Tomato pests and fungus, and what a 3 in 1 does

Tomato pests and fungus, and what a 3 in 1 does

A 3 in 1 tomato product does what the name says. It carries an insecticide for the chewing and sucking pests, a miticide for two spotted mite, and a fungicide for the leaf diseases, so instead of buying and storing several different bottles you've got one thing that covers the usual run of tomato problems. They come as a ready to use spray and as a dust you puff onto the plant, and the active ingredients do the same work either way.

What it is actually for

The insect side handles aphids, whitefly, thrips and the caterpillars that bore into fruit. The mite side matters more than people expect, because two spotted mite is tiny enough that most gardeners never see it and just notice the leaves going bronze and stippled from underneath. The fungicide side is for the leaf spots and mildews that start on the lower leaves and work up.

One honest limit, because the label will not tell you this in plain words. A fungicide is mostly preventative. It protects tissue that is still healthy and it does very little for a leaf that has already gone. If your plant is half brown when you start spraying, the spraying is protecting what is left rather than bringing anything back, so take the worst leaves off, put them in the bin rather than the compost, and start from there.

The withholding period is the bit nobody reads

Every product like this carries a withholding period on the label, which is the number of days that has to pass between spraying and eating the fruit. It is printed there for a reason and it is not a suggestion. Read it before you spray, not after, and if you are picking every couple of days through the season, work out whether you can actually wait that long before you commit to spraying at all.

Wash the fruit before you eat it regardless.

Do not spray an open flower

Tomatoes here are pollinated largely by blue banded bees, which buzz the flower to shake the pollen loose, and a bee working a flower you have just sprayed is a bee you have killed. Spray in the late afternoon or the early evening when the bees have finished for the day, and avoid going over open flowers where you can.

The other timing rule is heat. Spraying wet leaves in full sun scorches them, so cool of the day, both ends.

Using it properly

1. Follow the label rate and the label interval rather than spraying whenever it looks bad. Repeating too often is how resistance builds and how the withholding period gets broken without you noticing.
2. Get the undersides of the leaves, because that is where mite and aphid live and a spray over the top of the plant misses all of them.
3. Wear gloves, keep it off your skin, and wash your hands afterwards.
4. Do not spray on a windy day. The drift goes onto whatever is next to the tomatoes.
5. Keep kids and pets out of the patch until everything is dry.
6. Store it locked away and out of reach, with the label still on the bottle.

And the cheapest control of the lot costs nothing. Space the plants so air moves through them, water at the base rather than over the leaves, water in the morning so foliage dries off during the day, and do not plant tomatoes in the same bed year after year. Most of the fungal trouble in a home patch comes from wet leaves and crowded plants, and you can fix both without buying anything.

Shop related products

• David Grays Tomato Dust 3 in 1. Insecticide, miticide and fungicide in one, as a dust.
• Brunnings White Oil RTU 1L. For scale and aphid, and a gentler first step than a 3 in 1.
• Multicrop EcoPest Oil Insect Spray. Another oil based option for soft bodied pests.
• Manutec Tomato Tablets 20g. Feeding, for a plant that needs strength rather than spraying.

Did you know we also stock tomato and vegetable dust, garden gloves and pump sprayers in the shop. They're not all on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

The rest of the pest control range is online, along with the wider garden range, and there's more of it again in our garden centre. We deliver Tuesdays and Thursdays on anything bought from us, $5 around Strathalbyn and $10 on the regional run. Local delivery.

Read next

• Why your tomatoes are struggling, and how to fix it
• Blue banded bees, and why your tomatoes need them
• Growing tomatoes in summer heat, five mistakes to avoid

I read labels for a living and I still squint at the withholding period like it is going to change.

Candeece

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