I have not mentioned this up to this point, but I have been seeing little whiteflies on my tomato leaves. It does not seem like they are harming the tomatoes, but I suppose they eventually will if left alone. I have been seeing them for about a week or two. I only notice them when I shake the tomatoes to pollinate them, which is pretty much daily. Then they fly around. Otherwise, I can't really see them because they are so small. They look like teeny tiny little moths, about the size of fruit flies.
| A picture from the web - whiteflies |
Tonight I decided it was time to take action. Following Aerogrow's instructions, I unplugged the Aerogarden and removed the base. It came right off, no wires to mess with or anything. I took it outside and I used the "mist" setting on the hose to thoroughly spray the tomato plants, including the undersides of the leaves. I also made sure to really get in there, into the center of the plant (my plants are quite bushy). The tomatoes were wanting to topple over as they have grown quite tall, so I had to be careful they didn't break off at the bottom of the stem!! I did have them on the "trellis system" which came with the Aerogarden.
Next step was to make a homemade pesticide - recipe also found through a link on Aerogrow's site. All it was was 4 cups water and 1 tsp. dish soap. I used Ivory dish soap, which was what I had on hand and it was also recommended to me by a friend for the pesticide purpose.
By this point I didn't see any whiteflies at all, as I am sure they all got knocked off by the misting hose. Anyway, I sprayed every plant with the Ivory solution, taking care to get the undersides of the plants too.
I then dried it off really good, especially the electrical contact. Aerogrow recommended disinfection the grow surface. I used chlorox wipes to do this, but I didn't wipe under the trailing herbs because I doubt chlorox wipe liquid is good for the plant. I just kind of worked around any plants that lay on the surface. It looks nice & clean now - no water spots - so that's a bonus!
I'm going to let it dry out some more before plugging the Aerogarden back in - one, I don't want to singe my tomatoes with heat while they are wet, and two, I want to make sure the electrical contact is dry for sure. I mean, I did take great care to make sure it was, but hey, just in case.
So now I hope to see no more whiteflies. I have also read that sprinkling cinnamon on plants will keep whiteflies away. But to me, that just sounds kind of messy for an indoor plant. Plus I'll need to shake the plants daily to pollinate.
If I need to, I'll spray with Ivory stuff again, but Aerogrow was pretty specific about NOT spraying while the base is in the Aerogarden. Get a little spray on your hot grow bulbs and they can explode. Definitely don't want to deal with that!
There is a whitefly trap you can buy. It look like a business card or something that you just hang next to your plant, or you can put it on top of a stake in the soil if it is a potted plant. I guess it is sweet or something and the flies like it, so they stick to it. Once the card is full of flies, replace the card. Sounds easy enough, but I won't go that route unless the Ivory stuff is really not working. I like the free method for now!
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