Misc questions / rambling

[Wulf]

So I went out today and found my first unwanted pests, a swarm of aphids on my serrano. Only on a single plant, but I assume that won't last.

I scraped them off with a twig and worked them into the soil. I assume that'll still be fatal for the ones that weren't squished. Do they naturally swarm on the top leaves like that, or is that the handiwork of ants herding them? Left untreated, will aphids kill the plant? Or just weaken it?

When I was out there checking on them, I noticed that my purple peppers are the first ones to start putting out flowers. Aside from 'leave it the f**k alone', is there any advice for this stage? Or if I've gotten it to put out a flower, is it clear sailing from here to peppers with the exact same routine? If you go here and CTRL-F for "Fluorescent purple", those are the ones I mean. Has anybody grown them before? How's the heat / flavour? Or am I getting my hopes up for a pepper that's ornamental for a reason?

Also, I've got 12 little plants of various types still in cups in the house. I'm going to put them all outside in the next couple of days, and was wondering about how to space these runts. If they're still < 6", how much space would you figure they need between them for the next... say, 2 months until it's likely to start frosting?

Finally, wrong forum, but can anybody ID this non-pepper? It was supposed to be a kholrabi, I just threw it in a tiny bit of unused space to fill it until I could get around to doing something with it, and it definitely grew out as something else. When let go, it grows across the ground horizontally and doesn't support its own weight at all. I'm not unhappy with it, but I've got no clue what the hell to do with it now.

 

[theghostpepperstore]

Aphids will generally cluster around the top of the plant without ant intervention. They prefer to feed on the young leafs near the top.

As for advise for this stage... leave them alone.

I cannot tell what the plant in the last pic is, doesn't look like a kohlrabi unless maybe it went straight to flowering stage which can happen to brassicas when it temperatures aren't right.

 

[AlabamaJack]

scraping them off with a twig takes care of your issue on that plant right now...but...while doing that, you are disturbing them and some will fly away to other plants...I don't know if just putting them in the soil will kill them or not...

to keep them from becoming infested, you should treat the effected plants with something to kill the aphids.....if you are only organic, use a dish detergent and water combination and spray it on...or neem oil....geez....there are a lot of recommended "organic" solutions...however, if you are not organic, there are a number of "safe" pesticides out there you can use that will kill on contact...problem is that you just can't treat once...if I am not mistaken it is about 5 days between an egg being laid and hatching time...and when they hatch, they are already reproductively mature, so you should treat again....if you only have one plant or just a few, you can even use a water hose to "blast" them off the plants....but this is a very temporary solution IMO....

 

[PepperWhisperer]

Aphids can absolutely kill your plants. My whole cucumber crop was destroyed this year due to my lax attitude towards aphids. Some plants are more susceptible to aphid damage than others and apparently cukes are in the "more" category. Last year I used the same minimal control philosophy for aphids on okra and my adjacent goats weed peppers with minimal crop loss.

Your plants are still tiny so mechanical destruction of the aphids is still viable...do that. There are a bazillion aphid control methods, both organic and non, and there is an active thread right now on that topic, read it. Honestly, the aphid's main evolutionary advantage is an extremely prolific breeding habit. They are very easy to kill and if you take a little time you can easily keep them in check. I just wish I had paid more attention to my plants before it was too late.

 

[Wulf]

I've been going the 'manual' route, and just heading out there twice a day to kill them by hand. Seems to be working.

Found some aphids on a second plant, but they seem to be a different species. White instead of green. If they get worse instead of better I'll look into the spray alternatives. I've also been scraping off the eggs when I'm able to see them.

A few ants visible, but not enough to imply much of an ant presence. Scraped off a cobweb from one of the plants. I'm all for webs being built and spiders moving in, but this one was pretty thick.

Put 6 of the runts in the ground, I'm sure the sun will take its toll on them tomorrow. Hope some survive. Have 6 cups of dirt with Choc Hab seeds that don't seem to be germinating. That's my second batch of them doing nothing, but I could just be pessimistic, they're only on their 2nd week.

Anyway, I'm off for the night.