Some bug and courgettes

I bought two courgette plants
I had them five days and they are now gone EATEN
The leaf has a firm bottom layer the top is soft,
The leaf is there but all the soft tissue has been eaten
The culprits, that I found under the leaf, were about 2mm in lenght 1mm wide
Yellow with four black spots two at each end

I have removed the two plants out of the greenhouse and checked the tomato plants they were with Which seem clear

Any idea what the bugs are, and what is my prevention for other NON Courgettes in the greenhouse ?

Just a standard aphid spray ?

Jack McHammocklashing

 

Too early for Courgette plants Jack ... and easily grown from seed, I'll send you some shall I?

They grow like blue blazes, HATE the cold, so should not be planted out until a) frost has finished and b) nights are not "chilly". Unless you were going to plant them ina tunnel or somesuch perhaps?

(Dunno what the bugs are though)

 

Too early, They had been on sale for two weeks in the SHED across the road, so I thought I would give them a try
They were in my unheated green house for five days
The damage, was the main shoot gone, and the two large leaves,
The leaf is like a hard base with a 2mm soft tissue surface, the soft tissue surface is what is/now almost all gone and these yellow bugs I can not identify

Send me some, You have already been more than generous to me and I would not dream of doing an Oliver, I owe you so much


Speaking of which, I have got confused with the tomato seeds
I got 3 Shirley F1 AND Lots of AILSA CRAIG? I think

The problem is the 3 Shirleys have not yet germinated BUT the lots of Ailsa Craig have and are now about 3/4 inch high
You said the Shirleys germinated and were unsure of the others ?
Have I got them mixed up, I think not as I originally requested 3 Ailsa Craig from you

DOH senior moments here I am afraid

Regards Jack McH

 

Aphids, only I thought they were green ?

Now I am worried that they are in with the tomatoes and other seedlings

Jack McH

 

Yup, that's right. I only had a couple of Shirley to spare, but the remainder of the packet of AILSA CRAIG. The Shirley are fresher, so Iw as worried that the AILSA CRAIG might not germinate, being older, obviously that's not a problem.

If the Shirley germinate do grow one (or however many you have room for) I think they taste better than AILSA CRAIG.

The SHEDs are always putting out plants for sale far too early, people buy them, they die, people buy them again :(

If you are going to buy a plant then mid May would be good, if you are going to sow from seed then 1st May. If you have seed then sow a few earlier, the weather may be kind, but sow the later ones too just in case - you can always "recycle" the later ones. My experience is that [once planted out] if they get chilly (at night) they sulk and stall, and a potted plant, harden off and planted out later, will overtake them.

 

The Shirleys just showed a hint of green tonight, the Aisla are like tree trunks

I intend to grow the 3 Shirleys, and 6 Aisla, the Tigerala I have and four other
They will be inside my unheated greenhouse
I never thought you could grow tomatoes outside in the UK, Yet I did see my Brother last year had a dozen moneymakers scattered amongst the flower beds against walls and they were laden with fruit. perhaps Scotland is a bit too cold though

As for potted, I could only get three in the house and that would be at a North facing window
Outside just hit -1c tonight at 22:00 greenhouse which I went out and bubble draped the seedlings has dropped form 11c to 7c
I do not know if it was right or not but I also fleeced my outside onions, and bedding plant border, as the forcast was for -3c and snow ?

Thanks

Jack McH

 

Far too early for courgettes up here Jack. Last year I didn't sow then until 10th April and when I planted them out in May they were under cloches for the first week or so.
This year I sowed some on 20th March and they are ready for potting on now, but I'll sow more this week as "insurance".
As for the bugs, they're aphids. I'd be tempted to bin the plants as they are too early anyway or if you want to try keeping them and want to be a "green gardener" use neem oil or else buy a bug killer chemical.
Having just looked at the local weather forecast "Bright but bitterly cold with snow showers and sunny intervals. The snow showers widespread at first but confined mainly to east Fife and Dundee later. Best of sun towards Crieff. Maximum temperature 4 °C." There's a good chance that the cold will kill the blighters!

 

Outdoor Toms - For years now I've grown Gardeners Delight outdoors and always get a great crop. I've also grown Alicante outdoors and had good results grown against a south facing wall.
I'm trying Floridity a plum shaped outdoor baby tom this year for the
first time.

 

You can grow them outside ... the "problem" without outdoor Toms in the UK (more particularly Up North I expect) is that the harvest starts late, and all too soon the frosts arrive. So its a short season, fine if you want to process them into Tomato Puree etc., but for Summer Salads you want them to start producing as early as possible, and that needs a greenhouse.

 

Last year I sowed gardeners delight in a propagator of 21st March, they were brought on first indoors, then in an unheated GH and planted out on 27th May. I didn't record our first picking but think it was towards the end of the first week in July.
I harvested the last of the crop and put them in seed trays to ripen on 20th October and we ate our last couple for breakfast in December. These last ones were ones I'd forgotten about and then discovered in a tray in the GH. For us at least, the outdoor crop, while it doesn't start as early as those in the GH or polytunnel has the advantage of affording us a late picking when the toms grown under cover have finished.
We also dehydrate a lot of the baby toms as we usually get more than we can eat fresh and they are very easy to dry.

 

Additional point: many people say that outdoor Toms taste better (I only grow indoor, so can't comment )

Outdoor more susceptible to blight - although it may be splitting hairs?

 

Our experience : Toms of all varieties grown in the ground in the polytunnel do taste better than those grown in big pots in our GH. Comparing Gardeners Delight grown in the tunnel with those in the ground outdoors, there's little difference though perhaps the outdoor ones are slightly bigger and give a bigger crop.

Indoor or outdoor, home grown toms are infinitely nicer than supermarket ones!

Never had any blight on indoor toms (cross fingers!) but have in the past had a couple of really bad episodes on the outdoor crop. I now sunscribe to Blight Watch and spray if there are Smith Periods in the local area and haven't had any blight on toms for a couple of years. Had a touch on the potatoes which I hadn't sprayed last year, but it was late enough for me to just strip the foliage and I'd no problems with the crop.

Somewhat off thread, but one of our great delights last summer was our 18 month old granddaughter insisting on visiting the tunnel on her weekly visit so she could pick and scoff baby toms. She went into the tunnel last week, looked round and said "No tomatoes!"

 

Our SHED is full of Ericaceous plants, and in particular presentation displays of them right by the entrance ... I suppose there must be some acid soil somewhere near here, but I'm blowed if I can think of any close enough that people might come to that town to buy plants ...

 

Well there was nowt left to ditch of the courgettes, they had stripped them bare, just the base skeleton of the leaf, I smudged the beasties out with my thumb and after washing checked all the plants in the GH they seem to be clean

I went into work today, and a friend gave me three courgette plants in plastic coffee cups, stronger than the ones I had bought, 3" high and full of roots, said he only seeded them nine days ago, and that they are rampant (grown indoors in a conservatory) they are much greener and stronger than the ones I bought
On my window sill at 19c tonight only they look like they needed potted on as almost rootbound already (not really but the clear plastic cup is full of roots)
two green and one yellow courgettes
I intend to grow them in my GH

You know with gardening, it gives you a lift as to how many generous people are around you, plants, seeds, information and general chat like nothing else in the world given to each other, it makes it seem like it is not such a big bad world really

Thank you all for your generous advice and offers

Jack McHammocklashing