Spider mites

[HoustonHeat]

So which is better if you must use a pesticide?

Spinosad Spray or Seven dust powder?

I am still spraying with organics but am losing the war...

[b54red]

Originally Posted by HoustonHeat

So which is better if you must use a pesticide?

Spinosad Spray or Seven dust powder?

I am still spraying with organics but am losing the war...

Sevin is not what you want to use for spider mites. I have not used Spinosad so I won't comment on it. However I have used a lot of organic methods with only limited success against spider mites. Alternating and frequent spraying gave me some success with milder infestations.

Bill

[HoustonHeat]

Bill (Anyone) I need advice here. I am losing the spider mite war on mostly my established plants. Fall plants are not as effected. I have green fruit on several plants but many have nothing due to heat has stopped fruit set. Should I just take my loss and pull all plants that are not producing and focus my energy on the fall plants coming up? I am at a cross roads to either spray the world with spinosad or move on... advice?

[b54red]

I would and did use just this past week the Permethrin, DE and Dawn mix and spray the older plants from top to bottom including all the stems. I would also sprayed my newer plants which don't show any symptoms of spider mites yet but since they are on many of the older plants it is a good precaution and there are probably some on them already.

Older plants that aren't producing are a more complicated issue as to whether they are viable or not. I remove those that look sickly near the top and that don't have any healthy blooms forming. I also give them a good dose of Urban Farms Vegetable food and then a few days later give them a dose of Texas Tomato Food. I also make sure to remove all those low down suckers that form almost daily. It is still important to focus the plants energy on fruit set while maintaining just enough foliage for good production and a bit of shade. If a week or so after that treatment I don't see big improvement out of a plant then I will yank the old one but any that are showing good improvement I will leave a bit longer.

In this heat to get good fruit set you can not let the soil dry out too much and a good heavy mulch is a must to keep the soil cooler and more evenly moist. I also try to give them TTF every week or so to improve the fruit set which is always low in this high heat but it can be improved. I am getting some decent fruit set from some of my oldest plants and good fruit set on my newer ones including the ones set out in mid June.

Bill

[HoustonHeat]

I spayed spinosad onentitre plants top and bottom of leaves.. it did the trick but not really sure some plants can recover. I am taking my losses and clearing out some plants to make room for my mid year plants. I have some heat tolerant varies about 6 inches tall (Heatwave, Florida91, SolarFire, BHN 1021, Celebrity, Black Krim) that I hope delivers in September/October. I also just planted seeds for fall consisting of ( Brandy Boy, Brandy Wine Red, Indian Syripe PL, Berkeley Tie Dye, Prudents Purple), that I hope delivers in October-December. I plan on a few cold tolerant other varieties I will try for Jan-March. I have lost my mind and having problems trying to eat what I grow, but keeping it to 2 plants per variety.

[c053271]

I am having the same problem with spider mites. I swear I will never plant during summer months again. I learned a hard lesson here.

[HoustonHeat]

Bill I am ordering some TTL. It's costly for a gallon but per label makes 256 gallons so it should last a while. If it works as claimed I will buy the case of 4, which is a 33% discount.
Do you give each plant a gallon of mix?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by HoustonHeat

Bill I am ordering some TTL. It's costly for a gallon but per label makes 256 gallons so it should last a while. If it works as claimed I will buy the case of 4, which is a 33% discount.
Do you give each plant a gallon of mix?

The amount I give the plants is determined by how the plants are looking. I use a Chameleon hose end sprayer which works really good for TTF because I can use it full strength in the sprayer and just pour what is left back into the jug when I am finished. I usually soak the ground well on fully grown plants and if they are looking anemic I will really apply a lot maybe even a gallon and a half on a really large plant.

The best thing you can do if you are using TTF with a hose end sprayer is take the time to get it thoroughly mixed up. It has a tendency to settle pretty badly and it takes a lot of agitation to get it back into a really balanced solution. When I open a new bottle I shake it as hard and long as I can then pour half of it into another jug and then shake the two jugs really well and then pour them back together. When I pour it into the hose end container I strain it through a small mesh stainless steel strainer to catch any larger particles that could stop up the sprayer siphon. When I get through fertilizing my plants I pour the remaining TTF back in the jug and then add clean water to the hose end sprayer and run for a minute to make sure the small openings in the siphon settings don't get any buildup of TTF. I only do this on whatever settings I used when fertilizing and it usually just the one TBS per gallon.

