Greenhouse Update

Chilies are mostly thriving.  The poblano chilies are especially big and plentiful.  The "Super Chilies" are prolific.  The jalapenos are so-so: good looking fruit but not so plentiful.  The bell peppers are coming along.

The heirloom tomatoes are progressing nicely; although I still don't know if we'll get enough sun for them to thrive (even with the greenhouse!).  The tomato plants (there are four) all look very good though, and all the plants are starting to get fruit.

The eggplants are struggling.  They are the hardest hit by aphids, and the infestation seems to have weakened the plants.  They are getting blossoms, but so far I haven't seen any fruit.

The whole "aphid thing" is interesting.  Sort of the way a root canal is interesting: it's annoying and uncomfortable, but it definitely focuses your attention.  I've heard several people complain about aphids, so the problem is widespread in the area. Outdoor plants as well as greenhouse plants are under siege.

It turns out that aphids don't like tomatoes.  I have yet to see a single aphid on any tomato leaf.  Recently, I read in an organic gardening magazine that tomato leaves contain a chemical that's toxic for aphids and that you can even make a spray of the ground-up leaves and it'll kill aphids.  Haven't verified this, but the little suckers (literally) do seem to leave the tomatoes alone.

The aphids get on the chili plants, but the chilies seem able to tolerate the infestation. The smooth texture of the leaves makes it pretty easy to spot the aphids and wipe 'em off, so that probably helps the plants too. I've been manually removing aphids on a daily basis for a few weeks now (not that much fun, but I want those chilies).

In contrast the aphids are ruining the eggplants. I've tried a few "organic" control strategies and while the plants are still alive, they are not doing well at all.  Also, the fuzzy, mottled texture of the eggplant leaves make it harder to remove the pests by hand. Go figure. I worry a little that the aphid infestation on the eggplants is serving as a "pest vector" for the chilies, but that might just be my imagination.

I tried to buy some ladybugs at the local garden center. Aphids are ladybugs' favorite food.  Well, actually I did buy some ladybugs. Trouble is, they keep ladybugs in a refrigerator at the garden center. The ladybugs get cold and hibernate or something like that. Then you don't have to feed them. Allegedly, you just warm them up, they start wiggling and then they're ready to chow down on the aphids.

Trouble is, these ladybugs spent too long in the 'fridge, so most of them weren't hibernating. About 90% of them (maybe more) were just plain dead. Dead ladybugs do nothing to address an aphid infestation. I got maybe eight or ten ladybugs out of the whole batch and only about four of them are really, actively cruising the plants and eating aphids. Admirable, but insufficient.

The good news is that we have a customer-centric, honest garden center here at the edge of the continent. Yesterday I collected as many dead ladybugs as I felt like messing with and returned them to their little container.  I took my container of dead ladybugs and my receipt back to the garden center.  The nice people at the garden center apologized (several times) and refunded my money: $10 plus tax... bugs are expensive!

The people at the garden center have ordered a fresh batch of ladybugs. It's late in the "ladybug season" so they're not sure they can get any, but they offered to call me if some come in.  I still may pick some tomato plant leaves, whip them into a froth with the blender and try spraying them on the other plants, but I haven't decided if that's a good idea or not.

Stay Tuned.