Blackfly - broad beans - Tomerite

beckstrous

Grr! There are blackfly on my broad beans, which were otherwise doing really well. I tried squishing a few (ick!), but then I decided to get some spray stuff. It is organic and the label says it is suitable for beans, but after I sprayed it I noticed that the flowers withered and dropped off. Surely this is not meant to happen? What else can I do?

And a quick question on Tomerite for my tomatoes, which have started to flower - I have some which is 2 or 3 years old. Will it still be OK?

GreenFly_2

The best thing for my Blackfly cousins is to spray them with very diluted washingup liquid, this effectively suffocates the flies. Its also a good idea to nip off the top of the beans as this will stop attracting the flies as well as putting more energy into the beans.

Your tomato feed should be ok.

Good Luck
GreenFly

Chimera

Sorry to jump on the thread... I've just been reading up on pinching out, and getting confused, mine have just started to flower, but are only about 8 inches tall.. when do you pinch out - have never grown before

beckstrous

thanks...I got this stuff which was made of fatty acids, doesn't smell horrible (smells of cooking oil), is 100% organic but I am not sure if it upset the flowers!

GreenFly_2

You can pinch out the tops when the plant is about 2ft-3ft tall and has started flowering

Good Luck
GF

GreenFly_2

beckstrous wrote: »

thanks...I got this stuff which was made of fatty acids, doesn't smell horrible (smells of cooking oil), is 100% organic but I am not sure if it upset the flowers!

Probably works the same a washing up liquid. The blackfly are probably the cause of the wilting as they suck the sap from the stems and not the spray your using.

Good Luck
GreenFly

chrisaj

Pinching out the top growth for some reason discourages blackfly. The tomorite should be ok if it's not been opened. If it has been used it's probably lost some of its strength, so just add a bit extra.

beckstrous

Thanks again folks. An update - I don't think it was the spray! I had a look this evening where the flowers had died and dropped off, and I found that there were little bean pods popping through. Hurrah!

The spray stuff is quite good, definitely kills the blackfly off, doesn't smell nasty either, just smells like cooking oil or something like that. Not sure how it works.