I know I wasn't as specific as you would like in the amount of fertilizer but you will learn from watching the way your plants respond to the feedings you give them. If the plants are dropping too many blooms and not setting much fruit then they will probably need much more and it they are getting too vegetative and dark green you will need to cut back a bit. Do not over fertilize very young plants because they need to suffer a bit to put out a root system. For the first few weeks after setting plants out I usually only give them 1 1/2 tsp per gallon and not too much even at that weaker setting unless I see some yellowing or paling of the plants.

Good luck with it and I think you will be happy with the results you get.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

I've been unable to go outside or do much of anything else the past 5 days - due to health problems. It was cloudy this morning, so I went out for a few minutes when I found this on my marigolds. Looking at pictures online - I'm thinking this is an all out spider mite invasion.

[jillian]

Salt, marigolds attract spider mites. I didn't know this when I planted some around my tomatoes. I haven't seen any spider mites however I am pretty sure that I have tomato russet mites which I have been spraying diligently for.

I also had no idea that marigolds grow so huge, I have been thinning out like crazy!

[HoustonHeat]

Well the mite mix of DE, P, and Dawn has really worked well. It has saved many plants and protected my younger fall plants. I do not have much fruit due to heat but am hoping to keep plants alive until it cools off.

I could not locate concentrated copper so I added Daconil into the latest spray. I have heard Daconil may not work well if mixed with other ingredients that prevent it from sticking to the leaves (DE, Dawn, etc)?

The latest pest I have is whitefly all over my cantaloupe and cucumbers so I just sprayed them also. I am hoping it helps with those also.

[TexasTomat0]

I had a really bad case of mites on my sweet potatoes and didn't feel like mixing up a batch of the DE, P, and Dawn so I've been blasting them with my sprayer nozzle and they're pretty much gone now. It took about 5 treatments like this, but it seems to work fairly well.

[HoustonHeat]

The mite mix is not as affective on whiteflies as I hoped.
Anyone have a good control for them?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by HoustonHeat

The mite mix is not as affective on whiteflies as I hoped.
Anyone have a good control for them?

It is the best thing that I have found but you will need to repeat it because they are very hard to kill. I have used very strong pesticides in the past that were more effective but I don't like using those deadly poisons on my food plants and I don't like being exposed to the fumes and mists either.

I used the Permethrin, DE, and Dawn spray yesterday evening on all my plants because of the heavy infestation of whitflies. I am hoping it will help. I know it kills a lot of them but new ones come into the garden constantly and this looks like it is going to be a particularly bad year for them. I don't know whether it is the rainy weather or what but they have been getting worse since July and are now to the point where they are causing some wilting of some plants they are so thick on them. I plan on fertilizing and watering my plants this morning to see if I can perk them up some and give them strength to make it through these really hot days we are having right now.

I am getting good fruit set on my plants that I set out in May and June and am starting to see some fruit set on the few I set out in July. The ones I set out the first week of August are still too small but they have withstood the rigors of being set out in that awful heat and are starting to grow so it is time to give them some food. Believe it or not I am still getting some scattered fruit set on my old vines that were set out in early March even though most of them are now over 15 feet long. I had planned to pull them up sooner but they just keep giving me tomatoes and I just hate to get rid of them. I do plan to pull a few of the older plants that have damaged stems and nothing much happening just to get them out of the way. Once the vines stop producing and are that old there isn't much point in keeping them in the garden to attract spider mites which love to attack sickly or weak plants.

Bill

[b54red]

I couldn't fertilize my plants because the soil was just sodden from all the rain we had the past few days. I did inspect my plants for whiteflies and the population took a real downturn after the spraying but I still found some and by afternoon I am sure there will be more. I may spray just DE, Permethrin and Dawn again in a day or two and try to get on top of them. Despite the ghostly appearance of the plants from the DE they sure look better without all those whiteflies sucking the life out of them.

Bill