chilli plant

Hi newbie here looking for tips
I have a chilli plant growing in my conservatory that has green fly problems, I have tried a friendly natural deterrent purchased from my garden centre, but with no success (in fact it started to make the leaves go brown) I had the idea of removing some/most of the leaves (as it is quite bushy) so as to contain them making it easier to wipe them off but I dont know if this will stress the plant. Any ideas please?
Brian.

 

Hi Brian,

not sure how much help i can be - my chillis have been rubbish this year...

aphids are a real pain and unless the plant is very large I would suggest removing them by hand. You could also take the plant outside and blast it with water if it looks sturdy enough to take it. Soft soap is the traditional organic remedy, but i wonder what was in that stuff from the garden centre?? Of course there is always the very non-organic 'Provado'......

 

Thanks for the reply, I do remove them by hand but so time consuming, just wondered if anything on the market for prevention. Regarding that "natures way of removing aphids" spray
I have sent an email to the producers, explaining what has happened and am waiting a reply.
Regards
Brian

 

Get some ladybirds in there - they will munch them up

 

Brian, good to know you are giving feedback to the producers. Sometimes in gardening I think they can get away with a lot because the sheer number of variables means you can never be sure what caused the problem....

Rootball - was thinking of suggesting bio controls but it always seems such an expense to buy them in for a small greenhouse / conservatory. To think of it, we have a sycamore in our garden which is a massive producer of ladybird larvae, so ten minutes collecting under there would supply plenty

 

Good call.

I am tolerant of the nettles near my polytunnel not just because they are good for the butterflies but they give me constant supply of ladybirds - they have even started their own community in the tunnel now it seems