Balcony infested!

[adarajames]

Hey
I planted lots of stuff in pots on my balcony including peppers, cucumbers, broad beans and strawberries, but almost all of it seems to have died :0( Now it wasn't thro lack of watering or lovingly talking to, so having closely examined everything it seems to be to do with white fly infestation that can see if look closely under lots of leaves. I don't use sprays other than eco washing up liquid in water as wanted to be organic but don't know why its all been so bad and if this will always be the case in an enclosed space such as the blacony? Can someone suggest ideas for avoiding a repeat of this in future as its very upsetting! :0(
I am in SE London if that makes any difference and the balcony is south facing
Thanks
Jo

[deezyb]

Hi Jo - sorry to hear about your veg plants. The same thing happened to my sweet pepper plants this year, grown in pots, covered in whitefly and I sprayed with a weak solution of washing up liquid/water - they all died too! I read in one of the gardening mags later that only specialist soap style sprays should be used - not sure if that's entirely true - but maybe this is why your plants died Maybe one of the other grapeviners will have more information.....

[rustylady]

Whitefly is an absolute b****r. I had them on my cabbage plants last year, and although the plants survived they were a mess. Also every time you went near them clouds of whitefly flew off and colonized elsewhere. I don't want to use chemicals, and I've found that soapy water doesn't do much good. Someone suggested using a hoover - shaking the plants whilst holding the hoover nozzle nearby. Haven't tried it but I suppose it could work - easier on a balcony than on the lottie where there is no electricity. Other than that, you could try using the yellow sticky fly traps. If you find something that really works, please let me know.

[terrier]

My hated pest for this season is Peach Potato Aphid. Soapy water had no effect at all. It completely covered my sweet pepper plants which are now deceased. If they come back next season, I'm going after them with a shotgun.

[jacob marley]

Whitefly is an absolute b****r. I had them on my cabbage plants last year, and although the plants survived they were a mess. Also every time you went near them clouds of whitefly flew off and colonized elsewhere. I don't want to use chemicals, and I've found that soapy water doesn't do much good. Someone suggested using a hoover - shaking the plants whilst holding the hoover nozzle nearby. Haven't tried it but I suppose it could work - easier on a balcony than on the lottie where there is no electricity. Other than that, you could try using the yellow sticky fly traps. If you find something that really works, please let me know.

Stergene is suposed to kill white fly on fuchias in green house i picked this up from National Vegetable society web site i have not used it yet to try it out was going to use it on sprouts but dont think they can swim so aint got any on sprouts Stergene can be bought from Morrisons but not many other place's hope this helps jacob

[SueA]

Hi Jo, sorry about your bad year with your veggies etc. I've found a specific product in the Organic Gardening catalogue which deals with whitefly, they also do a general 'bug spray', soft soap concentrate & biological products which you could try which are 'organic'. Here's a link to them.
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalo...oducts_id=2223

[Two_Sheds]

I'm not convinced that Stergene is at all good for the plants? Ecover washing up liquid is supposed to break down harmlessly, but I've never found it to (or any soap) to be effective against white fly or aphids

[Alison]

I use Ecover spray quite a bit, it works up to a point but you need to get in there early and keep at it. If you've not got them all and you look away they seem to multiply again. If you want a quick fix you need to use some of the more nasty products which I don't want in my house / garden and so I opt for the high maintenance approach. No magic fix so far as I know, chemcial / hard work, take your pick.