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chillifan

Life after Aphids

17 years ago

So my Chilli's were attacked by Aphids and now look worse for wear. I am devistated because it was my first attempt at growing anything, i grew 30 plants, pinched the leaves, transplanted twice. They are thick stemmed, VERY BUSHY plants.

Once the aphids got to them, the new leaves are all curled up and useless. The rest of the plant looks a bit strange... worse for wear so to speak.

So what now? Cut it back? Cut off the new leaves? Fertilize, water?. I want to get them back to health quickly before the weather starts cooling down. They havent flowered yet but i was hoping for them to flower before autumn got too cold in this Australian climate.

Advice is appreicated. By the way, soapy warm water seemed to get rid of most of them! And they were absolutely infested.

Comments (4)

  • 17 years ago

    Washintg your Plants every few days will keep them at bay but the best thing I've found was go to your local nursey and find plants with aphid mummies and live aphids on it.
    The live ones probably have wasp eggs in them that will hatch soon.
    These wasps have really put a hurt on my aphid problem going on 2 years now.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtUk-W5Gpk

    I've heard that some greenhouses get too hot for them but i really don't know.
    I keep a few plants inside for seed as they bud to get pure seeds from so I always have some wasps inside to keep them around throughout the year.
    They are here year round inside and out as far as I can tell by the constant appearance of aphid mummies i see on my plants.
    My only problem as far as aphids go is the diseases they carry to the plants.
    If you have a diseased plant get rid of it or the aphids will spread the disease to all your plants.
    Sounds like your season is ending so unless you overwinter plants you might not have time to establish a wasp population.
    I've been experimenting with sending people sprouts that I've watched wasps lay eggs in the aphids to get the wasps to populate other peoples gardens but I don't think a sprout would get through customs...or I'd offer to send you one of the black Congo sprouts I have that have wasp eggs in the aphids.

    Lacewings are great pest eaters too.I think they are a lot more effective than ladybugs.
    They don't wander and they lay eggs in the thickest population of aphids they can find.

    they also eat anything they can catch.

    You might try using a calcium spray on your plants to induce budding.I use Foli-Cal.It really helps in my opinion.

    Here is a link that might be useful: wasp video

  • 17 years ago

    Thanks for the information.

    Alot of my leaves have got leaf-curl... will the plant be okay? The plant wont bear fruit i know that, but i just want to know if i should cut the bad leaves off? trim the plant back a few inches or what?

    Would appreciate the ADVICE!!

  • 17 years ago

    Once you get rid of the aphids the plant will recover just fine and should go on to bear fruit. I'd leave the curled leaves alone. They still do their job, just on a smaller scale. ;^)

    I had lots of trouble when over-wintering my peppers in the house but even after one bout of spider mites and another of aphids the plants recovered and thrived after I got them outside in their big pots.

  • 17 years ago

    Spraying the plants with safers soap will eliminate aphids very quickly. I haven't had them on my peppers, but recently I had a horrendous infestation on my chard, and some on my broccoli, and the soap annihilated them.

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