mgpaquin According to this site, the tomato yellow leaf curl virus does not survive in soil. I'd do some more research to make sure that's what all the research says. I also found the site linked below that describes an odiferous "invention" to repel whiteflies using fermented eggshells and eggwhites as the ingredients. It sounds pretty smelly, if you know what rotten eggs smell like! Here's the process described in the link. I don't know if it could be reproduced by home gardeners or not, since the information given appears to comprise some sort of formula that someone wants to take commercial. I'm also not sure if you're supposed to spray the plants with the resulting smelly mess or water the soil with it. The author says the plants themselves begin to smell of sulfur and thereby whiteflies are repelled, so I concluded the soil around the plants should be watered with it. Yet, in another place the author mentions "placing" it on leaf surfaces. If the plants smell like sulfur, I suppose any fruit would taste like sulfur, and nobody wants tomatoes to taste like that, but who knows? Maybe one tomato plant in a container could be sacrificed as a test! ===== There are many parts of an egg including the albumen or egg white. Typically, the albumen accounts for about sixty-seven percent of an egg's weight. The albumen contains more than half of the egg's total protein, minerals and vitamins. The albumen contains protein, niacin, riboflavin, chlorine, magnesium, potassium, sodium and sulfur. The pest repellant is produced by fermenting eggshells with a portion of the albumen attached thereto. Fermentation is the chemical process that breaks down organic materials. The process is carried out by bacteria, molds and yeasts that are present in the air. It is believed that the fermentation process liberates sulfur from sulfates and sulfides present in the amino acids of the eggshells and albumen. A chemical analysis of chicken eggs was undertaken and the following results were yielded. One-hundred grams of fresh chicken eggs contains approximately 70.83 g of water, 12.14 g of protein and 11.15 g of lipids. Minerals present in the eggs were as follows: 56 mg of C, 2.09 mg of Fe, 12 mg of Mg, 180 mg of P, 130 mg of K, 138 mg of Na and 1.44 mg of Zn. Vitamins included in the fresh eggs were as follows 0.087 mg of Thiamin, 0.301 mg of Riboflavin, 0.062 mg of Niacin, 0.120 mg of B6, 1.547 mg of B12 and 520 IU of A. The chicken eggs also included amino acids in the approximate quantities: 0.820 g of Lysine, 0.392 g of Methionine, 0.289 g of Cystine, 0.596 g of Threonine, 0.759 g of Isoleucine and 0.686 g of Phenylalanine. Methionine and Cystine both include sulfur. Methionine is represented by the following structural formula. ##STR2## Cystine is represented by the following structural formula. ##STR3## Since the eggshells and albumen contain amino acids that comprise sulfur, sulfur dioxide is created during the fermentation process. Sulfur dioxide is a colorless gas with a distinctive odor. The sulfur dioxide contributes to repelling the pests as it is placed on the leaf surfaces of the plant. The plants also absorb the sulfur present in the mixture of eggshells and albumen and give off a sulfur smell that repels pests. Another important element in the pest repellent is sulfide. Sulfide is a chemical compound that contains sulfur and another element. All sulfides contain the sulfide ion, a single sulfur atom with an electrical charge of -2. Sulfide ions are present in some proteins which make up living things. Since eggs are high in proteins, sulfide is present in them. During the manufacturing process of the pest repellent sulfur from the sulfide is liberated by the fermentation process. The best contemplated process for producing the pest repellant, involves collecting eggshells with part of the albumen attached thereto. The eggshells are placed into a metal or plastic container with warm or hot water. Over a period of time, the water coupled with bacteria and other fermenting agents dissolve the eggshells and cause them to decompose and liquefy. The mixture of water, eggshells and albumen are allowed to ferment for a period of time. Typically, the mixture ferments for at least twelve days. Heat may be introduced into the curing time to increase the fermentation process and cause chemical bonds to be broken thereby more quickly liberating sulfur. Likewise, the mixture may be stirred occasionally to increase the fermentation process. Typically, the mixture is tested using a hydrogen sulfide test kit to determine whether it is ready to be applied to plants. The mixture is ready for use as a pest repellant when the hydrogen sulfide is present in at least an amount of 0.424 mg/I. The mixture is then strained to remove visible or non-liquid particles. Silt sized particles may remain in the mixture due to the calcium in the shells. Typically, the calcium carbonate of the egg shells does not breakdown entirely leaving silt sized particles which may be filtered from the mixture. In the preferred embodiment, the silt sized particles are left in the mixture and are applied at the base of the plant adding nutritional value to the mixture. The preferable ratios of chemical compounds in the mixture are 250 ml of H2 O to 24.3 g of CaCO3 to 1.060-5 g of H2 S. The following is the structural formula for the pest repellant. ##STR4## The following are examples of the effectiveness of the pest repellant mixture. EXAMPLE 1 A mixture of hydrogen sulfide and calcium suspended in water, as mentioned above, was applied to a poinsettia plant. The poinsettia plant was placed near a gardenia bush that was infested with white flies. The poinsettia plant was monitored and visually inspected bi-weekly for approximately five months during warm weather. Visual inspections of the poinsettia plant revealed no white flies, larvae or white fly eggs present on the leaves of the poinsettia plant. The plant remained healthy and productive with blossoms and leaves of deep color. EXAMPLE 2 A gardenia bush that was infested with white flies operated as a control. White flies were visibly present on the leave surface of the gardenia bush. A second gardenia bush was placed within approximately a foot of the control. The second gardenia bush was treated twice a month with a mixture containing 0.424 mg/l of H2 S as mentioned above. Visual inspections of the gardenia bushes were conducted over a four-month period of time. While the control remained infested with white flies, no white flies were present during the visual inspections on the second gardenia bush. Further, neither larvae nor white fly eggs were found on the underside surface of the leaf. The second gardenia bush remained healthy and did not become infested with the white flies. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact construction illustrated and described above, but that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims. Here is a link that might be useful: Patent application

