How to grow tomato plants
to need trellises or cages to contain the vines. and if they seem to be reducing the aphid population no further treatment is needed. Otherwise, some gardeners have success washing the small, pearshaped insects of varying colors off their plants with a strong stream of water. Others use natural sprays of insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils, following label instructions. With any of these techniques, you have to hit the aphids to gain control. And you never control them all the first time, so repeat treatments are usually needed.
Dig down and see what the roots are doing with your slow to grow trees. Most likely these roots are mainly in their original root balls. If this is the case, you might try pushing a shovel down along the sides of portions of the root ball to cut some roots and stimulate growth. Otherwise, you can wait and see if the trees produce new roots or lift the plants to disturb the root balls and replant. These treatments are risky, as you could lose the trees, but the trees may never make suitable growth without this care.
Many residents felt brown and burly looking mole crickets that can grow to over an inch long had disappeared, but they are back. Right now they are about a half to three-quarters of an inch long and tunneling just below the surface of the soil. You may see some of the shallow tunnels, but they are not that evident. If you want to check for mole cricket, apply a soapy solution to the surface of a suspect lawn site, and after a few minutes, watch for them scurry to the surface. If present, a turf insecticide can be applied.
Mole crickets are controlled
Most fruiting vegetables are annuals that grow plants, open flowers, produce a harvest and then die. Some like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants could be called long-lived annuals, which could grow for more than one season — but they all eventually decline, especially during the hot, wet summers. Your plantings are completing their life cycle, which is what annual peppers do at this time of the year. Get ready to replant in midAugust. A few of the mainly hot pepper selections are perennials that live for a year or more.