
Aphids on Tobacco plants is common problem. These sap sucking little bugs can make huge damage to the tobacco leave crop. And even if you still have large amount of tobacco leave harvested, the quality of dry leaves is lower if they are covered with dead aphids and their excrement.
If you decided to grow your own - all organic, no chemicals - tobacco, then unfortunately there is almost no ways to get rid of aphids naturally.
Yes there are natural predators who feed on aphids (ladybugs, wasps, crab spiders to name a few), but in most cases aphids overpopulate those predators by large, so you cannot rely on them to clean up your plants.
However there is a crazy simple method to control aphids on your tobacco plants, that I am about to share. I have to warn you that this method only works on your own small tobacco plantation, i.e. it will make no sense to use it on large fields, you will see why.
The method is called "wash them off!". It is based on the known fact that once the bugs are washed off the plant - they will not be able to find the way back. Aphids are mostly wingless, so they cannot fly back (only females in certain stage have wings for short period of time), and they can only crawl green leaves - not the ground!
As simple as it sounds, you will literally take a garden hose, turn on the water and use powerful stream to wash these nasty bags off the plant. Yes it is leaf-by-leaf, it will take some time and some repetition. But think about it this way: you are only allowed to grow tobacco in restricted quantities - by the law. How many plants? Maybe 20-50...not 10-acre field, right? So it's doable!
AND the most satisfying reason to go for this method - it does not involve any chemicals nor soap that otherwise can inevitably get into your smoking tobacco if you used them.
First time you wash the large amount of bugs, then come back after a day or too and wash again.
Even after the very first wash you will notice a relief that plants will feel right away.
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