I think we may be able to now call NYC a Z7. I suggest you try some of Prarie Meadow Nurseries no mow grass mix. A landscape contractor bought some trees from me and used it and says it's worked very well. Dicots tend to encourage tarnished plant bugs and stink bugs which can really damage fruit. Grasses are considered better by most orchardists. If you plan to apply insecticide don't put anything under them that blooms within 30 days of petal fall.

I am in agreement with comments above... the single most important thing you can do to reduce pests, in my opinion, is provide healthy soil. It is not often mentioned that most plants _do_ have defenses of their own; what we consider to be "flavors" are often chemical defenses against insects. Provided that the plants are healthy enough for those defenses to be effective, they can often fend for themselves. Cucumber beetles, for example, are attracted to compounds given off by plants under stress. This could be caused by disease, inadequate water, or previous attack by other insects - such as squash bugs. Given a high organic matter, pH-balanced soil with good drainage & adequate water, plants are healthier & less attractive to the beetles. While there may still be some present, their population is considerably smaller. The second thing, as mentioned by Lacyvail, is to create (or at least not discourage) a local ecosystem that encourages beneficial insects. It has often been mentioned by those who purchase those insects, that it's hard to keep them around. To do so, you need to provide a food supply for all points in their life cycle. A wide range of flowers, with long or overlapping blooming periods, is helpful. In addition to perennials _near_ your vegetable garden, plant annuals _in_ the garden. And for the larvae - which represent your true resident population - you might need to learn to tolerate enough of an aphid population to sustain them. If you are accustomed to killing off your aphids early, you might be inadvertently destroying the next generation of ladybugs & lacewings as well. For severe infestations, it might be more effective to go after the ants (which usually spread the aphids) rather than the aphids themselves. There may be some truth to companion planting; I rotate all of my vegetables each year, and have noted some good combinations (such as beans & Swiss chard). There are also some plants that don't play well with others, such as okra. If your garden is high-intensive/high-density, then it is more important to know which plants _do not_ grow well together, than it would be with conventional methods. But I think that for the most part, the issue is not which plants grow with which - it is to grow as wide a range of small plantings as possible, as opposed to large blocks. Large blocks of anything (mono cropping) promote the easy spread of insects or disease, and provide a stronger scent trail for flying insects to follow. When I began saving seeds seriously, it forced me to alter the way that I gardened. If I wanted pure seed, I had to provide space & barriers between different varieties. This meant that my beans & tomatoes, for instance, could no longer be grown together in one place, but were spaced out in different "cells" throughout the garden. In any form of experimentation, there are often unexpected results... and in this case, the fringe-benefit was an enormous reduction in insect damage. This is not to say that I have no damage - only that it has been reduced to the point of being (usually) tolerable. One last note... to encourage greater soil fertility, about 10 years ago I began to leave clover alone when weeding. I would still pull it out if it was directly in a row, but in paths & between rows was OK. After years of this, I now get a good stand of clover in the garden. When rabbits get in (as they always do) they prefer the clover in the paths to almost all of the vegetables. I guess that makes it a "trap crop" for rabbits. ;-) Only when I began to grow soybeans did I find something they like even better (and "like" is an understatement).

Air movement around plants, watering the soil rather than overhead/spray irrigation, and preventing soil splash is important in problem areas. Keeping the leaves dry by watering closer to the soil and having enough air movement in/around plants to get them dry after a moisture event helps a lot. In some climates you can't pack toms in because the lack of air movement along with the plant's transpiration keeping it humid around the plants creates an non-ideal climate for keeping disease from setting up shop (especially molds/fungi). Intercropping different kinds of crops can help, but I'd make sure spacing, air movement, and watering issues are taken care of first...if it's even a problem.