Insects and Hanging Tomato Planters

Advantages

• One of the primary advantages of the hanging tomato planter is that the plant is up off the ground and planted in fresh soil. Garden soil can become infested with soil-borne insects and diseases. With the plants hanging above the soil, those types of pests have a harder time getting to the vines. You start your season with disease-free plants. Add a proper pest care regimen and hanging tomatoes do well. The elevation of the vines also makes it easier for the gardener to spot insect pests and to spray or treat the plants.

Sources of Pests

• The most common way to pick up pests is to bring them home from the nursery or store where you bought the plant. Many of these are grown in sheltered greenhouses or kept indoors on display in home improvement stores and discount houses, allowing pests to establish a foothold. Check the plants you buy for signs of an infestation and choose clean plants. Airborne pests like fungi spores and flying insects have to be watched out for by the gardener. The planter's support post is the only route for crawling bugs, and few make the trip successfully, but don't count out the determined caterpillar or other bug.

Manual Prevention

• Simply watching out for bugs, aphids, caterpillars and other pests is the first line of defense. Fortunately, the plants are easy to reach and you don't have to strain your back or abuse your knees to do it. Hang your plants at least 2 to 3 feet apart to prevent downy mildew from spreading between your plants. Spray with a compost tea solution and give the plants plenty of ventilation; aphids and mildew will have a harder time spreading. Good ventilation helps keep the leaves of your plants dry. Hang a yellow sticky trap beside your tomatoes to capture flying insects and reduce their numbers.

Manual Treatment

• Once you see what pests are attacking your plants, hand pick off what you can or spray the plants with a hard water stream every day for three days to dislodge them. You can also use a small hand-held vacuum to remove smaller bugs you can't hand pick or which shelter from the water in small crevices.

Chemical Treatment

• Knowing the pest, you can adapt your treatment strategy to what will work best for that particular bug or disease. Insecticidal soap contains potassium which strips away an insect's protective wax layer. Used as directed, the soap disrupts cell membranes and kills the insect and leaves behind a residue that attacks other bugs and microorganisms. Horticultural oils are plant or petroleum based, such as neem oil. They are diluted in water to create sprays. Oil sprays suffocate, starve or inhibit the growth of insects. Avermectin, made from soil-borne microorganisms, helps control smaller pests like spider mites.

Types of Pests

• Aphids, about 1/8 inch long, are soft-bodied, green, red, brown or black and attach themselves with a sticky residue to leaves and stems while they suck sap from the plant. Spider mites, almost microscopic in size, can be found on the underside of leaves. They are hard to see without a magnifying glass. They poke little white holes in the leaves and suck out sap. Look for thin webbing strung between different parts of the plant. Affected leaves change color and fall off. Whiteflies are tiny white bugs that leave sticky honeydew on leaves like aphids do, but in thin trails that circle and spiral on the surfaces of leaves, stems and fruit.