Everything Is Getting Eaten!

[SundayAfternoon]

We're only just into rainy season, and already everything is getting eaten to death!

Big holes in leaves of my 'outside houseplants' and fruit from my bell peppers and tomatoes. In a month or so, there'll be nothing left!

Any advice for surviving rainy season, and putting off the hungry pests from eating everything?

Is there some kind of foul tasting spray I can apply?

[soidog2]

Organic, you need to look for neem extract, wood vinegar, or make your own extract from available foul (for bugs) tasting plants.

Apply, at least, on a weekly basis until the attacks lessen.

Watch out for snails.

Chemical; just walk into any fertilizer store, the supply is endless.

[loong]

Hello Sunday, Nobody else has replied yet and I am not sure that I can offer anything by the way of usefull advice.

It's a very difficult time of year for tomatoes and bell peppers.

I am sure that many people will recommend neem oil, but this is something that i have no experience of.

Look around your garden and see what is growing well and looks healthy. This can include weeds. Collect some leaves and stems from these healthy plants. If you don't have chillies growing , buy 5 bahts worth. Same with bunching onions, garlic and lemongrass.

Chop everything as small as possible, except the chillies, leave them whole. Put in a bucket, add some over-ripe fruit. If you dont have the fruit, use about 4 teaspoons of brown sugar. Add a couple of dashes of fish sauce and then cover with warm water.

Allow to steep for 3 days. Strain off the liquid and mix with water, about 4 to 10 times the volume. The more glutinous the liquid, the more water needs to be added. You will need to experiment a bit to get it right.

Use this as a spray to completely cover the affected plants after rain or after you have watered. Preferably in the evenings.

The residue, after straining the liquid can go on your compost heap.

The theory behind this is that the pests are avoiding the healthy plants in your garden and by using the extracts from these plants, you are creating a less cmfortable environment for them.

[soidog2]

Hello Sunday, Nobody else has replied yet and I am not sure that I can offer anything by the way of usefull advice.

It's a very difficult time of year for tomatoes and bell peppers.

I am sure that many people will recommend neem oil, but this is something that i have no experience of.

Look around your garden and see what is growing well and looks healthy. This can include weeds. Collect some leaves and stems from these healthy plants. If you don't have chillies growing , buy 5 bahts worth. Same with bunching onions, garlic and lemongrass.

Chop everything as small as possible, except the chillies, leave them whole. Put in a bucket, add some over-ripe fruit. If you dont have the fruit, use about 4 teaspoons of brown sugar. Add a couple of dashes of fish sauce and then cover with warm water.

Allow to steep for 3 days. Strain off the liquid and mix with water, about 4 to 10 times the volume. The more glutinous the liquid, the more water needs to be added. You will need to experiment a bit to get it right.

Use this as a spray to completely cover the affected plants after rain or after you have watered. Preferably in the evenings.

The residue, after straining the liquid can go on your compost heap.

The theory behind this is that the pests are avoiding the healthy plants in your garden and by using the extracts from these plants, you are creating a less comfortable environment for them.

Excellent, advice, coffee grounds, tobacco, basil leaves can be added.

[Scoop1]

Maybe you could get some bug mesh to hang over them after you spray them, if they are in pots move them out of the rain and then you contol the watering rather than the rain drenching the root zone with water every time it rains, also it is a good idea to vibrate the flower truss by tapping on the stem just behind the the truss as this will aid in pollination in that humid enviroment, tomato flowers are not such an attraction to bees because of the low nectar content contained in the flower, in a commercial system mechanical bees are used to vibrate the flower truss to help with this.

cheers

Scoop1

[SundayAfternoon]

Thanks for the all the ideas.

Loong, soidog2, I will definitely try to make some of that mixture.

I'm still learning what/how/when to plant things, but next time I will avoid planting out right before rainy season begins!

[loong]

Good luck Sunday, hope that it work for you.

Just to add to my previous post...

If your tomato foliage is healthy, you can include some in your mix, tomato leaves are poisonous, but the fruit isn't.

Be wary of including mango leaves or eucalyptus leaves, both of these have herbicidal qualities and could possibly weaken or kill your plants.

After you drain off the liquid after 3 days, you could top up with water instead of discarding the residue, adding a little more sugar (or molasses).

When doing this, or if allowing your mix to work for more than 3 days you may find that alcohol/vinegar content becomes more concentrated. The pests don't like alcohols or vinegars, but neither do the plants! Take a good sniff and if your nose detects these, you will need to increase the dilution to at least 100 parts water to 1 part of the liquid.

