Agriculture

Organic Pest Control for Tomato

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By: Barbara Nadeem

Tomato, tomahto... no matter how you pronounce it, the tomato is probabaly the most widely grown vegetable. The tomato relative ease of culture is top choice by the home gardener because of its food value and many uses.

Health benifits of Tomatoes:

One medium-sized tomato has only 35 calories. The tomato is rich in vitamins C and A, and contains small amounts of the B vitamins and potassium. Tomatoes are also very well known for their high carotenoid content. Nine different carotenoids have been identified in tomatoes, two of them are beta-carotene and lycopene. Carotenoids are thought to have a number of health benefits, such as reducing the risk of developing cancer, cardiovascular disease, and macular degeneration. There has been a lot of medical and nutritional research on lycopene; incidentally, lycopene is responsible for the red color in tomatoes. About 80 to 90% of lycopene consumed by humans comes from tomatoes. Surprisingly enough, lycopene is absorbed better from processed tomato products than from fresh tomatoes. Tomato plants are very productive. When grown as staked plants, tomatoes require a relatively small amount of space, yet are capable of producing 8 to 10 pounds or more of fruit per plant. Some of the more compact tomato cultivars can be easily grown in containers. Hence, gardeners who have limited space can still grow tomatoes.

Grab a pot, some soil and some tomato seeds and start a tomato garden.. One thing about tomatoes is that garden pests enjoy the fruits of our labors before we can... So to deture some of these un invited guest pests here is a few organic recipes to help aid in keeping your plants healther and your harvest of your urban garden safe..

Organic Pest Control:

Tomato plants, as members of the nightshade family, contain toxic compounds called alkaloids in their leaves. When the leaves of tomato plants are chopped, they release their alkaloids. When the alkaloids are suspended and diluted with water, they make an easy to use spray that is toxic to aphids, but still safe around plants and humans.

What You'll Need:

1. One to two cups of tomato leaves

2. Two cups of water

3. A strainer or cheesecloth

4. Spray bottle

To make tomato leaf spray, simply soak one to two cups of chopped tomato leaves in two cups of water. Let it steep overnight. To make the spray, strain the leaves out of the liquid using cheesecloth or a fine strainer. Add another one to two cups of water to the liquid and add it to a spray bottle.

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Garlic Oil Spray

Organic gardeners have long relied on garlic as part of their pest-fighting arsenal. Garlic contains sulfur, which, besides being toxic to pests, is also an antibacterial and antifungal agent. The dish soap in this mixture also breaks down the bodies of soft-bodied pests, such as aphids.

What You'll Need:

1. Three to four cloves of garlic

2. Mineral oil

3. Strainer or cheesecloth

4. Liquid dish soap

5. Water

6. Spray bottle

To make garlic oil spray, mince or finely chop three to four cloves of garlic, and add them to two teaspoons of mineral oil. Let this mixture sit for 24 hours. Strain out the garlic pieces, and add the remaining liquid to one pint of water. Add one teaspoon of liquid dish soap. This mixture can be stored and diluted as needed. When you need to spray, use two tablespoons of the mixture added to one pint of water in a spray bottle.

To use your garlic oil spray, first test by spraying an inconspicuous part of the plant to see if your mixture harms it at all. If there are no signs of yellowing or other leaf damage after a day or two, it is safe to use. If there is leaf damage, dilute the mixture with more water and try the test again. Once you have determined that it won't harm your plant, spray the entire plant, paying special attention to the undersides of leaves.

Warning: Garlic oil is a non-selective insecticide, which means that it will kill beneficial insects (such as lady bugs, who are natural predators of aphids) just as easily as it kills the bad guys. It's best to keep as many beneficials around as possible. This spray should only be used if you haven't seen any beneficial bugs in your garden. The tomato leaf recipe, above, won't harm beneficials, so you should use that if you're lucky enough to have some beneficials in your garden.

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you can also spray the plants with any of a number of homemade insect deterrents. While this isn?t as effective as manually removing them, it will kill quite a few bugs and won?t hurt the plants, the environment, or you.

Some things to try:

Soapy water. Any biodegradable liquid soap will do. Use about a ¼ cup of soap per gallon of water, and rinse the plants with clean water an hour or so after you spray them so that the soap doesn?t burn their leaves.

Oily water. Blend about a ¼ cup canola or olive oil with one gallon of water and spray on plants. Remember to shake the spray bottle frequently to keep things mixed up.

Hot pepper spray. To make your own, puree four or five chili peppers with a gallon of water, strain, and spray. This is even more effective if you let the puree age for a day or so before you strain and use it.

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