Gauteng Smallholder December/ January 2018 | Page 37

IN THE GARDEN
How to manage your tomato plants
T
tomato is “xitomatl,” which
means “plump fruit with a
navel.”
Sometimes the tomato plants
in our gardens get so large
and so unwieldy that we
begin to wonder if we should
prune them. Some people firmly believe
that pruning tomato suckers
improves the production and
health of a plant. Others
claim that pruning tomato
suckers damages the plant
unnecessarily, opens the plant
to disease and does nothing
attracted to areas with lots of
to consume their prey.
prey species. They will feed
After about two weeks of
on aphids and other soft-
continuous feeding, the larva bodie d insects such as mites,
spins a silken, pearl-sized
scale, leafhoppers, thrips and
cocoon on the underside of a mealy bugs, as well as spider
leaf and remains in the pupal larvae, insect eggs and
case for approximately two
caterpillars.
weeks before emerging as an The larvae are voracious,
adult.
attacking other insects of
Some of the adults of this
suitable size, especially soft-
family of insects live on nectar bodied ones, other insect
or pollen and it is the larvae
larvae and insect eggs. When
that are voracious hunters.
they touch a potential prey
object, the larvae grasp it.
As with many other pest
Their upper jaws are hollow
predators, they will be
and inject a digestive secretion into the prey. The
organs of an aphid can be
dissolved by this in 90
seconds.
Some lacewing larvae hold
debris (including the bodies
of their victims) on their backs
with hooks or bristles. This
camouflage allows the
lacewing larva to surprise its
victims and also protects it
from enemies.
Thus lacewings play an
important role in maintaining
the balance of bio-diversity
on our plots.
omatoes originated in
the Andes, in what is
now called Peru,
Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador ~
where they grew wild. They
were first cultivated by the
Aztecs and Incas as early as
700 AD. The Aztec word for
From page 33
INSECTS
35
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to help the plant.
So the choice is yours.
However, you should only
prune indeterminate varieties,
which produce new leaves
and flowers continuously
through the growing season.
Indeterminate plants need
extra-tall supports of at least
1,5 m. Because indetermi-
nate varieties throw out so
many shoots, gardeners often
prune them for optimum-
sized fruit or train them on a
very tall trellis.
Continued on page 37