I start out every year determined to be organic. The worm castings are great, and there's nary a white fly around. I got some BT-kurstaki (Thuricide) for the caterpillars and hornworms. However, if the mites come back .... and they probably will .... I get so frustrated that it's chemical warfare again. Forbid does the trick, but it's not natural and I always end up feeling guilty about using it.
Organic or chemical?
Mary,
I feel your pain when it comes to the Broad Mites. I would have to say that these pests are the bane of my brug growing experience. The growing season of 2005 was the first time that I had to deal with them, I still had them last year, not quite as bad, but still bad. And I expect to have to battle them again this year.
Anyway, I have been devoted to organic methods of growing plants for over 20 years now. That included fertilizers too, not just the pesticides. But the nutritional requirements of brugs caused me to have to use chemical based fertilizers to meet their needs.
So far when it comes to pesticides I have only used organic controls on my brugs. I can't even think about being able to afford to buy products like Avid and Forbid to fight the mites, so this is what I use to try to control them.
I use different types of horticultural oil products such as; Oil-Away, Neem, Pyola, etc. The positive thing about using oils is that no insect has every developed an immunity to hort oils. Unlike the immunity that the mites are now developing to products like Avid, Forbid, etc.
There are some negatives when using hort oils though. You must make sure that the plant is not under any type of stress, but especially stress due to lack of water or the temperatures being too hot.
And I have to say, when I use the oils, I am like a mad scientist making up a concoction. A little of this, a lot of that, all in the hopes of getting rid of the mites. Also, since that I use more than the reccommended amout of oil in the spray, I run the risk of complete defoliation of the plant. Or I will have some leaf burn on the edge. BUT, about 99% of the time, if the plant does lose all of its leaves it comes back with healthy leaves and no mites.
You can also use a hot water treatment to kill the mites by submerging the plant, pot and all in 105 degree water for 15 - 20 minutes. I am not 100% sure on the temp and time that I just told you, but you can do a Google search and find the info easy. The problem with this method is, how in the world can you treat an 8 foot tall plant?
This past fall when I brought my plants in for the winter, I stripped them of all leaves and sprayed them with oil. When I bring them out for this summer starting this week, I will spray them with a heavy dose of oil, in hopes of getting the jump on them.
I wish you luck with your battle with these nasty critters.
Hi David! Autumn Treasure just bloomed for the first time this spring. The mother plant died back from our unexpected hard frost but is now recovering. I had the standard I had made of her in the greenhouse so it had no die-back . It was nice to see some cheerful orange blooms last week. She's also never gotten mites. Some plants seem to have better resistance to them here.
Mary
I agree 100% Mary! I want so bad to be totally organic.. or at least not a toxic dump.. LOL I worked hard on my soil this winter, but I'm sure it's not "there" yet. It was so dead when I started, I'm sure it's gonna take time to come to life, so to speak. I did get a bio stack compost bin to start my own composting.. so that is a start, fun too!
I have a much better handle on the mites this year.. but it's getting near the time to pull out the "big guns"...(Forbid) I have been able to ward off any bad damage from mites so far.. it's the slugs and cats that are killing me!
I grew some double petunias from seed and they are moth magnets.. hence the cats.
Mites are what has caused me to really question growing so many brugs. I hardly ever used anything at all in my yard before I started growing brugs. And it almost seems when you start using insecticides it leads to an imbalance in your yard and then other insects grow out of balance and then you need something to kill them off. Mites are such wicked little creatures!
I agree with Kelley on the imbalances. We are doing a lot of experimenting using predator insects, repellant plants, attracting plants and if anything else fails, then home made reciepts consisting of oil, soap, sulphur and potato flour. One thing which always works for us (though it do only keep the insects at an acceptable level) is to spray the plants hard with cold water. It will flush most of the insects, larvas and eggs off the plants. It will take some time, before the amount of insects build up again, so that you will notice their prescence.