Quote:
Originally Posted by b54red
I was going to pot up some of my small pepper seedlings yesterday and when I started I noticed some of the seedlings looked funny. Upon closer inspection they were literally covered with aphids. This is really early for aphids to be making such a mass appearance. This doesn't bode well for the bell peppers this year. It has been unusually mild and maybe that explains the early infestation. I sprayed all the plants top to bottom with a soapy water and Permethrin spray yesterday and again today. I will repeat this process until I don't see any more and hope they won't reappear once they get set out in the garden. Once I have them potted up I will try dusting them with food grade DE and see if that will keep them away. I have an abundance of ladybugs out in the garden right now and I hope they will stay long enough to keep the aphids under some control once the garden in full of tomatoes and peppers. I sure don't want a repeat of the aphid disaster I had four years ago on my peppers.
Bill
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I just got rid of an explosion in my greenhouse. It seemed to have started not long after our one cold weekend. I'm sure my plants got stressed because I lost power to the greenhouse for awhile.
I purchased a pack of ladybugs two weeks ago. They cleared up the problem in about two days,finished cleanup for about a week and then flew off.
I'd use them anyway over soaking plants upside down for hours,spraying everything off everyday or even soap and neem. It was too easy!
I had also just fed everything with fish emulsion and kelp so I suspect that new growth was also a cause.
I don't even have my pepper and tomato seeds started yet because I've just not gotten around to it.