Hello all,
This is my 3rd year growing. Year 1 I grew in pots and near the flowering stage I got infested with whiteflies…decent crop but not great. Year 2 (last year) I built a raised planter and filled it with premium soil. The soil was soaked when I got it, and it never did dry out causing stress to my plants and another even worse whitefly infestation…crop decimated. A friend had 2 plants in 5 gallon pails right next to my planter and the whiteflies didn’t touch those plants. Year 3 (right now) I’ve turned the soil over many times during the spring and have it dried out. I purchased Diablo nutrients this year, and started seedlings. My goal was to ensure there was no stress on the plants in the hopes to ward off the whiteflies. BUT, it’s not working. The plants have been outside for 2 weeks now and are already infested. Something is eating holes in the leaves, something the whiteflies don’t do, so I’m thinking I have more than one pest. I have an iPhone 7, so the camera sucks. That’s about the best picture I could get. You can see blurry white specks on the leaf I’m holding, I think that’s tiny whiteflies. It went from nothing for about 8 days, to all of a sudden one small plant being stressed, to all plants being eaten. I’ve been spraying them with 1:40 dish soap and water solution, and it’s helping a bit. I don’t want to do that every day for 3 months. Is there something I can do/use to prevent the infestation? I’ve read the forums, and posted last year, but I’m at a loss. At this rate, these plants won’t make it to July.
More pictures please , did you water your friends plants too ?
I’ll get some more pics in a few mins. I didn’t water the friend’s plants, and he didn’t water them very much himself. They were small, maybe an oz. or two per plant, but not infested. He’s a friend of a friend really, so I’m not sure if it was any good, but it looked alright.
The small one was stunted from the time it germinated, not sure what happened. Could that one plant be the one that attracted the infestation? Or is it the jungle behind them? Or is it just a bad spot? My neighbour grows huge plants not more than 50 feet away. It seems to be me that is the problem, but I’ve done everything right this year, as far as I know.