BIOLOGICAL control of tomato pests

BIOLOGICAL control of tomato pests

For an object to be called a fruit it has to contain seeds and it must come from a plant. So, botanically speaking, the tomato can be called a fruit and it can be very prone to pests, so you must have rigorous biological control so that you are not going to get any unpleasant surprises at the end of your harvest.

The tomato usually has a spherical appearance, they usually have an average size of eight centimeters. Before being in its mature state, they have green skin, which turns red as time goes by.

This fruit is highly valued in all types of food or diet. Its main component is water, followed by carbohydrates. Because it contains few calories, it is a suggested food for eating habits aimed at losing weight. Another benefit of this fruit is that it contains vitamins C, B5, B2 and B1 and various minerals.

General recommendations to prevent pests

One of the measures that can work best for you to have a biological control of tomato pests is to rotate your crops. For example, if last year you grew leafy vegetables on that land, the following year it would be appropriate to use that land to grow tomatoes.

In line with the previous advice, you should avoid monocultures, because this way you avoid the proliferation of a pest to a single type of crop.

Maintain a healthy soil, free of impurities and balanced, this is essential to take care of the health of your crops. Therefore, it is recommended to always put a good layer of mulch so that you help the soil to preserve the correct level of humidity and its temperature, thus favoring its fertility.

The use of fertilizers against pests and/or diseases ends up reducing the fertility and quality of your soil in the medium or long term, so the cure ends up being worse than the disease. On the contrary, organic remedies and the use of natural extracts are much more effective for the prevention and treatment of pests and diseases.

You have to be very careful with water, since it is never good to flood the soil of a crop, much less that of tomato. With drip irrigation we can control the amount of water it receives at all times, also saving thousands of liters of water per year.

White fly

Physically, this type of plague is very small, it normally measures between 1 and 3 millimeters and among its large families you can distinguish more than a thousand different species. This insect that appears once is very complicated to control, since its life time ranges from 10 to 30 days, during this time they can reproduce on several occasions, laying between 80 and 300 eggs in each of their reproductions, therefore its increase is very fast.

The whitefly attacks your crops through its sucking tube with which it feeds on the sap of your plants. Their presence can usually be detected by looking at the underside of the leaves, as this is the most porous part of the plant and this is where they have the best access to sap.

Way to control it

Let their natural predators help you to have a biological control of tomato pests, an example would be ladybugs, since they feed on the fly so it is a mutual benefit for the ladybug and your crop.

• You must continuously and adequately water your crops.
• Check the established sowing calendars, since they are for your benefit and are made to prevent all kinds of problems.
• Develop a complete rotation of your crops throughout the year.
• Eliminate and uproot all the weeds that may appear around your crops.
• Control the appearance of ants, since it is not beneficial for you, so they protect the whitefly from its natural enemies.

Predators

As you well know, there are several predators whose food source is the whitefly, no matter if it is in the larval stage or adult.

Encarsia formosa: it is a microwasp with a black hue, we can find it naturally, although there are also companies that sell individuals so that you can release them freely in your garden. In addition, there are many other predators of the whitefly such as ladybugs, bedbugs, lacewings, among others, we can make an insect hotel so that they inhabit our garden.

Aphids

You should control this type of pest as soon as possible since it is a pest that spreads rapidly throughout all your plants and also consumes the sap very quickly. You can find these aphids on the undersides of leaves, stems, and younger shoots.

This type of pest is a very common one that attacks the tomato, you can see the insect with the naked eye, since it has a size of about 3 mm. You can see that they leave a type of scar on the tomato when you look at the rolled up and sticky leaves, especially on the more tender shoots. The time of year in which aphids attack more aggressively and massively is in summer thanks to the fact that the high temperatures make them feel comfortable to be able to reproduce and act well.

