Aphid wipeout on my balcony took me 4 weeks, not a weekend

I moved to Seattle in March and put out a few pots of tomatoes and basil. By mid-April every new shoot had sticky buildup and those little green bugs were marching up the stems. I thought a soap spray and a rinse would clear it in a day or two. Nope. They came back harder after each treatment. I finally read that aphids hide under the leaves and lay eggs fast, and that I needed to prune infected tips and repeat every 4 days for a month. That was the part nobody said out loud. I lost my basil but salvaged the tomatoes after week 3. Has anyone else found a shorter way that actually sticks, or is the 30 day grind just standard for balcony folks?

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barbara3992d ago

That line about losing the basil and salvaging the tomatoes hit home. A friend of mine in Portland went through the exact same thing last summer, she swore the soap spray was working because the leaves looked clean the next morning, but they kept creeping back up from the bottom stems. What finally worked for her was cutting off the worst tips right away and then spraying under the leaves every few days for about three weeks, plus a strong rinse with the hose. Sounds like your 30 day grind is just what it takes on a balcony, since there are no ladybugs or lacewings around to do the dirty work for you.

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