planted spindle in the allotment hedge. Apparently it harbours black fly over the winter. Perhaps they're grateful, because I haven't a one on my broad beans.
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I can testify that ecover washing up liquid can damage your broad bean plants, I scorched mine quite badly by using a strong solution. :/
After that I used a weak solution, and rinsed it off soon after applying it, don't know how much that defies the point of the exercise though. I have terrible blackfly on my beans, but I've kind of given up on treating it now! Next year I will do two things: pinch out, and start spraying earlier.
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I bought a bottle of neem oil a couple of years ago and I an pretty impressed with it. A teaspoon in a litre of water with a bit of soap to emulsify and spray directly. It wont kill instantly but it give it a day or two and they will be gone.
http://www.livingwithbugs.com/neem_oil.html
It's cheap as well and can be found on ebay..
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Pinching out just hasn't helped as the d**n things just go further down the broad bean plants.
I have taken out all my aquadulce claudias now, as the poor things were inundated with blackfly.
Have tried the soapy water method and squishing would mean me doing nothing else for several hours.
Chemicals here I come for the Violetta and Epicures.. and for the runners!
The blessed things are even attacking my sunlowers now!
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I know it might not help much this year but I planted summer savory around my broad beans as I'd read that its a companion plant and (if I remember) it detracts / deters the black fly. The previous year I had next to no BB's cos of black fly but this year I've had a good crop and so far (fingers crossed etc) no black fly on my BB's.
1066
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last year my runners were covered in blackfly but when i was going to spray it with some rhubarb pesticide i noticed some adult ladybirds and larva as well as some hoverfly larva on it in small numbers, not wanting to kill them too i decided to leave nature to do her thing and must admit i also gave up all hope of a decent crop :-\.
well nature did do her thing, the crop became a breeding ground for all manner of ladybirds and and a serious magnet for egg laying hoverflies and the over four + weeks the goodies decimated the blackfly to zilch ;D. and i also got a great crop of runnerbeans after all, with the plants cropping right till the first frost. yah!! result.
so i would check really carefully for any goodies before spraying with soft soap or otherwise and if there are goodies and you think you could stand it then squish in the mean time and wait for the goodies to increase their numbers to eat out the baddies.
if you see any ladybirds/ larva elsewhere it wouldn't hurt to transfer them to your runnerbeans and get a few hoverfly friendly flowering plants next to the crop to help attract them to the area I'm sure they would then do the deed and be happy to lay their eggs in such a great food spot as your beans are at the moment.
the following photos are the goodies doing their thing on the heavily infested crop, the leaves are sticky the blackfly numbers are so thick i stopped squishing as it was simply to gross and there is even a pic of an ant which loves to farm the blackfly for their sticky sweet excretions.
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk187/thifasmom/IMG_0416-1.jpg)
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk187/thifasmom/IMG_0407.jpg)
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk187/thifasmom/IMG_0420.jpg)
this picture is of the plants on the 27 of October i had just harvested the second to last cropping:
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk187/thifasmom/IMG_0863.jpg)
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Like the ladybird porn ! ;D
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It's clearly a bad year for blackfly. Our allotments are infested with them.
Despite pinching out the broad bean tips and spraying them I, and several others, have given up and pulled them up as they weren't going to produce pods. Not only that they're also on the runner beans, artichokes and lupins.
I've actually sown some more broad beans, and runner beans, this morning!
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Has anyone tried to put small branches of elderflower in amongst the plants?
This does work - just shove a few in the ground among the plants that you want rid of the blackfly and they will go!
Old Bird
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Old bird I'll certainly bear that in mind for when the ones I sowed this morning start growing!
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Like the ladybird porn ! ;D
;D
barnowl thanks for that hint does it work with greenfly as well? blackfly only just starting toshow up in the flower beds will pick a few branches today and try this out.
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TM, what variety of beans are those in your pic? I'm doing something really wrong with runner beans - maybe keeping the plantlets in pots too long before I have put them out - all my plants so far are teeeny! Less than knee-high. :(
My broad beans are making large pods in spite of the blackfly. The only other things affected are the nasturtiums. I'm not quite sure of the 'attract them away' theory; won't my nasturtiums just be breeding generation upon generation of blackfly which will then move elsewhere?
I also have 'greyfly' on some cabbages, but very few of them are affected. My mange-tout and other peas are pest free; I may grow an empire of peas next year and forget about broad beans. They may not be producing as much as they should - but they seem a quite high 'acreage per yield' crop?
