Spider mites resistant tomatoes?

[efisakov]

I have had spider mites infestation last year and wondering, does anyone know spider mites resistant tomato variety? I grow organically and do not use pesticides. Thank you.

[Worth1]

I have never heard of one and I dont think there are any.
You will just have to be diligent with your battle against them.
One thing you might think about is where are they coming from.
If you have any ornamental plants around they may be using them as a home base.

I have a lady give me a butterfly weed and low and behold a few days later i discovered it was covered in aphids.
Try as I might I couldn't get rid of them.
They hadn't moved on yet but I knew they would soon enough.
She asked me some time later where it was and I told her I pulled the plant up, burned it and buried the ashes.
I told her it was covered in aphids and I didn't want them on my place.
I dont have any and dont want any.

But to answer your question again no I dont think there is a variety that is bug resistant.


Worth

[Tania]

Ella,

I am not sure if there are any tomato varieties that were tested or bred for spider mites resistance.

Most of the years, we have a heavy spider mites infestation in our garden (it is a real problem in our area), but we never have any issues with them attacking our tomato plants. Spider mites pretty much kill our melons and eggplants by early to mid August, watermelons are also very affected, but nothing else seems to suffer much, including tomatoes.

[b54red]

When it gets hot and dry here the spider mites invariably show up. I did find some varieties that they seemed to like more than others. They really swarmed Old Virginia and Aunt Ginnie's Purple even though the plants were very healthy. The only plant that I saw none on was Sweet Virginia but that could have been just luck. I also didn't see but a very few on Giant Belgium the rest of the plants usually had mild to heavy infestations on them.

I have not had much luck controlling them with organic methods or pesticides unless you want to spray them every few days. Sulfur dust does work but it can't be applied when the temperatures are over 90 degrees so I was only able to use it on one spring infestation while it was still fairly cool and it was very effective. I don't usually see many until the really hot dry weather shows up or I have a plant with nematodes. The only thing that has worked well for me when the mites were really bad was spraying the plants with an insect growth regulator then waiting about 10 days and doing it again. Last year my garden was overrun with Assassin bugs and I had hardly any problem with either aphids or mites so maybe they eat them or maybe it was just the very wet weather last year that kept them under control.

Bill

[clkeiper]

Spider mites are influenced by the weather. The humid weather is hard on them and the dry air tends to make them grow exponentially each day. I would recommend a soapy water spray and to that you could add a little cooking oil (1 teaspoon per gallon of soapy water) to help suffocate them quicker, spray early in the day or in the evening, but not in the heat of the day. Grow small-flowering plants such as herbs to draw beneficial insects to also help control their populations, but spray the mites as a last resort if you are trying to draw the beneficials. They will die as quickly as the mites if you are spraying them too.

[Salsacharley]

I brought 3 container tomato plants inside my garage last October right before the first hard frost and they all 3 got spider mites. I sprayed them with Safer End All and I thought I got rid of them. Then I moved the 3 plants into my house and they were still badly infested. There were those nasty webs all over the tops of them.

I sprayed them again but used Neem Oil this time and that knocked them out. Unfortunately my plants were in pretty bad shape by then but I was able to have fresh tomatoes for Christmas. I am now a fan of Neem Oil and it is supposed to be organic.

Charley

[efisakov]

I grew Marigolds right next to tomatoes. Marigolds got covered with spider mites web. I sprayed them with detergent (ajax lemon) mixed with soda, Epsom Salt and water. It was not enough. My marigolds died, tomatoes were next. To be fair, last year winter was not cold at all; it probably created plenty of dis-balance in the nature. Hopefully this year is going to be better.

[travis]

I agree with Worth in that I have never heard of or grown a spider mite resistant tomato variety. However, I do notice that spider mites seem to prefer some varieties over others, at least here in my garden.

I also notice that most of the indeterminate varieties I grow each year are capable of outgrowing spider mite infestation, which is good because I don't like using synthetic chemicals to control spider mites, and even with any effective chemicals (organic or synthetic sourced) it's nearly impossible to completely control spider mites because of their rapid reproductive cycle and their effective methods of concealment.

Effective fertilization and irrigation seems to work best for me simply to promote rapid and rampant growth early in the season, and outgrow the infestation until weather conditions control reproduction. I also inspect the underside of the leaves daily, when possible, and smash all new eggs and larvae, or if I have time, I pull off infected leaves, put them in a bucket and kill the buggers.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by efisakov

I grew Marigolds right next to tomatoes. Marigolds got covered with spider mites web. I sprayed them with detergent (ajax lemon) mixed with soda, Epsom Salt and water. It was not enough. My marigolds died, tomatoes were next. To be fair, last year winter was not cold at all; it probably created plenty of dis-balance in the nature. Hopefully this year is going to be better.

