Tracie pleads for help with stinkbugs on tomatoes :
Seven years ago , my husband and I plant 16 tomato plant we started from come ( 3 different varieties ) . We used 3 straightforward foot garden . They flourished….except….every single fruit got infest with stinkbugs ! We were n’t able to reap a single tomato , and there were lots .
We stress everything ; planting marigolds and sunflowers , using Sevin in both powder and liquid form , frame brilliant coloured items in a perimeter surrounding them ( not too close-fitting ) . The only thing we did n’t try , principally because I ’d given up by this point , were pheromone and traps .
I was so discourage that I completely gave up on horticulture . However , my grand married man of 27 class just passed away . He was our only income earner at the time so until I can find a job I ’m endure on his survivor benefit and life policy . Thus , I have renewed my determination to have a endurance garden ( or Victory Garden , as my wonderful husband and I called it ) .
But before I constitute a unmarried bed I MUST get onwards of the freaking stinkbugs ! I hate those small monsters ! Please tell me you get it on what to do 🙏 ? ? !
Oh , I live in Spring Hill on the Pasco County side , 1 mile south of the Pasco / Hernando county line . Technically I ’m in 9b but I ’ve been severalize by a nursery , right on County Line Rd , that I ’m really taste pat on the border of 9a/9b .
Can you please help oneself me ? give thanks you !
I ’m guessing Tracie did not show my bookTotally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening , in which I spell :
“ If there ’s a Holy Grail of veg gardening … it has to be the tomato plant .
army of fervent gardener fight to grow this succulent fruit . Seed catalogs devote multiple pages to alien varieties ranging from shameful - flesh beefsteaks to tart yellow Romas . Home improvement stores wheel out racks of deep fleeceable young seedling in perfect six - pack …
Yet , tomato are not for me . Here I am … a garden teacher … author … maven .
And a failure at Lycopersicon esculentum . At least in this climate .
From the fringe of outer darkness I gaze inwards , visualize felicitous nurseryman fondle supple yield hang in gold sunshine ; lush tomato , untouched by stinkbugs … plump and sweet without a soupcon of flower end rot …
The enticement to try again is overwhelming .
But … the pain … oh … the infliction .
Ave Solanum , Solanum genus Lycopersicon …
It was n’t always like this , you know .
There was a class where tomatoes grow well for me … unfortunately , I was in Tennessee at the time . Tomatoes loved the rich clay and deep mulch of my bed ( though they still rejected much of my trellis efforts , preferring to twine about on the priming coat like fanatical revelers release from a Bacchanal ) and rewarded me for my efforts by raise enough yield for us to eat fresh and even shake up up some homemade Lycopersicon esculentum sauce on the side .
Sadly for my Lycopersicon esculentum - growing life history , now I live in North Florida … and have prove again and again that gardening methods that work in one place do n’t inevitably express over to another . ”
Since writing that back in 2015 , however , I have done some more experiment with tomato . We have n’t figured out how to pass over out stink bugs , but we did chance thatCarbon , Heatmaster , andEvergladestomatoes all do in good order in the heat and with diseases .
The truth is , Florida is a tough place to arise tomatoes . They just are n’t well adapted . The rut , the diseases , the bug , the swing from cool to hot weather condition , the torrential rain : all lead to less than emblematic Lycopersicon esculentum increase . You may get favourable some years , but it ’s a constant scrap . The only tomatoes that do well consistently areEvergladesand some other cherry type .
My booster Mart once put mosquito clear over a tomato seam to keep out the stink bugs , so that might be deserving trying . It worked for him , but is too much problem for me .
If you get your tomato in the land early – and stick to mostly determinate types – you might get a decent harvest time before the conditions knocks them out . Good watering and rich soil with draw of compost help . A duet of local gardeners here in Lower Alabama recommendAmeliaas a skillful variety . I have not tried it yet .
Yet commend : no matter how in effect the variety , the stink hemipteron and the leafage - hoof it bugs are always waiting . Once it gets a little warmer , they begin showing up in droves and are very hard to control , so I do n’t even devil anymore . I just say “ season ’s over ! ” and imbed something else .
That is my two cents . We commonly pass more of our effort on growing crops that do well than Lycopersicon esculentum , like blistering common pepper , fresh white potato , Seminole pumpkins , collards , length of service spinach , cassava , dependable yams and gumbo .
Good luck – and my condolences on the loss of your hubby . Glad you are still garden . Do n’t give up , even if your tomatoes do .
