Neem oil is 100% organic and kills mites. I'd definitly use that over sulfur.

It isn't terrible. Sulphur kills fungi without discrimination between good and bad types which is the problem with it.

As far as I know sulphur doesn't kill beneficials like lady bugs, it is mainly the soil fungi that are at risk, particularly when plants are sprayed 'to run off'. It runs off into the soil.

For mites you can try insecticidal soaps and neem oil sprays. However, neither are without their potential drawbacks to beneficial life either.

I honestly had never heard of sulphur as a miticide before.

Anyway, if it worked for you that is the important thing. Sometimes using a product that is only marginally effective many times rather than something highly effective once is worse for the non target critters.

You may wish to examine your growing practices for tomatos just to be sure there isn't something you are doing or not doing in regards to their care that makes mite infestations more likely.

Certainly I am not saying you are doing anything at all wrong, I am just saying that often a pest infestation can be avoided and to the extent we continually examine our techniques and tweak it here and there we can better avoid problems. Often, but not always.

Most everything you would use to control pests is a broad spectrum poison, insecticidal soap will kill everything it touches but it is very short term for that affect. Bacillus thurigiensis sprays will indescriminently kill any insect larva that ingests it but since it is usually only ingested by those that damage leaves it is considered okay to use.
Wettable sulfur is an acceptable organic psticide, and fungicide, if use with due care necause it is a broad spectrum poison. Wettable sulfur can be toxic to you too so use proper precautions when you do use it.
Spider mites can be fairly easily controlled by increasing the humidity around the affected plants. Spider mite populations increase mostly because of arid conditions which cause the mites to drinl more of the plants sap which is an aphrodisiac to them and cause them to mate more which produces more spider mites.

Down here the use of liquid seaweed, 2 ounces per gallon, as a foliar spray, every 2 weeks, is recommended all the time.

For what reason, dchall?

I mean what is special about liquid seeweed over the myriad other things?

Just curious.

We're still talking about spider mites, right? Seaweed is used because it is a food for microbes. There are layers of invisible microbes living on the surface of the plants. It is well known that certain chemicals gassed onto the surface of plants cause the plants to activate certain self protection genes. It is not well established that seaweed works in the same way, but for whatever reason, the seaweed spray at 2-week intervals seems to keep the sucking insects away.

i thought neem oil was the best for killing and preventing spidermites

Interesting, thanks dchall.

Thanks for all the replies - I do use seaweed extract - like once every 3 weeks.

& our humidity here on the Gulf of Mexico is generally very high.

This is a new bed - I used bagged compost, alfalfa pellets (rabbit food) & cracked corn to prepare it.It is mulched w/ rotten hay & straw (another outside source).

I'm a bit suspicious of all 4 of the bed 'ingredients' - Lord knows what was in 'em = S
I'm pretty sure it should've sat longer before I planted it, but time was pressing & the tom.s did great until recently.

& I wonder whether there might also be a climate factor going on as well - our weather patterns have been becoming more & more extreme - drought, heat, tropical storms & hurricanes.I've never even seen red spider mites in all the years(10+) I've been gardening in this yard.

OTOH, all my brassicas (& fennel & beans) did beautifully this year w/ nary a pest in sight
= )

Neem works well for keeping the little nasties at bay if you use it on a regular basis.

I spray three times per week, rotating between neem, Organicide and Spinosad to keep the headaches to a minimum.

Unfortunately, none of the three seem to have any measurable effect on these red spider mites. Dusting Sulfur has been the solution for me. I haven't used it in the backpack sprayer yet but, dusting the grape tomatoes nearly knocks out the mites in one application.

It's a bit of a catch 22, though. Because, after you apply the sulfur, you have to wait three weeks before resuming any of the oil-based insecticides. Giving them time to recover. However, when their population grows out of control and they threaten the rest of your crops, your options are limited.

So, ABC, why do you have to spray so often? What is the problem that requires that much spraying? What is wrong with your gardening practices?

kimmq is kimmsr

"So, ABC, why do you have to spray so often? What is the problem that requires that much spraying? What is wrong with your gardening practices?"

Well, my guess would be the rate of application of the three broad spectrum pesticides themselves are the reason ABC has to spray so often. He/She (sorry, I don't know which pronoun to use) has completely wiped out any beneficials that would help control the pest population.

Rodney

The beneficials that we use (ladybugs) do a good job keeping aphids at bay. I guess the spider mites just aren't as tasty. I've even gone so far as to let a small population of mites grow to try and entice them to stay and eat. They just don't seem interested.

The ladybugs are resilient against the oils we use. I've tried cutting down on the frequency of insecticide application but, we ended up with thrips and fungus issues. The client wasn't too happy when we nearly sacrificed an entire crop of high-dollar seed and seedlings trying to save a buck on insecticide.

So, until we find something that can play nice with the ladybugs and eats mites like candy, we have to continue our high frequency applications.

What is the soil these plants are growing in like?

Are those plant getting adequate amounts of nutrients?

Plants growing in an organic garden that has a good healthy soil will not need pesticide applications that often. That these plants do says the soil need to be looked at.

kimmq is kimmsr