Thank you, I will start several hundred Marigolds today. I will be starting them in DE and once they are established I will load them up with a synthetic mite control like one of the Bayer insect, Disease & Mite Controls for shrubs and flowers. I will then put out a welcome sign for all the mites living in or about my humble abode to feast upon my beautiful Marigolds.
Mites beware; the ides of March are near!
Dutch

[Cole_Robbie]

Predator mites are a lot of fun for the money if you get a magnifying glass to watch them eat your spider mites. Under magnification the predator mites look like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, and the spider mites look like cows with a mosquito proboscis/nose. I thought at first it seemed like the spider mites had no defense, but their defense as a species is their long-lasting time-release eggs. The predator mites run out of food and starve or wander off before the last of the eggs hatch.

[Dutch]

Mites, beware the ides of March are near!
Dutch

[Torquill]

Resurrecting this thread as I've stopped in after a long absence...

Mites are the bane of my tomato-growing existence. Here at my house it's Pacific mite (a spider mite), and at the Master Gardener plot I help with it's russet mite. Same sort of problem, same non-solutions with regards to sprays or dust. When it gets to 95 here, the mites go nuts and the plants burn if you get oil or sulfur anywhere near them.

I've discovered a few things: first, as Travis says, keep those babies growing vigorously. It really does help. Keep the humidity up and the dust down (which was hard in my former setup, which was close to dry-farming in clay), as they love dry, dusty leaves. Perhaps you can pack the plants in tightly, or set up sprayers to go off in the heat of the day just to mist things down. Do not use broad-spectrum insecticides anywhere in your yard, as so many of them kill off mite predators and bring on population explosions. Eliminate weeds as much as you can; the mites in my yard overwinter on a rampant ornamental vine that greens up in winter and dies off in early summer, perfect timing for switching to tomatoes.

[Edited to add: I keep marigolds far, far away from my Solanums, because they do act as mite farms. I'm not convinced that they can even be a benefit as a trap crop, because mite populations explode so fast. In cooler areas they might work, if you keep on them, but they're not for me.]

Foliage type makes a huge difference too -- I find that just about every wispy-leafed variety I've tried gets hammered, while potato-leaf or rugose varieties are less likely to show damage. I point to Carolyn's theory about epidermis thickness, which is how she credits PLs surviving early blight better. Regular-leaf plants fall somewhere in between, varying widely. My notes, off the top of my head (and I really should make comprehensive ones):

Poor performance: Rutgers (mine died without issue), Speckled Roman, German Red Strawberry, Large Barred Boar, Earl of Edgecombe, San Marzano, Dorothy's Green, White Wonder, Rose.

Okay, as it'll give you some fruit even though it suffers: Mortgage Lifter, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Kellogg's Breakfast, Box Car Willie, Brandywine OTV, Brianna, Cherokee Purple, Diener, Druzba, Homestead, Green Grape, Hugh's, Mexico, Noir de Crimee, Red Brandywine, Stump of the World, Wisconsin 55 (red or gold), Yellow Brandywine, Pink Bulgarian.

Not bothered much: Abraham Lincoln (the saladette), Black Krim, KBX, Brandywine (regular, Joyce's, and Sudduth), Vorlon, Wapsipinicon Peach, Stupice, Dr. Carolyn, Dr. Wyche, Earl's Faux, Jaune Negib, Neves Azorean Red, Picardy, Pruden's Purple, Sun Gold (yeah, I know it's a hybrid), Isis Candy, and the Zebra family.

These are, of course, just my own experiences here in central Contra Costa County. Your mites may vary. Perhaps we should ask Tania to add a "mite resistance" rating to the database...

Still, that may give you enough to be getting on with. Please do report on what does well for you, because you're not alone in your struggles. All of us in the inland parts of dry-summer climates know your pain.

--Alison

[efisakov]

Alison, thank you for your input. Very detailed.
I planted Marigolds to deal with gnats issue. Not going to use them this year. I do not spray my plants with anything except mixture of soda, epsom salt and liquid soap with water. I am organic grower. Two years in a row I have found praying mantis in my garden. I was happy to see it. It did not help with spider mites.
The varieties that survived the longest were: Carbon, CP, David's Pink, Black Cherry, Purple Dog Creak, Indian Stripe, JD's Special C-Tex, Old time purple, Black Master, Red Barn.

[Salsacharley]

The three indoor plants I mentioned in post #5 here got infested in this order: Celebrity, Black Opal, Yellow Pear. That was also their position relative to each other. Those plants have been gone for over a month now, but while they were inside and alive I was simultaneously growing, in a separate enclosed grow chamber (2' x 4' x 8') 2 snow pea plants and a Tommy Toe. Now the snow peas are infested but the Tommy Toe is not and they are adjacent to each other. There is also a Box Car Willie sucker and a Valerian seedling growing in 4" pots in the chamber and they have not been infested at this time.
Either the mites are saving the Tommy Toe for dessert or it is resistant to them, or the snow peas are providing all the mites need. I have been hammering the snow peas, but not the Tommy Toe with neem oil 3 or so times per week and it has had a noticeable effect on their presence, so I will continue that treatment.

[ilex]

I do think there are fairly tolerant varieties. Let me check tomorrow the name of one that looks quite good while all the others are mostly fried.