Does anyone know if the white maggots we get in our tomato fruit are specific to NSW? I'm checking around various tomato disease posts and sites and don't see anything that looks exactly like these awful little things.

They're white and are very similar to housefly maggots. They enter the fruit through a tiny hole, while its still green, and bore around inside.

I'm of course also interested in organic control methods. Can healthy plants resist these larva? Is a greenhouse my only option?

Thanks,

~Greg Bell

Tons of trials and tribulations with these darn things!

yep ya can't get rid of them because not all gardeners have good husbandry in their fruit gardens so they is a fact of life from that end.

but with good managment in your agrden you will control them i ahve lots of ideas on my ermedies page at my site, i use them all or any as i need to, the sicks are my main control and i run them all year buying and putting in a new wick every 3 months and leave the older ones there they are still wortking.

now don't expect overnight results you have the problem which is currently uncontrolled so it may take a season or 2 to get on top of it and when you do keep up the program. remember all damaged fruit has to be destroyed or dumped off site. they can be destroyed by cooking (freezing doesn't work), so put all damaged fruit in a black plastic bag in full sun for a couple of days should do it that cooked pulp can then be used as bury mulch in the gardens.

i had a neighbour who had a common guava a very good host plant for the fly, so when it fruited i made arrangements for me to go collect all the fruit from the tree and dispose of it that helped heaps, if you have neighours with mango's the same deal hey?

it takes a concerted effort but you will win, and remember because the fruit has some fly damge doesn't mean you can't use some of it, and as a few people i know say it is only extra protein anyway, and if you are cooking it in some way you will never know.

the problem simply won't go away, you have to make it go away.

oh mm we are in brissy now very busy trying to find new home but if you are near the d'bay area yell out we will get down your way sometime soon i'd say.

len

I suppose if you've got heaps to time to try other methods, go for it, but I couldn't be bothered. I've almost given up growing tomatoes in Sydney in summer - apart from other things it's so hot the plants are getting fried. In fact we don't grow any veg much at this time of the year, we restrict it to the cooler months.

Perhaps you could give that a try.

fruit fly traps not only show me they are there but they also control the fly so we don't get to eat any systemic chemical residue in the fruit and fruit fly can sting the developing fruit long before it begins to ripen.

and as popi says nothing wrong with growing a good cherry or grape or pear tomato they are all but impervious to bug attacks.

and i use the management program i suggest and it works nothing is perfect not even spraying, and for me sharing a piece of fruit with some fruit fly larva is far more palatable to eating chemical residue, how i see it. oh and doesn't pay to put the traps where the fruiting plants are put them away to the windward side a bit.

len

you don't say if the unaffected plants are also cherry tomatoes?

if you get a program of fruit fly management going now and keep the wicks going all through winter along with destroy the affected fruit or getting it off site you are going to get good control, in the 'burbs of course you have to contend with the management skills or lack of skills of other gardeners.

just thinking if the tomaotes that did well are the ordinary type then maybe the cherry acted as a companion plant?

with systemic sprays they aren't killing the fly they may on the day of spraying but not there after for me by killing the larva you aren't getting complete control or sprayless control so either way management or husbandry is going to paramount.

len

It's a bit disheartening because spring plantings attract fruit fly, but frosty winter nights here in Ipswich mean I can't plant tomatoes (and other susceptible plants) in autumn either. Not out in the ground, at any rate.

If you plant them any itme but Spring - Summer any tomato should be OK. ...MM.

I have huge delicious tomatoes coming in hand over fist. A few are in this thread...

http://www.au.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0201302810487.html?5

Last year was shocking for fruit fly. This year I started with a few but there are bugger all now.

Len makes a very salient point. Husbandry. You have to start by removing all spent fruit from your property and never ever putting fruit in the compost pile.

I spray at first light with concentrated pyrethrum 20ml/ltr, which is organic, and try and get spray under the green collar (forgotten the name) at the top of the fruit, where the blighters will attack if pyrethrum is covering the rest of the fruit.

I appear to have erradicated a very severe problem in the space of 12 months. I am awash with tomatoes of all shapes, colours and sizes. In fact, this is going down as one of my best tomato seasons ever in Sydney. Extra-large fruit this year. Even golf-ball sized ones aremore like tennis balls.

If you have fruit trees on your property you might have your work cut out. But don't give up on growing tomatoes in Sydney or anywhere else for that matter.

I beat my other big problem - birds - by collecting all the spare caps I could and attaching the velcro tabs around the tomato stems so the cap or two facing caps cover the ripening tomatoes. Works like a charm. And your plants look like they are enjoying major sponsorship ;)

Start on your fruit fly problem now for next season. It won't happpen overnight but it will happen.

And make sure you get your plants in the ground in early Autumn so they set fruit before the height of summer, which fries the flowers. But even then I have had excellent fruitset through summer by shaking branches on the sub-30C days and feeding with a bloom booster so there are always flowers ready to open after those that have been fried on the hot days.

Good growing, Grub. And feel free to email me for some seeds for great varieties that can handle a bit of heat :)

Just a quick follow-up... my tomatoes coming in at this stage (mid March) are NOT being infected by the fruit fly maggots. These are romas, I believe. I didn't do much to control the issue (hadn't yet read about 'cultural controls' here before I pitched the bad fruit into an unused area of my garden).

So, I chalk the disappearance of the fruit fly up to the slightly cooler weather.

~gb