I have been growing vegetables most of my life and over the past few years our small vegetable plot has produced many tomatoes and we have had lots of tomato sauce.
This year I have been plagued by insect damage to almost every tomato. We have lots of wasps around to kill off moth larvae, but somehow these critters get into the fruit by the smallest fruit-fly type strike. I have used malathion in the past, but not in the last few years.
I did a bit of reading up to find out how 'organic gardeners' attack pests. Very easy stuff. You plant host plants to attract bugs to eat the nasty bugs. Sounds like BS to me!
When we lived in PNG, the tomatoes on sale in village markets were so bitter that bugs didn't attack them. When I bought in some good seeds from Aus, the insects had a field day.
I have ripped out my tomato plants and will plant only stuff that bugs don't like. A few weeks ago when I was fussing over my tomato plants, a case of tomatoes was selling for $6.
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2 comments:
Deep sympathy . I have always figured that by the time I have coaxed and worried along a plant to fruition, the markets are selling excellent local produce sufficiently cheaply for me. God flavour and all the fun of shopping.
The worst tomatoes I tried were the Burke's Backyard variety a few years ago. They didn't stand a chance against fruit flies.
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