THE TOMATO GROWING THREAD 2018

I'd drain the lot, flush them and quickly refill and seal up. Do these cells not have moving water? Usually mosquitoes don't bother with active water.

 

Thanks for the advice, Lori and John...it is appreciated

No moving water in a Quadgrow, Lori...just a 30L reservoir that you top up, I think I'll give draining them a go, but not sure if I'll get all the little blighters out due to the sheer volume of roots that are growing down into the water.

 

Hi, I ended up picking one of my Cherry toms thinking they were ripe lol Turns out they go from green to indigo then red before they are ripe.

 

"JWK, post: 1159593, member: 2877"]I don't think mosquito larvae will do any damage, I have them in my open water butt and water other plants (not tomatoes) with no effects.[/QUOTE]

I put a few drops of cooking oil in my water butts, that stops the larvae.

 

I wouldn't add oil to the quads, the oil stops oxygen getting to the larvae and it would do the same to your roots. I had thought about doing a water only set up but don't think I'd do anything in standing water. I think I'd want a pump circulating it. Just me. who likes to tinker too...

 

I have never plugged the holes, unless you mean the gaps for pouring water in. I should probably watch out... Can you get the water out somehow. Hmm only method I can think of would be a syphon... (sorry slightly over the top emoticon there, perhaps, but mouthful of mosquito, potentially?!) I wouldn't have thought it would harm the tomatoes. You could contact the Quadgrow people... If you do, I'd be interested to hear what they say.

 

I just read that mosquitoes dislike tomatoes!

 

sorry duplicate post from me. Don't know how to delete.

 

Thanks for the comments everyone, I'm going to buy a small pond pump and empty it using that, as I think the stronger suction will help, I will just have to be careful and not suck up any roots.

I will give the Quadgrow people a ring on Monday and see what they say.

 

I'm thinking if you just keep pouring in water, it will eventually be "rinsed" out. I mean running a hose into it for a good 15 minutes. Eventually it should all be flushed?

I would think a small amount of peroxide would kill the larvae and not hurt the roots as a way of maintenance.

When I think of mosquito breeding grounds, I think of West Nile (North America) and Zika (South America) viruses. I realize these continents are thousands of miles away but air travel makes us only hours away.

 

I do not feed into the tank but into the pot so no need to flush. ( my methods are well documented on here) I use an air pump and air stones or hoses. This does two things it prevents bugs such as mosquito as Lori says they do not like active water. also it keeps the water rich in oxygen and the tomato/pepper plant roots colonise this water and are healthy. At the end of the season there are more roots in the water than in the pot. I think I would go with Lori's idea of a small amount of peroxide which would kill the mosquito and very quickly break down into harmless components oxygen and water. It is used to oxygenate water for aquariums so is pretty safe.

 

Have purchased one of those plastic greenhouses for my bush tomato plants so thought I'd see how they grow in that given me more room in glass greenhouse




I've also got my first Cherokee Smokey Purple Heirloom which I'm so excited about

 

Looking good @jane0o0 , I particularly love the purple ones, which variety are they? I'm growing my first purple this year, Ukrainian purple, I don't think I'll know when the are ripe either
Everyone's are much further on than mine, but mine are growing normal for here so I'm happy with that
I can't wait to pick them. I was at the local shop yesterday and the only decent looking ones where nearly £2 for 6