Kitchen Garden Forum

Just had a stroll round the veggie patch and am somewhat dismayed at the sudden appearance of blackfly on the runner beans, and not just a few either!

Was tempted to get the Fairy liquid out but bearing in mind the masses of chemicals in the product , I will have to wait until I can get some soft soap. Trouble is I am not sure where to buy it these days - can anyone point me in the right direction please?

Hi Mike, yes I have the same problem.

I'm just about to plant a row of Marigolds next to mine. Don't know if this is too later (do Marigolds just help prevent an initial infestation).

Anyway, in addition to simple soap solution or full blown pesticides, nasturtiums and marigolds are supposed to be one approach to blackfly.

Hi Colin,

Interesting suggestions of yours. Was aware that nasturtiums are reputed to keep white fly away from tomatoes and plants growing in the greenhouse, but not blackfly. Would be interested in hearing how you get on with this.

I have just been on a couple of other sites and a product called Savona appears to be fairly popular but at £16 per litre appears to be somewhat expensive

\i got my soft soap from the organic gardening catalogue (Chase organics) a couple of years ago. They are online.

Colin_M wrote:
Anyway, in addition to simple soap solution or full blown pesticides, nasturtiums and marigolds are supposed to be one approach to blackfly.

Nasturtiums are the blackflies' favourite, after broad beans

When I grew a lot of runners I noticed that the self-seeded naturtiums nearby attracted blackfly, some of which got on the beans. Whether no nasturtiums would have meant no blackfly at all, or even more on the beans I never could decide.

Our beans have them too, still quite patchy so I've been squashing them so far.

What puzzled me is that there wasn't a single blackfly on the broad beans this year (now all harvested and dug up).

Pongeroon - will have a look at that site , thanks

In the meantime I have used a commercial solution called "Bug Clear". Not really happy at using this but the blackfly are on virtually every plant I have (58) and it will be a few days before I can get my hands on the organic method.

With blackfly I always turn the hosepipe on and wash them away. Works well on the Broad Beans - you might have to be a bit more careful on Runners.

Blackfly are very bad round here this year. My beans are covered in them and I've even found a few on the leeks. Very little sign of their green cousins though. When they get really bad there is no point in faffing around with soapy water it's time to reach for a bottle of chemical and hit them hard.

John

Our runners are covered in blackfly this year we've never seen it so bad I've even got some on the Greenshaft peas I've never seen that before .I blame the lack of rain we haven't had any proper stuff for weeks.We don't spray but squishing is totally pointless there's just too many .Oh well we've had loads of strawberries and the courgettes are coming in

Hello! I am new to KG. I live in SW Scotland now and have been an organic gardener for a good while. I have had no blackfly this year and have never seen it on runners - so I guess that they are not the host of choice. Lawrence Hills recommended boiling 3lb of rhubarb leaves and adding soapflakes to the cooled filtrate - to make about a gallon of liquid to spray against aphids in general. It might work with runners if caught early.?

mikepearce45 wrote:Pongeroon - will have a look at that site , thanks

In the meantime I have used a commercial solution called "Bug Clear". Not really happy at using this but the blackfly are on virtually every plant I have (58) and it will be a few days before I can get my hands on the organic method.

I've used "Bug Clear" on my runners, It wasn't to successfull, blackfly is still rampant. A secondary concern is the way that "Bug Clear" appears to put a glossy laquer on the plants which I'm finding difficult to wash off. I used it as I thought being a basic derivative of Rape Seed Oil it was non chemical if not organic.

Ken65

We didn't have any blackfly on the first lot of broad beans and rarely get any but we have lots on the broad beans planted later.

I've just noticed that several of our squash plants (which are next to our blackfly-infested broad beans) also have colonies of blackfly on the underside of their leaves.

I've never seen this happen in previous years (though confess I haven't actually had to check because I don't normally get much blackfly).

Use nature to restore balance, to protect your plants and attract predators
build an insect hotel.

http://www.fwag.org.uk/dr_media/fwag/Bu ... Jul-10.pdf

I had only a few blackfly on the tips of a new cherry tree, probably came from the nursery, I picked off a few bits then found a ladybird happily munching so I stopped and let nature be.