Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

The biggies of Autumn Equinox is tonight at 10.37 pm. Autumn officially here and two little rotters are the “biggies” in your garden!  1) Tomato (and potato) Psyllid These have been working quietly away in your tomato patch. Many generations have gone before them, but what you see now is the culmination of their damaging activities. Yellowing leaves, covered with fine, white crystals that actually taste quite sweet. Many tiny hopping, aphid-like sap-sucking bugs everywhere (actually they look more like tiny versions of cicadas). Your plants will be looking poorly and tomato yield will seriously decline I used to rarely get them, simply because I am fanatical about pulling up nightshade weeds. I reckon the psyllids overwinter on these weeds, so removing them meticulously helps a lot to keep your patch clean.Sprays with insecticides need to commence well before you see the first psyllids, it keeps their populations down too. I don’t grow potatoes, but if you do: only use the early varieties. Pre-Christmas! Now