I too have the ladybird larvae about the place so don't want to spray now. I've been moving the odd one from here to there, put a couple on my roses yesterday. :)
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For some reason they seem very partial to Scorzonera flower stalks as well... ???
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and the dandelion leaves I grow for my tortoise >:( / shades x
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and angelica stems!
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Thanks for the tips about elderflowers and angelica. Certainly worth a try. I've been growing nasturtiums around my broad beans to attract the black fly away, but that doesn't work - they just colonise both. Pinching out the growing tips doesn't work either. The situation has been so bad that I've lashed out on some ladybirds, sent through the post by Green Gardener, and they have had some effect. Thought I'd also try insectidal soap, available from the Organic Gardening catalogue (Chase Organics).
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ladybirds are around but ultimately the blackfly seem to be winning...
Last night I tries a combo of rubbing them off and puttig on a soapy washing up liquid solution to deter the fly.
Either leave it to the ladybirds or treat with chemicals. You can't do both.
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For the first time ever, no fly - as yet. SO lucky!!
And, dare I mention it - only one or two Cabbage Whites.
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Our site is covered with blackfly but we seem to have been blessed with ladybirds as well. I sprayed my BBs once in April but since then I have left well alone and let nature take its course - seems to be working so far.
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I may have been unlucky but I have never known L/Bs keep up with the invasion. More theory than reality?
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I've had some on my rhubarb this year, is that unusual?
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I don't think the soapy solution works as a deterrent - you have to spray the aphids themselves, it works by contact, I think it suffocates them. So you could spray very carefully, but you still might get the odd ladybird/ladybird larva that you didn't notice.
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Has anyone tried to put small branches of elderflower in amongst the plants?
This does work - just shove a few in the ground among the plants that you want rid of the blackfly and they will go!
Old Bird
thought i would give this a go and decided to pick some branches on the way home after the afternoon school run.
guess what i found on the some of the branches.................. yep you guessed - BLACKFLY ::).
think I'll give this tip a miss, sorry Old Bird :).
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TM, what variety of beans are those in your pic? I'm doing something really wrong with runner beans - maybe keeping the plantlets in pots too long before I have put them out - all my plants so far are teeeny! Less than knee-high. :(
I'm afraid i don't remember the variety but it was a dwarf pod type with red flowers the pods didn't get more than 6 inches long and because i didn't realise this at the time i harvested the first two croppings later than i should have (as i was waiting for the pods to get a little longer) which meant that the outer pod was too tough to eat but the shelled fresh beans did make a mean stew yum :P.
i popped the remaining packet of seeds into one of the winter swaps and I'm growing a regular longer pod variety this year, which so far are doing well with fingers crossed no signs of blackfly to date.
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i am using a natural remedy
rhubarb leaves stewed in a large container with water and the infused liquid is stained and then sprayed on the affected plants - it really does deter and move the blackfly
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i am using a natural remedy
rhubarb leaves stewed in a large container with water and the infused liquid is stained and then sprayed on the affected plants - it really does deter and move the blackfly
yes tried that last year and on green fly this year and it does work but my rhubarb is not looking to great so i don't want to deplete its leaves
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The secret of success using just nature is to keep predator and prey in balance. This means that you will never be completely free from pests such as aphids but their presence is vital to the food supply of the predator species.
No matter how careful you are when spraying, the cycle is broken. Kill all the blackfly overnight and any ladybird larvae will die of hunger while the adults simply fly away.
If you interfere and kill the blackfly you also kill the ladybirds one way or another. You have to choose whether you are a sprayer or leaving it to nature to cure. There is no middle ground.
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The rhubarb leaf technique - do you stew the leaves in boiling water? Or do you mean, just soak them in a bucket?
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Helen just put plenty of rhubarb leaves in a bucket of cold water and leave for a couple of weeks. The smell is pretty awful so put it well out the way.
I'm going to give it a try as as several plot neighbours reckon it works wonders!
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Thanks Flighty, I'll give it a try. It can go down the end of the garden with the bin of stinky goop and the old dead snail traps. :)
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for a quicker solution i pour boiling water over the leaves in a bucket and leave till cool or overnight then strain and pour into my 1L spray bottle and add a squirt of dish washing soap (if you have soap flakes/ horticultural soap then use that instead).
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Hub swears by his smelly nettle infusion on his broad beans and it does seem to be working, plot next door covered ours staying clear :)