Help with Cherry Tomatoes!!!

[Eileen Hickey]

My recommendation: DO NOT bring these guys into your house until they're 
clean!! Wrap the top of the pot so the soil will stay put, and turn them 
over (outdoors), and hose them down good with an insecticidal soap, such 
as Safer's. I think tomatoes will tolerate insecticidal soap. Do this 
regularly, at the intervals indicated, and you should get the beasts to a 
level that the tomato can outgrow. If this doesn't work, and you're 
willing to do poisons, for a horrible infestation I had on eggplants 
(they were mounding up on the leaf tips and sailing away on their silk, 
there were so many) I alternated spray with malathion and diazinon, 
alternating weeks, for about two sprays of each poison. The idea is the 
ones that are resistant to one poison will get zapped by the other, so 
you don't cultivate resistant bugs, and you knock down the infestation 
fast. After using these things, you can't eat the harvest for at least a 
week, so if the plants are bearing, you may not want to do this. The 
tomatoes should grow fine outdoors. In general, if you watch for mites in 
advance, and hose your plants down regularly prophylactically (no soap 
needed) usually you can prevent the mites from getting started.

Good growing!