Subject: Help with Cherry Tomatoes!!!

From: [email-masked] (Dave Johnson)
Date: 24 Jun 1996 15:25:55 GMT

Help!!

   A friend of mine has been trying to grow cherry tomatoes on his 
outside deck, along with a variety of other veggies in his "salad" garden.
(something he picked up at a nature store). Now his tomatoes are being 
eaten by spider mites. 
 
  Firstly, let me say that he is not growing, dope, weed, Mary Jane, 
whatever you wanna call it. I've gone to a few of the gardening stores in 
the area and they've given me sly looks, winked and nooded when I asked 
about this dilema. God forbid someone actually grow tomatoes.

  In this person's mind, since I read the bionet.plants newsgroup I am 
some sort of great wealth of information. I suggested brining them inside 
and putting them in some sort of clean environment, that is after going 
over every surface of the plant with an alcohol swab. *(I did read that 
here didn't I?)* I even offered to take one off his hands and put in 
under flourescents in my bathroom since I've heard they hate high 
humidity enviroments.

   Since I am going to help my buddy out here and take one or two plants, 
what I need to know is, 1) how do I get rid of the current infestation? 
It's not so bad yet that they are spinning webs. 2) Once it is "clean" 
what sort of clean environment should I put them in? *I figured I would 
give bath a thorough cleaning, it needs it anyways! and put them in 
there for the extra humidity* 3) What can I do to keep them from coming 
back? *Would a venus fly trap plant help any maybe?*, as I assume he 
wants these back once he can keep the mites away.

Finally, to keep my own house plants safe, do I have to worry about 
Spider Mites and my..
1) Wandering Jews
2) Mint
3) Ivy
4) Zebra Plant (Alphelandra Squarrosa according to my plant book)
6) Rubber Plant *Thanks to all those who helped me with it! She's alive 
and well!*

6) Something that looks like a cast iron plant except with Redish Purple 
leaves

7) I also have two others that I have yet to identify.

I've heard of predatory mites, but this is simply four tomato plants, not 
really worth the investment.

 To those who have answers, time is of the essence!

Many Many thanks in advance!
yours...

-- 
************			"Living in the Limelight, the universal dream,
Dave   *Tigger*			 for those who wish to seem,
				 those who wish to be,
[email-masked]        	 must put aside the alienation,

---

From: Eileen Hickey <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Jun 1996 00:05:27 GMT

My recommendation: DO NOT bring these guys into your house until they're 
clean!! Wrap the top of the pot so the soil will stay put, and turn them 
over (outdoors), and hose them down good with an insecticidal soap, such 
as Safer's. I think tomatoes will tolerate insecticidal soap. Do this 
regularly, at the intervals indicated, and you should get the beasts to a 
level that the tomato can outgrow. If this doesn't work, and you're 
willing to do poisons, for a horrible infestation I had on eggplants 
(they were mounding up on the leaf tips and sailing away on their silk, 
there were so many) I alternated spray with malathion and diazinon, 
alternating weeks, for about two sprays of each poison. The idea is the 
ones that are resistant to one poison will get zapped by the other, so 
you don't cultivate resistant bugs, and you knock down the infestation 
fast. After using these things, you can't eat the harvest for at least a 
week, so if the plants are bearing, you may not want to do this. The 
tomatoes should grow fine outdoors. In general, if you watch for mites in 
advance, and hose your plants down regularly prophylactically (no soap 
needed) usually you can prevent the mites from getting started.

Good growing!