I was taking a few pictures of this years first batch of seedlings when i saw something worrying…
..what caught my eye is the dark lumps on the under sides of the leaves. Aphids.
Unfortunately when growing chillies, battling aphids seems to become an annual battle. I’ve explained before about my regular 4 point plan against aphids however this early in the year none of these options is viable as the seedlings are inside 24/7 so encouraging natural predators or deterrents aren’t really an option.
The only way to battle aphids indoors is to manually remove them and/or spray them. You need to be very careful when removing the aphids form young seedlings like these. I do this carefully using jus my finger tips.
Unfortunately when you remove aphids manually, they will almost have certainly already laid their eggs. As a result you’ll need to keep rechecking the plants every few days to make sure you catch the young as they hatch. It may take a few weeks to fully get rid of an infestation like this however persistance is the only way to succeed.
In addition to manually removng the aphids I also spray them with an organic pesticide – just to be sure the spray you use is safe to use with edible plants.