Ways to control them

Neem oil

It is a very ecological alternative for biological control of tomato pests, respectful of the entire environment, it can serve as both a repellent and an insecticide. It has some systemic effects thanks to its active ingredient: azadirachtin. It helps you fight the aphid, in the same way it helps you against other pests such as the red spider, the white fly or the cochineal

The advice is to be very conscientious and reasonable in dealing with any pests. “Do not kill flies fiercely”. It is always best to start by treating the problem in the least environmentally damaging way.

Miner worm

The Tuta Absoluta has a great reproductive potential and with a biological cycle that could last between 29 and 38 days, this depends on the environmental conditions, being able to have between 10 and 12 generations a year.

When they are in their adult stage they reach up to 7 mm in length and have nocturnal habits, which means that they remain inactive during the day between the leaves. When it becomes a moth, it has a first pair of dark gray wings with dark spots and a second pair of blackish wings. The females have a creamy brown abdomen, much more voluminous than that of the males. Normal lifespan is 6 to 7 days in males and 10 to 15 days in females.

Prevention

The good thing about all this is that we bring you a recommended homemade way of having a biological control of tomato pests, an ecological pesticide against this pest known as zinziberene. This mixture attacks the larvae also helping you to drive away the moth and thus such an insect will not be able to lay its eggs in your plantations.

Zinziberero

• 50 gr of powdered ginger
• 1 liter and a half of water
• rosemary leaves
• 6 grams of soy lecithin, can be granulated or in tablets

Preparation

• First you must boil the liter and a half of water adding a rosemary leaf
• After it is already boiling, you should let it rest for 5 minutes to add the ginger powder, make sure there are no lumps in the mixture
• Cover the mixture very well and let it rest for 24 hours.
• Add the soy lecithin after 24 hours and mix very well
• Finally you must strain it and combine the mixture with the water that you are going to spray the plants, apply this mixture 1 time every 7 days, ready you already have a natural pesticide

Diseases

Pythium

Pythium debaryanum is a disease that affects your tomato plants, attacking especially the planting stage before and after germination. This can cause the stem of the affected plant to fall, thus reaching its last stage of infection, which is seed rot.

These fungi are typical in plants, their development is inside the tissues of the entire plant. Pythium belongs to the class of Oomycetes. Which are primitive fungi that are characterized by the fact that they need water to develop, specifically water on the soil surface.

Biologic control

Propolis is a natural product, perfect biological pest control in tomato, with antifungal properties produced by bees, so it is an organic solution. You must apply 2 ml of product for every liter of water you use, apply it every 12 days in your irrigation water, this will be enough to notice an improvement in your plants.

Neem oil is a product which is extracted from the Neem tree and has a biological origin, it is also very effective for you to put an end to unwanted fungal pests such as Pythium, since thanks to its components they can fight in a very organic way all kinds of fungi, apply it periodically in your irrigation waters.

Late blight

One of the first symptoms of this disease is trunk bowing on infected leaves. Stem and leaf damage are large, irregular or greenish patches. These patches grow larger, then turn brown and end up with a papery appearance. When presented in humid conditions, the lower part of the leaf shows a typical whitish outbreak of the fungus. In humid and warm periods, all its reproduction can quickly rot. Damage to the fruit is large, irregular, greenish-brown spots. The upper part of the lesion on the soles has a very greasy and rough appearance.

How to prevent it

A super tip is to first remove all the tissue of the affected plant as soon as you see the fungus, preferably you can do it on a sunny day, since the leaves are dry and there are fewer spores on your plant.

Once the fabrics have been removed, you must deposit the fabric in bags and bury them, or you can also deposit them in a pile and cover them with a tarp. The incident heat will completely and quickly kill the fungus.

After describing that your plant has the fungus, you should inspect your crop daily for a week in search of other infected leaves or plants that have developed symptoms by doing the same procedure.

Controls volunteer or alien tomato plants as well as weeds in the nightshade family, especially hairy weeds which are highly susceptible to this deadly fungus.

If you also want to know information for biological control of corn you can read the article here.