Melbourne

I’d been letting the garden coast while unwell and was aware of a bad infestation of aphids on the worst affected plant… left it because I had bigger fish to fry. Came out today and all the potted jack be littles were absolutely covered.

Spent ages scrubbing and wiping the leaves down with soapy water. The point for delicacy had passed so instead of spraying the soapy water I was scrubbing the leaves on both sides like dirty dishes and rinsing them like a salad. The dousing with moisture will absolutely encourage the mildew and the residual dish soap may harm the plants but I just had to get the pest burden down quickly. I also fed them to help replace what the pests took.

Some leaves were already dying - those got snapped off and immersed to drown the load of aphids on them (so they couldn’t just go and climb back on - or rather be carried back on by the ants farming them).

I’ll have to either plant a different variety next time or seriously plan out the disease and pest control. Organic and heirlooms seem to need a bit of attention. I saw one ladybug but honestly the rummaging and soapy water might deter it.

I don’t see a great outcome for these plants if I can’t keep this in check. At this point the aim is to keep them kicking just until the most mature fruits ripen.

The ones in ground and the golden nuggets are also affected but not as badly.

I left them as I needed to get back in to attend to Melbcat and the magpie water had just run dry.