Re: Aphids

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
Natural controls for aphids include ladybugs and their larvae, green lacewings, etc...
 
Unnatural but relatively harmless controls include hosing off the plants with a strong spray of water, or using a soapy spray (test on a small bit of plant first), or using one of the milder botanicals....
 
A friend of mind has suggested that aphids are doing a service to the gardener by indicating a nutrient imbalance (typically an overdose of N, and/or too wet conditions)....these tend to cure themselves over time if not too severe...
 
Having ample ladybugs in my neighborhood, I have successfully ignored aphid problems on my maple tree and in the corn patch, and sure enough the ladybugs came flying in to the rescue....
 
Aphids (usually black) often appear on fava beans when they are stressed by hot weather.....sometimes a cooling watering strategy can help, as can foliar application of seaweed spray, which seems to help stressed plants....the mechanism seems to be that by relieving the stress factor, the plant can stop sending out the distress message that bugs come to, and/or produce some anti-bug factors that reduce their feeding or repel them altogether...
 
The core idea of organic growing is that healthy plants in a healthy soil can resist pests and diseases....this is nicely expounded by Eliot Coleman in The New Organic Grower, now in libraries, bookstores and mail order catalogs everywhere....
 
Frank---his two cents or a nickel on the aphid menace, or Return of the Little Green Sapsuckers...:-)
-----Original Message-----
From: John L Hogan <f*@exis.net>
To: s*@listbot.com <s*@listbot.com>
Date: Wednesday, May 19, 1999 7:27 PM
Subject: Aphids

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
Kristine,
Aphids (as I know them) are small and clear, to a milky color. Sometimes they are sort of green. They are plump, resembling fat little pieces of rice, and they have legs. I always find them on the bottom of leaves. Up until now I have been mashing them with my thumb...... but suddenly find my two thumbs (in fact, both hands) seriously outnumbered. I do not yet know how to control them without using chemicals. Hopefully, someone on this list will have some suggestions.
 
John
Virginia
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