Tomato: Gardeners Delight » Week Four
This week we have again been extremely lucky with the weather, it has been glorious, everyday has been sunny and warm for the entire week. As you can see in this week photo the tomato plants are flourishing, I have noticed however a few aphids starting to take up residence on the plants.
Aphids are sucking insects which just love to slurp up the sticky sap from plants, they are particularly fond of new tender shoots on many garden plants, including it would seem tomato plants! Aphids are small, soft-bodied, pearl-shaped insects that have a pair of cornicles (wax-secreting tubes) projecting out from their abdominal segment. The aphids I have on my tomato plants are green, but aphids come in various colours including black, red, yellow, pink, white, brown, grey, or lavender.
Aphids feed in colonies, and if their numbers rise too high the aphid colonies can cause discolouration or mottling of foliage, weaken the plant and effect the size and amount of fruit a plant can produce. Furthermore the aphids excrete honeydew on which mould grows, as I have mentioned in previous posts, anything which encourages mould and disease is a serious threat to your tomato plants welfare.
I have not done anything yet with the aphids on my tomato plants, I had a similar situation last year and I found that natural predators kept the numbers under control. I will be keeping a close eye on the situation, if the numbers begin increasing I will remove the aphids from the plants myself. I do not spray my plants with insecticide simply because any kind of chemical you use on your plants will end up in or on your tomato. A tomato laced with chemicals does not sound very appetising to me. It may be a more time consuming process but physically removing the aphid ensures the best results.