The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Millwood on July 07, 2015, 09:37:19 am
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Anybody else had trouble with blackfly this year? We hardly ever suffer from it, but not just the broad beans, its on the beetroot, parsnips and spinach! ::) I'm thinking its possibly to do with the late season, conversely there's been hardly any cabbage white around and few ladybird larvae.
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A few weeks ago everything was getting covered in blackfly and I was resisting the urge to spray. I don't have many now but the army of ladybirds arrived and seems to have solved the problem. I literally have hundreds of ladybirds invading my veg patch, but much rather them than the blackfly/aphids.
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We've had awful blackfly on the broadbeans!
A friend suggested I spray with diluted washing up liquid, and blast them off with the hose.
It worked a bit but didn't get rid of them all.
It's our first year growing veg and we've lost all our strawberries to crows, awful blackfly, and a lot of the vegetable leaves look like lace they've been nibbled so much!
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use an ecological washing up liquid (saponins) mixed with a small splash of cooking oil and diluted to a spray - spray daily for a few days.
Your trying to dissolve their waxy protective coats and also clog up any respiratory spiracles with the oil.
It does take a few days of spraying
I;ve been clear here so far... did have a problem with flea beetles last year and the annual cabbage whites though it's still a tad early for them around here.. another week or two and they'll be out
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None here yet. Whispering so they don't hear me and move in. Aphids are very easy to squish, satisfying too, repeat every day, then mop up with the soapy spray.
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I have them all over my nasturtiums. The entire stalks are covered. I'm still waiting for the ladybirds to arrive although I did spot a hover fly today.
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If desperate put 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, lightly squashed and a good half-bucketful of nettles into a bucket, 3/4 fill with water, stir every time you pass it for a day or two and, using an old emulsion or wallpaper paste brush, swoosh the plants with it (it won't go through a sprayer!)
I don't know whether this will harm bees or hoverflies so have only ever used it in the late evenings. It is very effective!!
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I'll give that a try, DL, thanks.
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I was listening to Terry Walton on Radio 2 talking about the allotment and he recommends blasting with water so that's what I've done. He said it's a bad year for black fly this year and we need to be careful not to let them get a hold.