We just started a vegetable garden, and everything is doing fine except our cauliflower. It appears that they are COVERED with what I think are aphids! Anyone have any suggestions? we are trying to avoid chemicals as much as possible.
www.dirtdoctor.com says to shoot them with a blast of water from the hose. In early Spring, I get aphids on my roses and water works.
Ladybugs eat aphids. You can get a tub of them at your local hardware store or nursery.
get some ladybugs.......
I didn't read the other suggestions, and i know NOTHING about gardening, but I have read "The Grouchy Ladybug" more than a few times, and I know they love aphids. So I would suggest getting a few ladybugs and see if that takes care of it.
:)
Neem oil works great and can be found at any gardening store. But, if you don't ever want to deal with those little critters, plant oregano and marigolds in your veggie garden and they will stay away. I encourage you to look into "companion gardening". It will show you how to plant in a way that keeps away pests naturally. Good luck! My heirloom tomatoes, squash, and zuchinni are already coming up!
I tried the soapy water thing on aphids, but it didn't work. I went to calloways and bought a tub of ladybugs and it really helped. Plus - it is really cool to watch mom lay eggs and the larvae hatch. The larvae look like tiny alligators and eat TONS of aphids cause they're growing so fast.
Ditto on ladybugs...they took care of some aphids on my tomato plant, then left our yard. Spinosad was recommended at a vegetable garden talk I went to last weekend. It is organic pest control. Good luck!
I have heard of using dish liquid and fouond this recipe:
Make a nontoxic pesticide by mixing 1 c. vegetable oil with 1 tbsp. liquid dishwashing soap. Add 1 1/2 tsp. solution per cup of warm water to a handheld spray bottle.
Try to spray off any bugs with good stream of water and get rid of any infested leaves. Then spray the above solution on the entire plant and leaves. Also if you can, plant sweet clover and spearmint to attract lady bugs that will feed off of the aphids.
LADYBUGS. :-) they will devour them.
I have a friend who is all about gardening organically. Her company is Texas Worm Ranch and her blog site is http://wormranch.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/food-security/. If you have a facebook account you can find her there as well. Search for Texas Worm Ranch. She can help with all the problems and I love her worm wine and worm castings for my plants.
M.
Contact Marshall Grain in Grapevine!
Get some ladybugs?
We try to use as little chemicals aspossible, too. Go to www.dirtdoctor.com and you'll find everything you need for organic gardening. The "dirt doctor" is Howard Garrett. He's a local Dallas gardener, has a radio show, etc., and has all the info you'll need from killing bugs to fertilizer.
Try sulfur. You can by small bags of it at Lowes or home depot. It also keeps the chiggers away.
