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Aphids on Toms

ShepsSheps Posts: 2,236
edited June 2022 in Fruit & veg
Morning all...I have a few Aphids on my Toms in the greenhouse and I was going to use some Horti Soap + Neem Oil spray to get rid of them, but seeing as though the leaves should be kept dry at all times, other than squishing and biological control do I have any other options?

Ta very much.
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  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I don't really get them on toms, but a squirt of water from a sprayer is fine. I wouldn't worry too much about the leaves getting slightly wet.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • ShepsSheps Posts: 2,236
    Thanks Fairy...will give the spray a try.
  • tui34tui34 Posts: 3,493
    edited June 2022
    I have them too  @Sheps   I squish (without water) when pinching out the laterals or tying up.  It doesn't hurt to wet the leaves as long as the sun isn't shining directly on the wet leaves, so early morning on an overcast day or evening when the sun is off the plants.

    My tomatoes are outside in my vegetable patch, and when it rains - well - it rains.  They survive.

    Wet feet, dry heads is just a rule of the thumb!


    A good hoeing is worth two waterings.

  • ShepsSheps Posts: 2,236
    Thanks tui34...sounds like squishing and spraying is the way to go.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    edited June 2022
    The sun on watered leaves won't really do any damage. Most scorch damage on foliage comes from being too near glass in a greenhouse, or next to a house window, in hot sun.
    Getting too much water on foliage is wasteful more than anything else [when watering rather than for this sort of thing]  as it sheds off it and doesn't get into the base of the plants where it's needed most.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • war garden 572war garden 572 Posts: 664
    you are aware the tomatoes eat insects. as for wet
     leaves where you hear that old wives tail. 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    war garden 572 said:
    you are aware the tomatoes eat insects. 
      Really?  :D  
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    They don't eat them as such, but the stems are covered in trichomes that can stick insects in place. After a while they die and fall to the ground where they break down to form a minute amount of fertilizer.

    Best plan to keep insects away from your greenhouse tomato plants is to plant basil and French marigolds with them.
    I've been doing that for as long as I can remember and never had a problem with aphids.
    The smell keeps them away

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • ShepsSheps Posts: 2,236
    Thanks everyone.

    @Pete.8 the greenhouse was full of French Marigolds, both on the staging and between the tomato plants and that was the problem, the marigolds very quickly attracted the aphids and they then made it to the toms.

    Will try Basil next year.


  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    The combination of the two works for me and basil is the perfect partner for tomatoes.
    Perhaps the basil sees off the aphids and the marigolds deter something else - that I've forgotten.
    The only bugs I get on tomatoes is looper caterpillars in mid-late summer some years

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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