I've had so many bugs in my garden like you can't imagine! Ants, wormy like things, spider mites,
leaf miners and mosquitoes. It's crazy. So whenever I don't spray my plants for a couple of days, they look like they've been under attack. Before, I used basic
soap solution to spray my plants (especially the underside of the leaves). I've tried both bath soap and dish washing soap. The downside is the potential
leaf burn. In fact, I think that's how I killed my
Hannah Leah (Mona Lavender Plecanthrus) and I think may be a reason why my big
tomato looks burned out. Once in a while, I also add
chili peppers to my spray. Lately though, I've added another component. Vegetable oil is supposed to work. But since I'm such a
recycler, I tried using used cooking oil (fried chicken!). Hahaha...I hope that's okay. The bugs might enjoy eating my plants more if they have that
KFC twist. But guess what? My sprayer has been acting up for a couple of months (limited spraying power). I've tried to fix it. But as soon as I added oil to my mix, it regained its spraying power. Apparently, oil lubricates sprayers too. So for now, my home made bug spray consists of soap solution with chili pepper and a little oil.
As a final point, apparently spider mites thrive on very dry environments. Well, I've been trying to keep my plants dry because I've been trying to avoid
root rot. Too wet...too dry...there's just no winning sometimes.
Know any good home made sprays?
Yesterday, I saw my baby Shabear faint on my pillow (or did she fall asleep again?) Apparently, she got really tense watching this bear video. Check it out too and don't let babies watch it (especially bear babies). It's scary! 
It's funny sometimes how the ones you don't pay attention to grow the most. In my last melon post, I talked about the fast growing melons in my backyard. Most of them are half dead now, either half eaten by insects or probably victims of root rot. Still, if you've been checking out my blog, you'd probably guess that my basil plants are my favorites and therefore get the most attention. While my basil plants have been recovering (not exactly growing their hearts out), one of the melons in my front yard has exploded in growth. It's cohabiting a pot with a tomato (yes, probably not the wisest choice). It's partly because I had no idea it would grow this big. As you can see, it has crawled over the adjacent green pot and all the way down the metal grill and has started flowering. How great is that? My tomato is overdue for fruiting and its the melon that decides to flower. Well, I'll take it! Just give me anything that will make me feel like gardening is worthwhile. ;-)
I have a really big tomato plant now. I think it's about 2-feet tall already and has outgrown the raised platform. It was a little hard to support since the tomato is taller than the stakes. So, I moved it down so that it'll use the raised platform thing as a crutch. It's easier than staking. However, the leaves have started curling all over the plant. I did my research and found that I'm not any closer to an answer. It could be environmental stress, which I understand. It's been sunny-rainy-sunny-rainy-sunny. And that's in one day! It could be over or under watering. It could be over nitrogen or under calcium. It could be a virus or a bug problem. It could mean herbicide damage. What's the problem? All of that could be true. It happened after spraying with soap solution and moving the pot. What I've experienced is that tomato leaves and stems follow the sun very quickly. Thus, if you keep turning the pot, it'll disfigure the leaves and the stems. I'm not sure how to fix it. In the meantime though, I will just keep watering it heavily because the plant is quite big already. I'll add some crushed egg shells to add calcium to the mix. And I'll add another layer of grass clippings mulch to raise the soil level. Wish my tomato luck! And to think, it's due for fruiting already!
