How to Identify and Treat Aphids on Your Tomato and Vegetable Plants: No Chemicals Needed

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel The Rusted Garden
Over 800 Garden Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information!

Please Support The Rusted Garden by Shopping through my Amazon Affiliate Link


How to Identify and Treat Aphids on Your Tomato and Vegetable Plants:
No Chemicals Needed


Many pests and diseases come to our garden. Not all of them need to be managed by stronger chemicals. Aphids are soft bodied insects that can be managed using any of these three spray methods.

1) Spray with a jet of water. Spray every other day for 3 rounds of spraying.
2) Make a soapy water spray. Spray every other day for 2-3 rounds of spraying.
3) Make a smothering oil and soap spray. Spray every other day for 2-3  rounds of spraying


Start with water spray. The aphids are weak and once knocked to the ground they don't return. They stay typically in the area from which they hatch. You want to manage aphids with several rounds of interventions as to control newly hatching aphids. By using water spray, you remove 90% of the aphids and do no harm to good insects. The good insects will come in and eat what is left.

You can add in soap and oil as you wish to increase the strength of the spray method. Soap damages the soft bodied insect and they die. Oil covers them and they smother. You may or may not need the stronger intervention but in the case of aphids no strong garden chemicals are needed. The video discuss all the mixes and how to make them. 

Good Luck in Your Gardens,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Seed and Garden Shop: My First Shirt - A Garden Wants to Give!

Image
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel The Rusted Garden Over 800 Garden Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information! My Seed and Garden Shop: My First Shirt - A Garden Wants to Give! Some much can be found in the vegetable garden. I have written a blog post before about memories of my grandfather and how he taught me to grow a garden. I'll be doing a long format video series this year called Mental Health, Wellness and The Vegetable Garden which is really about how gardening can help you have a better quality of life. These are some ways a garden gives back to us. Last year I launched my Seed and Garden Shop. It is packed with all the things I use in my videos. This year I just added my first shirt with the phrase ' A Garden Wants to Give' . I chose the word Give over Grow for several reasons. Vegetables want to grow but a garden wants to give. It gives back in so many ways. It gave me a chance to connect with people (fellow gardeners) from all over the world. It gives me pea
Read more

How to Make Inexpensive Sterile Starting & Potting Mix: Peat, Vermiculite & Perlite - No Fungus Gnats

Image
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel The Rusted Garden Over 800 Garden Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information! How to Make Inexpensive Sterile Starting & Potting Mix: Peat, Vermiculite & Perlite - No Fungus Gnats If you don't use a lot of seed starting mix and you only pot up a few plants to grow as your vegetable transplants, you are better off buying prepackaged mixes. However, you need to sterilize it to decrease your chances of hatching fungus gnat eggs. If you use a lot of starting mix and use potting mix to grow your seeds starts to a larger size, making it yourself will save you a lot of money. It is very simple and you can adapt the mixes to your personal needs. A 2.2 cubic foot compressed bag of peat moss will cost you between $10 and $15. A 2 cubic foot bag of fine vermiculite will cost between $20 and $30. These are the two key ingredients for making starting mix. You will be able to make 60 - 90 quarts of mixes. I recommend not using perlite in the starting
Read more

Introducing Episode 1 of Gardening 101: Indoor Vegetable Seed Starting Basics: Seeds, Starting Supplies & Lighting

Image
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel The Rusted Garden Over 800 Garden Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information! Introducing Episode 1 of Gardening 101: Indoor Vegetable Seed Starting Basics: Seeds, Starting Supplies & Lighting I will be doing a long format video series with a digital table of contents so you can jump to the most relevant parts of the video. Gardening 101 will take you through my entire gardening season from beginning to end. On the way I will explain and show just about everything I am doing. It is a great way to learn and refresh your vegetable gardening skills. The first episode of Gardening 101 is all about indoor seed starting. I cover the seed types, starting supplies and really explain the kind of lighting you need. This episode will get you started in the really fun and relaxing world of starting seeds indoors. The video is best watched through my 2nd YT Channel My First Vegetable Garden as the video links will be active. Here is what you will find in the
Read more