| There's a 'new' disease for the tomato grower
at the bottom of the garden. It's "Tomato Russet Mite" and it makes your tomato
leaves look all desiccated and rusty. You'd need a twenty magnification hand lens to
confirm it, because they are that small. The
"Tomato Russet Mite" over winters on Viburnum tinus (also called Laurestinus)
and most of the potato and tomato family, the Solanaceous plants, such as Petunia,
Chillies, Eggplant and Nicotiana.
The control is to use the same miticides as you would to
control the "Two Spotted Mite" which used to be called "Red Legged Earth
Mite". Miticide sprays are much more toxic than most of the garden insecticides, so
if using them be very careful. A soft approach would be to start in spring with Sulfine
(water soluble sulphur), but by now the weather is too hot and the sulphur will burn your
plants.
Maverick® gets some control due to its broad spectrum
approach and Kelthane will control both of these mites if you do not have a history of its
use in your garden. Otherwise the mites become resistant to Kelthane (a milder form of the
commercially available Dicofol) and they go almost unhindered.
The modern tomato cultivars such as the improved
"Grosse Lisse' and the F1 "Mighty Red" seem to have some resistance to
"Tomato Russet Mite" or so a correspondent in Bomaderry NSW informs me. For the
above information we are indebted to Bruce Morphett at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.
At this time of year I hear of lots of excuses as to why
the tomatoes failed this year, so it's vital to have another excuse. 'You don't need an
excuse' I hear you saying, well good on you! (You're obviously not growing tomatoes.) |
