Much to my dismay, the pea plants came under attack last week. As I picked our scrumptious single pod, I noticed the leaves at the base of the plants turning yellow and drying out. Initially, it looked like the 85-90 F weather was killing them off, yet the top of the plants still looked fine. I took a closer look and found the largest plant covered in these little teeny black dots under all the leaves. (My tune in my head suddenly switched to the song about 'Little Black Things' that my dear brother taught me. Thank you, dear brother.) They moved all over and had built little webs at the base of each leaf. After some research, I figured they were spider mites and wanted them gone. They survive off the the juice in the leaves, which ends up killing the plants.So, after more research, I found an at home recipe to get ride of them here. I used a modified version, since 1/2 gallons of this stuff was a little much for my tiny garden.
Recipe: 2 cups of water
5 Tablespoons potato flakes
1 Tablespoon buttermilk.
Stir. Apply.
Potato flour might have dissolved better, but I have yet to find some. So, I loaded my mixture into a washed out hairspray bottle that we had just finished off, and sprayed this all over the plants, especially on the bottom of the leaves. This is supposed to suffocate the little guys. After it dried for about a day, I washed it off and it looks like all the mites have gone to their Maker, though I will keep checking for signs of return. Maybe the plants will survive long enough to give us TWO pods now!
Oh, little black things. I remember the song too. :)
ReplyDeleteNaturally, the day I post this is the day I find more live mites. The second dose was much more thorough, and hopefully more lethal. Updates in a few days.
ReplyDeletePreliminary results show that the second round of spray did the trick. An easy way to remove the residue is 1) to make sure the plant is thoroughly coated, which becomes a thick layer similar to dried glue on the leaves, 2) shake the plants gently enough not to hurt them, but enough to get off the coating. And keep in mind to not drip on downstairs neighbors during the whole procedure. They get grumpy.
ReplyDeleteAfter leaving my garden to the hands of fate for a few days, I returned to find a few mites still hanging on and spreading to other plants. Reasons? The treatment may not have worked, it might not have been applied liberally enough to get them all, or they may have reestablished residence. This may be a weekly treatment. I still like it better than pesticides, but may need to look around for another option. The problem is much smaller than it used to be, even though it's not gone, which is happy. Plus there are 4, FOUR, whole pods growing. That's big for this little farm.
ReplyDeleteAfter another treatment on Monday, I plan for another today, just to be safe. I see there are fewer, but they aren't gone yet.
ReplyDelete