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Holy Chilli Leaf, Batman!!!

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  • 13-03-2009 11:47am
    #1
    rediguana
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭


    Hey.

    I've been growing five different varieties of chillis for a few months. They're thriving nicely but I've noticed some small holes in the leaves recently. The plants are otherwise in good condition.

    Why is this and is are the plants, ultimately, doomed? I think I have seen one or two small green aphids milling around my plants. Do I need to start spraying cyanide and mercury over the cheeky buggers or what?


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    #2
    Irish Gardener
    Registered Users Posts: 451 ✭✭Irish Gardener


    A small plant can be plunged foliage only into a bucket of soapy water to sort out the greenfly.
    Tie a plastic bag around the compost filled pot and hold on tight to prevent spillage.


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    #3
    rediguana
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭rediguana


    Irish Gardener wrote: »
    A small plant can be plunged foliage only into a bucket of soapy water to sort out the greenfly.
    Tie a plastic bag around the compost filled pot and hold on tight to prevent spillage.

    Do you reckon they're causing the holes? I would have thought that dunking saplings into soapy water would kill the plants themselves?

    As I said, they actually look fine, bar the holes. So maybe it's a level of parasitism that they can deal with. They're getting bigger and stronger every day.


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    #4
    The Sweeper
    Registered Users Posts: 10,658 ✭✭✭✭The Sweeper


    Pick over the plants. Turn leaves upside down, poke about in the areas where shoots join main stems, see if you can find anything that might be noshing on your plants. Chomping beetles, little caterpillars etc.

    As Irish Gardener says, a dunk in a bucket of soapy water will kill off aphids and most other soft-bodied pests. If you don't dunk them, you can spray soapy water from a misting bottle onto the critters, but the bucket method is very thorough. (Buy an enviro friendly washing up liquid and use a small amount of that. You don't need loads.)


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    #5
    rediguana
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭rediguana


    Minesajackdaniels wrote: »
    Pick over the plants. Turn leaves upside down, poke about in the areas where shoots join main stems, see if you can find anything that might be noshing on your plants. Chomping beetles, little caterpillars etc.

    As Irish Gardener says, a dunk in a bucket of soapy water will kill off aphids and most other soft-bodied pests. If you don't dunk them, you can spray soapy water from a misting bottle onto the critters, but the bucket method is very thorough. (Buy an enviro friendly washing up liquid and use a small amount of that. You don't need loads.)

    Okay so, I'll give that a bash. I'll have to use the spray method though, as I can tell from looking at the soil that it'll go everywhere if I turn the pots upside down.

    Muchos gracias.


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