When preparing to spray, you could add a small amount of soap or molasses as a sticking agent. This will help the spray to stick to the leaves instead of just running off.

A very small amount of oil such as soya or rice bran oil can be added (less than 1% of the volume in your sprayer) This can coat and suffocate some pests. If using oil, you will definitely need to add soap or another emulsifying agent. When adding oil, do not add molasses. Molasses contains sulphur and oils can react with sulphur to create phytotoxic compounds that will damage the plant growth.

[SundayAfternoon]

Thanks Loong. I never realised that gardening had so much in common with chemistry! I will feel like the mad scientist brewing up my concoction. And there was me thinking that I could stick plants in the ground and they would... just grow! he he.

This morning I've noticed yellowing bottom leaves - something else I need to look into! (Though I think it probably has something to do with all this rain we've been having!) They are planted in a very clay soil, which gets 'flooded' each time it rains. Given that, and along with the fact that I planted the seeds at the wrong time, and then planted the toms out right before rainy season started, I somehow doubt that the 12 small, green, unripe tomatoes (that I'm trying to nurture) will make it to my table this time. But I've learnt a lot, so hopefully the next lot I plant will! I have hight hopes!

When would you suggest planting tomatoe seeds? Is it right after rainy season ends? Or, should I get some seeds planted now, so that they are young plants come the end of the rains?

[loong]

I find that I get the best results from tomato seed planted in mid August to September. Didn't work so well last year as the rainy season went on a lot longer than usual.

If you are planting seed now, I suggest that you go with a cherry type tom.

Soidog2 has made a few posts re toms and so you can do a search for some of his posts.

[cooked]

at our house in Isaan the main problem is the MIL collecting everything that is eatable before we get up.

We really must get a Thai gardening blog/website together some time.

[loong]

at our house in Isaan the main problem is the MIL collecting everything that is eatable before we get up.

We really must get a Thai gardening blog/website together some time.

I have to laugh

I like to eat fully ripe tomatoes. A couple of years ago, I was experimenting with various types to see what would grow best. Everytime they started to take on the slightest hint of colour, they would all disappear, destined for som dtum.

The chillies that I am growing this year are dark green when ripe. They won't turn red and they are left alone. Now I have too many

[cooked]

I saw tomatoes that stay green when they are ripe, maybe a solution there somewhere?

[Scoop1]

Go with a tom called Green Zebra they have been tested in the USA as being the sweetest tom, and they wont go red so that may help with the MIL, lol

Cheers

Scoop

[SundayAfternoon]

I don't know if anyone's interested or already aware, but there's an organic farm here in CM called Pun Pun, who seed save rare and indigenous seeds from Thailand.

It says on the website, that for a small donation they will send you some seeds from their collection, just let them know which ones you want from the catalogue.

http://www.punpunthailand.org/?p=804

cooked, I saw that they had some GREEN tomatoes, so Loong that might be a go for you with your MIL! LOL

[cooked]

hey, now that is what I was looking for without knowing it, thanks very much for the link.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

Spray leaves with soapy water. Only problem is if it rains it must be repeated.

[SundayAfternoon]

My baby carrot tops are getting slaughtered now. I planted some heritage seeds in a big tub, and they werecoming on fine... but each night I've notices 2 or 3 are getting munched, and by morning only a stalk remains.

I'm suspecting caterpillars, but can't for the life of me see any of the little critters!

[SundayAfternoon]

Look around your garden and see what is growing well and looks healthy. This can include weeds. Collect some leaves and stems from these healthy plants. If you don't have chillies growing , buy 5 bahts worth. Same with bunching onions, garlic and lemongrass.

Chop everything as small as possible, except the chillies, leave them whole. Put in a bucket, add some over-ripe fruit. If you dont have the fruit, use about 4 teaspoons of brown sugar. Add a couple of dashes of fish sauce and then cover with warm water.

Allow to steep for 3 days. Strain off the liquid and mix with water, about 4 to 10 times the volume. The more glutinous the liquid, the more water needs to be added. You will need to experiment a bit to get it right.

Use this as a spray to completely cover the affected plants after rain or after you have watered. Preferably in the evenings.

The residue, after straining the liquid can go on your compost heap.

The theory behind this is that the pests are avoiding the healthy plants in your garden and by using the extracts from these plants, you are creating a less cmfortable environment for them.

Loong this really works! Tried it last night on my carrots and it was the first night they've been left alone! Thanks for the recipie.

[loong]

That's great!

It's really nice when a totally organic pest control method works

Bonus is that it will also act as a foliar feed in a small way.