5 Tips To Fight Tomato Pests

By: Donald Short

It is very important to monitor your tomato plants for symptoms of pests or diseases. The effort you put in making sure your tomato plant grows to be healthy will all be for nothing if you do not act quickly to prevent or save your plant. After all, you do want to taste the fruit of your labors right?

The following tips will help ensure that your tomato plants will grow to be strong, healthy and tasty:

Tip 1: Mulch Your Tomatoes

Mulching is the process of layering 2 – 3 inches deep of compost on top of your soil. It has tons of benefits and one of these is that it deters the presence of cutworms.

Cutworms are little caterpillars that feed on tomato plant saplings at night. They feed on plants by chewing and they destroy more of the plant than they eat. Saplings will appear to have been cut off if this pest is present.

So mulch away and keep this pest at bay!

Tip 2: Yellow Is In!

Another common tomato plant pests are the white flies and the flea beetles. White flies leave a sticky residue called honeydew. This residue can cause mold to grow and develop which is detrimental to your plants’ health.

Flea beetles are one of the most damaging of the common pests. They voraciously eat the leaves, stem and even the roots of your plant.

Yellow sticky traps can fight off these pests. White flies in particular are heavily attracted to the color yellow so hang them in the midst of your crop.

Tip 3: Practice Good Crop Rotation

Microscopic worms called Nematodes are the most dangerous of tomato pests. A particular breed called Root-Knot Nematode causes the dysfunction of roots resulting in the formation of knots. If your plant is infected the only way to kill them off is to sterilize your soil which also kills off the good nutrients in them. To avoid this hassle, rotate your crops. Rotate your tomatoes with crops that are not vulnerable to nematodes.

Tip 4: Collar Them Off!

The cutworm can be fought off by putting up collars. Collars made from wax paper, aluminum, cardboard, old tin cans or old soft drink bottles can be placed around the base of the sapling or stem. This prevents them from doing too much damage to your plants. For maximum effect, make your collars 5 inches high and dig them down into the soil around the plant. This creates a barrier below and above the surface.

Tip 5: Go Natural

Natural predators or good bugs like the ladybugs, lacewings and whitefly parasites help kill off white flies and aphids.

Aphids cause leaf yellowing and like the white fly they also leave a sticky excrement called honeydew which gives the plant a shiny and sticky appearance. They cluster around the stems of your plant and if not taken care of they will threaten the life of your plant. Another way to deal with them is to pinch off the part of the plant where you see them cluster and throw them into the bin.

Article Source: http://home2garden.co.za

About The Author
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