Tabacco and bugs

I have a tobacco plant near a bunch of fruit trees that is getting covered with aphids.

First I thought tobacco was deadly to pretty much every bug. Guess I was wrong.

Second, the reason I planted it was for night fragrance and I can't smell it unless I'm right next to the plant so that didn't work out how I wanted. End result, that plant can go.

Tricky part here. Think the tobacco is bringing aphids to the area or is the tobacco just attracting aphids that would most likely be after my fruit trees? Should I grow tobacco just to draw away the aphids?

Don't know much about aphids but I do know I sprayed the plant with bug killer a month or so ago to kill the aphids and they are back.

Once you have aphids, it's impossible to totally get rid of them. All you can do is keep the population down a bit.

That is an interesting idea you have about planting plants that attract aphids to lure them away from other plants. Might be something to test.

X

While I'm not sure about whether your tobacco is luring aphids from your fruit, the concept of keeping a plant simply because attracts insects is called compaion planting (specifically, those are trap crops) and is pretty easy to get into.

There's a good list of what to plant with what (and why) at http://www.rexresearch.com/agro/comp1.htm Wikipedia also has a very good list, and includes what a insects plant attracts and repels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

Catnip, coriander, garlic, and mint are supposed to help repell aphids, while feverfew, mustard, and nasturnum are attract aphids to themselves (and away from other plants).

Have you checked your fruit trees, are they having an aphid problem (and have they had one in the past)? If they're doing OK , the perhaps just leave the tobacco where it is and control the aphids directly on that plant. Good luck!

Thanks for the link. Yes checked the fruit trees and I did have something making the leaves curl. Aphids? No 100% on what the problem is. May be thrips.

I have just learned that some of my hibiscus have something called Broad Mites, tiny guys that you can't even see. They cause the leaves to get that dimply or quilt like look. I have been treating with Neem oil.

I used neem oil based orchard spray and it seems to have killed off whatever the problem was.

I will check with the Hib forum but thought I would ask you all first...have any of you experienced where the hib stem starts turning black, then moving upward and the one stem will then wilt and die? I have lost half my hib this last week with this creeping disease....will try to get a pic, but honestly, it starts on one stem turning black, moving upward, stem dies, goes to next stem....I have immed been cutting stems that show signs of this right away and thought i had it licked but today another stem had this...I am down to 4 good stems left :(

Yikes, that sounds bad. Is this a tropical? If it were mine I would isolate it ASAP; it sounds like a disease. Hopefully someone on the hibs forum will know what to do.

I know so little about Hibs that I can't even answer your question Ardesia! lol I over winter under the porch so I am guessing it would not fall in the trop section...its the one I posted a pic of on the carolina forum with my DD and Capt Morgans picture painting all over her face LOL

LOL Capt. Morgan's picture was easy to find. You have a hardy hibiscus, H. Moscheutos, there so you really don't need to winter that one under anything. It should do fine in the ground.

I found this on the possible diseases: (Sorry, I always forget how to do the blue boxes.) A black stem does sound like a "water conducting" problem.

Problem Diseases : Verticillium or Fusarium Wilt

Wilts may be contracted through infected seed, plant debris, or soil. This fungus begins and multiplies during the cool, moist season, becoming obvious when weather turns warm and dry. Plants wilt because the fungus damages their water conducting mechanisms. Overfertilization can worsen this problem. Able to overwinter in soil for many years, it is also carried and harbored in common weeds.
Prevention and Control: If possible, select resistant varieties. Keep nitrogen-heavy fertilizers to a minimum as well as over-irrigating as they encourage lush growth. Practice crop rotation and prune out or better yet remove infected plants.







This message was edited Jul 1, 2008 6:58 AM

My hardies don't get anything form me. They're a plant and forget plant. Hope your babying to death? LOL. I can just sprinkle seeds on my pond bank and they will grow.

thank you Ardesia! I appreciate the shared info...I have kept mine in a pot so I can have moving color as my mood strikes LOL but thats good info to know since I have several others too so I shall put them in the ground and leave the sick one out by it's lonesome......its nice when I BBQ to move several of my pots near where everyone gathers or...should I go visit the son in Conway I can put all my potted plants in one place in hopes the BF will at least be able to water those and i can come home to something still living...

I will stop feeding it bloom booster for a bit too, glad that info was in there...thank you again Ardesia!

Mine that are in the ground are around 6 ft high and 8 ft wide. They bloom like crazy and are about 5 years old now. I think they just bloom more as they get older and it's just a matter of letting them do they're thing. I'll go take a picture of a couple of my wild ones.

Hold the Bloom Booster for sure. I am not sure about the hardy hibs but the tropical hibiscus do not like too much phosphorus (middle number.)

I knew the tropicals didn't but better to be safe on the per. ones too....I dilute thru the hose at the well house spigot when watering with one of those handy dandy tube things I finally broke down and bought...tired of dragging that miracle grow thing around LOL

Core: pics of the wild ones...would that be the plants or the kids? JK LOL

Check out the number of buds. I've done nothing to this.

WOW - that is gonna be a show stopper when she opens all those fat little buds! very nice Core!

Core, are you talking nicotiana-ornamental tobacco or smoking-chewing kind? aphids will get on the nicotiana....doubt you'd want to mess with growing the other

picture Core with a dip in his jaw.......

now thats an amusing visual....why I'm not sure...but it is....

nicotiana-ornamental tobacco. Can remember now which one it is. I'm much better at writing things down this year.