Me & my predator pals

[Thawley]

Gotta say, I'm pretty pleased with all that the spiders and lacewing bugs seem to be doing around here lately...

Half of this year's crop went in the ground the first week of Feb. All was well at first. About the time the roots dug in and began pushing some real height, the aphids arrived. We had quite a few last year. When I went too far with the neem oil, I stressed some Brandywine plants and lost weeks of grow time helping them recover. I'm a noob. Still learning about how much of anything is too much. That experience left me a little gun shy about spraying too much or too early.

This year saw the same early aphid invasion. However I spent a lot more time on search & destroy of individual bugs. Using water blasts. And using neem only on infested areas rather than entire plants. Seems to be working. The plants show no signs of stress like last year. But here's the real eye opener...

After only a few weeks of active inspection and eradication I felt like I was wasting my time. I couldn't find any. Thinking they just got smarter, I looked harder. Crawling on the ground looking up. Lifting branches. Looking at different times of day. Etc. I found almost no aphids. But I did find something else.

Spiders.

Lots of them. At least one elaborate web per plant/cage. Usually more. All with "catches" stuck in them. They are my new best friends.

And lately I've noticed lacewing bugs by the porch light in the evenings. They just appeared. Magic.

The worms seem to have come and gone for the most part. The same search & destroy missions I used for the aphid turned up quite a few (small) horn worms. The ones I saw were gruesomely euthanized. Three weekly sprays of BT Worm Killer seems to have kept the rest at bay. And... I've spotted a few wasps hovering around the plants.

Still have a lot to learn about reading plants and soil for cues about ideal watering and feeding. But I'm starting to feel pretty good about the pests leaving us alone.

There's a LOT of fruit on the vines. It turns out, however, that staring at them every day does not seem to help them ripen any faster...

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by Thawley

Gotta say, I'm pretty pleased with all that the spiders and lacewing bugs seem to be doing around here lately...

Yay for buggy predators! I love finding them in the garden.

There's a LOT of fruit on the vines. It turns out, however, that staring at them every day does not seem to help them ripen any faster...

Clearly you're not staring hard enough or long enough.

[newatthiskat]

Today I stared really hard at my danko tomato. It looks like it is about to turn but I am not sure. I could almost hear it tell me "Take a picture, it will last longer" so I did. It did not help it change color!
Kat