WARM WEATHER ATTRACTS APHIDS

High temperatures and humidity for an extended period of time create the perfect conditions for aphids and mildew quality issues. This week temperatures in the California desert regions moved into the 70’s and low 80’s and all desert vendors are seeing increasing mildew and aphid pressure on warm veg items including Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale and Lettuce. We are seeing lettuce hit especially hard and most growers have stopped harvesting leafy lettuce until they complete the transition back up north to Watsonville/Salinas. Aphids love the heat and humidity, and it is almost impossible to control organically. We see this happen with organic produce every year when it gets too hot in March in the California desert and again during the warm summer months in the Salinas Valley.

Organic growers do their best to combat aphids. We asked a few of our growers what they do to control aphids. Lakeside Organics uses a lot of beneficial predatory bugs like lady bugs who love to eat Aphids. Josie’s Organics plants beneficial flowers to attract good bugs to mitigate pressure from unwanted bugs (in this case, aphids) and implements a healthy crop rotation. Many growers, especially strawberry growers, use a bug vacuum designed to suck up the aphids right out of their fields.