The ugly truth

Our tomato plants have grown to the top of the rafters in the greenhouse. They have been producing a lot of tomatoes, and they are delicious. I had noticed what looked to be some kind of white ash, but upon further inspection, realized they were tiny white bugs. When Kevin's mum was here, she informed us that they were white flies. She suggested we remove every single leaf and burn them. The best thing to do is to remove all the plants, dig up the soil and replace it with new compost and start over. Such a shame as the plants are still producing edible tomatoes. The white flies don't seem to be harming the taste in any way, but they can spread to our other vegetables and wreak havoc.

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So, today I removed all the leaves, as Mary suggested, and burned them.The plants look so naked and sad now. We also learned that we should not be allowing our plants to grow so high. Four feet is pretty much the maximum height. We'll know better next time and make sure we're pruning diligently.

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I've decided that I won't bother trying to save these poor infested plants. This weekend, I will dig everything up, clean the greenhouse and start again. I have no idea what causes white flies and if there's something I can do to prevent this from happening again. I'll have to do my research. I don't want to use any chemicals on our plants so I'll have to see if there's a natural potion that I can use. Nature can be stubborn... that's the ugly truth.

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