bleach spray

[Rockporter]

Bummer Bill.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

Bummer Bill.

This has been the worst year for EB in all the years I have been growing tomatoes. It usually isn't much of a problem except on just one or two varieties that seem more prone to it. This year it has hit almost every variety to some degree or another.

Bill

[b54red]

I was out early this morning spraying with Daconil and observing what the bleach spray did. I had a fair amount of gray mold on some of my black tomatoes and some speck and spot diseases that all shriveled from the spray but none of my new growth showed any damage from the spray despite me doing it at 8 am yesterday. I hope the Daconil will help with the EB and the speck and spot diseases. What would really help is for it not to rain for a couple of days.

Bill

[Rockporter]

Bill, do you think bleach spray would kill mites on my watermelon?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

Bill, do you think bleach spray would kill mites on my watermelon?

Absolutely not. It is far too mild to affect them. I use the bleach spray regularly and have never seen it have a detrimental affect on mites or even aphids. You will need something far more toxic to get rid of those little buggers. I used the Permethrin, Dawn and DE combo on my cantaloupes which had mites and whiteflies and it helped a great deal. Spraying the underside of any melon leaves is hard to do with any thoroughness and if you don't get the undersides you won't bother the mites too much. One really good thing it did was totally stopped the damaging pickle worms on both my cantaloupes and cucumbers, which surprised me.

Bill

[Rockporter]

I don't have any permethrin. I do have Sevin but haven't used it yet. I don't really want to kill everything around, especially since it is so hot out there I am not so sure the good guys would come back soon enough. I have Pure Neem oil I have been spraying with some DE in it, but doesn't seem to be getting it under control.

[Worth1]

This thread needs to be a sticky.
Worth

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by Worth1

This thread needs to be a sticky.
Worth

Agreed

[Rockporter]

Bill, I remembered I had purchased some Organicide 3 n 1, I sprayed that this morning.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

Bill, I remembered I had purchased some Organicide 3 n 1, I sprayed that this morning.

Well if it doesn't work go out and get a quart of Permethrin 10% and make sure it is the livestock version and not the termite one. Living in a hot place like you do you are going to need it either this year or next. Mites are almost always a problem at least once during a summer if not a lot more. Having what it takes to stop them on hand is critical in getting them under control. You really can't afford to mess around with them because they will get so bad and cause so much damage so quickly. The worse the infestation the more trouble it is to stop them and get them under control.

I have been suffering from a severe upper respiratory illness for the past 7 weeks and it stopped me from doing the regular fungicide spraying with the frequency that is required and I didn't use the bleach spray like I should have during all that rain. The result has become clear to me after the last and only really thorough bleach spraying that I have done. I was out yesterday morning and evening trying to remove the seriously damaged leaves that resulted from all the infections that had taken hold. Most of my plants have few leaves left on them. All my black tomatoes had serious gray mold and the bleach showed me just how bad it was. I also have some speck and spot problems that were severe on many plants and the EB problem was just terrible on most varieties. Diseases need to be taken seriously by regular fungicide preventive sprays and quick reaction to outbreaks or like mites they will do serious and sometimes fatal damage to plants. I have a good excuse in having been so sick but just like with the plant diseases I waited far too long to go to the doctor and get the problem correctly treated and so made it much worse.

I am in serious doubt as to whether my summer set out plants will survive my neglect this year. I am trying to fix the problems that I helped create by neglecting to do what was necessary for much too long. The last two days have topped out over 100 and that means there is precious little time in the morning and evening when I am able to do anything in the garden. With that heat and nearly bare plants the fruit on them has no protection and much of it will suffer seriously from this hot sun. I do have enough survivors of my mid summer grafting to set out one more bed if I can get it ready for planting in this awful heat.

Bill

[Rockporter]

Wow Bill, sorry to hear about all your troubles. I'll definitely pick up some permethrin. I know I checked the tractor supply last time I was there and it was out of stock. There are no other places that sell it around here.

[jtjmartin]

Bill:

This has been - by far - the best ever season for squash thanks to your advice on:

1) bleach spray - it's worked wonders
2) sevin around the stem for vine borers

I've never had such pretty, big plants. And, they are still alive and not wilting from the borers.

My wife requested more squash this year - she's gotten it with more to come.

Jeff

P.S. Feel free to send some rain this way.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Bill:

This has been - by far - the best ever season for squash thanks to your advice on:

1) bleach spray - it's worked wonders
2) sevin around the stem for vine borers

I've never had such pretty, big plants. And, they are still alive and not wilting from the borers.

My wife requested more squash this year - she's gotten it with more to come.

Jeff

P.S. Feel free to send some rain this way.

I'm glad it has helped. I don't know why so many people are so adverse to doing such a simple trick as dusting the lower stem of squash plants with Sevin to protect against SVB. Since you are only putting it on the lower stem and the mulch or soil right next to the stem you won't be consuming it and it doesn't bother the bees that love squash blossoms. The diluted bleach spray came in real handy down here this year on the squash with all the rain we had. I never had any mold on mine or SVB. I finally had to pull my plants because we were very tired of squash and the plants had gotten huge, taking over too much of my garden.

I don't know if you and your wife like yellow zucchini but if you do you should try one called Butta. It makes like crazy and gets very big before any seeds develop and it tastes very similar to a yellow crookneck. It has a creamy very light yellow color that doesn't turn that dark yellow color and the skin remains very soft and thin.


I would have loved to send you some of that rain we were having a few weeks ago. Since then it has been more reasonable in the amount that we have been getting but the problem has been the frequency of light rains increasing the diseases and humidity. We only got about one and a half inches of rain in the past week but it rained at least 7 or 8 different times.

Bill

[jtjmartin]

Originally Posted by b54red

I'm glad it has helped. I don't know why so many people are so adverse to doing such a simple trick as dusting the lower stem of squash plants with Sevin to protect against SVB. Since you are only putting it on the lower stem and the mulch or soil right next to the stem you won't be consuming it and it doesn't bother the bees that love squash blossoms. The diluted bleach spray came in real handy down here this year on the squash with all the rain we had. I never had any mold on mine or SVB. I finally had to pull my plants because we were very tired of squash and the plants had gotten huge, taking over too much of my garden.

I don't know if you and your wife like yellow zucchini but if you do you should try one called Butta. It makes like crazy and gets very big before any seeds develop and it tastes very similar to a yellow crookneck. It has a creamy very light yellow color that doesn't turn that dark yellow color and the skin remains very soft and thin.


I would have loved to send you some of that rain we were having a few weeks ago. Since then it has been more reasonable in the amount that we have been getting but the problem has been the frequency of light rains increasing the diseases and humidity. We only got about one and a half inches of rain in the past week but it rained at least 7 or 8 different times.

Bill

Bill:

Butta is on the list for next year!

[b54red]

I am going out in a few minutes and fertilize the heck out of my butchered tomato plants and see if I can get some more growth and perk them up after all the leaf removal they have been through lately. It may be a waste of good fertilizer because we got another good rain day before yesterday. Fighting the persistent summer diseases with these afternoon showers is beginning to feel futile. It is hard in this heat to get up the energy to spray the plants with fungicide only to have it washed off a day later or an hour later. Oh well enough complaining for one morning. Back to the garden I go.

Bill