Monday, February 11, 2013

ATTACK OF THE APHIDS - 31 October 2012

I found a whole tribe of green aphids today all over my newly germinated Yates Carrot – Egmont Gold.  I’ve never had a problem with aphids on carrots before, but luckily I had someYates Nature’s Way Pyrethrum at hand.  This is a natural insect spray and I used it last year for problems I had with various bad insects such as green vegetable bug, aphids and caterpillars, and it worked a treat!  I hope it does the same this year.
The strange thing with these aphids, is that they have not attacked my established carrots which are doing extremely well and are the Yates Carrot – Topweight variety.  Nor have they attacked other root vegetables in this garden: Beetroot, Swedes, Radishes and Parsnip.  It is really bizzarre.  Well, here’s hoping I can get on top of this infestation as soon as possible so it doesn’t hinder the growth of the carrots!  Aphids multiply at an unbelievable rate!  Unfortunately I haven’t seen any ladybirds (who are a predator of aphids) in the garden to help me out here.  So fingers crossed the pyrethrum spray does the trick this time!  I checked my Garden Diary and I didn’t have aphid problems until the end of November last year..so clearly the good weather we are experiencing here in Wellington has created great conditions for the nasty aphids.
I’ll have to keep planting out rows every six weeks to ensure that I have an on-going harvest (especially if I can’t get on top of the aphids).
 

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