Hi! newbie here and I am hoping someone can help!? I planted Basil & Parsly seeds and placed on my windowsill. Soon I had sprouting and then I noticed alot of tiny black fruit flies all around them. I tried spraying with an organic insecticide but it seems that my plants have totally stopped growing. It's been weeks with no growth...is that normal? I have now palced them outside as I am going nuts with all the flies in the house! Second problem is with my cucumber and radish seeds. They too have problems...first it was too much sun, so I covered them from the mid day sun and they did better, then I noticed that they had tiny holes on all the leaves and also were NOT growing after the intial spurt. Now today I went to spray with organic insecticide and this time armed with a magnifying glass I looked under the leaves to discover thousands of tiny white specs (looks like tiny grains of rice) all over the under leaves and stems, and after watching closely noticed that some were actually moving....ewww...does anyone know WHAT these are and how I can get rid of them? Should I remove these plants and start again? Since I am so new to this gardening thing I would very much appreciate any help!! TIA!!!

I don't know what area of the country you live in, but normally there is no such thing as "too much sun" for cucumbers & radishes.

What are your other culture practices? Like - what kind of soil are they growing in, how much sunlight do they get per day, how closely are the planted, etc., etc.

As far as your herbs - both Basil & Parsley should be grown outdoors this time of year. They're both uber easy that way. Indoors they need LOTS of direct sunlight to do well, & even then it's marginal compared to outdoors. The only time I even attempt to keep these two indoors is during the winter months - & even then it can be a challenge. As far as what "black flies" are invading your indoor plants, I'd venture a guess that they're Fungus Gnats - meaning that you're probably overwatering.

But again - without knowing where you live or what your garden looks like, it's difficult to help you.

Thanks BreezyGardner for your reply! I live in SoCal and have very direct hot and arrid sun during these months. I have my plants in containers that I can move around the yard and cover them from the hottest part of day. It seemed they would just wilt if no cover was provided. Once covered, they popped right back to life. I planted them in a mixed soil purchashed at my local nursery and given vitamin B to add to the water after planting. Our plants are in rows in movable trays that we can move around the yard to get them the best conditions. Basiclly they get full sunlight all day. As for the basil & parsley...the weird thing is I have always started them in the house before moving outside, but this time these bugs have invaded before they were even ready to move outside. The little fruit flies have been such a pain to deal with. Tried squirting them down with soap and incesticides with no luck. They are still flying around my PC while I type eventhough I have already brought the plants outside this morning.

My biggest concern is the cucumbrs and radishes having all those distgusting little rice like bugs on the under leaves, the are in a container garden, mixed soil with viatimins and kept from the scorching hot heat. Hope that helps by knowing a little more about our garden situation? I'm so confused!!
P.S. I was watering EVERYDAY!

Hmmm - I can only guess for you as I'm definitely not up on west coast weather & pest specifics.

As far as the herbs, starting them indoors isn't a problem. I start most of mine indoors too. It's just best to transplant them outside as soon as they're ready. And Fungus Gnats are a well-known pest of indoor plants, so you definitely may be overwatering them indoors. With your outdoor containers in your heat, however, you probably do have to water them every day. Heck, I have to water my outdoor containers here in VA at least every other day if we don't get rain, & it's certainly not as hot as where you are.

As for the rice-like pests, I'm stymied. The only pests I've seen go for radish leaves have been cabbage moth larvae, which are definitely caterpillars, & aphids, which can appear "rice-like" I guess - but they do have legs. Can you describe them a little more?

Also, did the nursery say why you have to add vitamins to the water? I've never heard of that before.

Hi Breezy,
I checked under the leaves again using my trusted magnifier ( I refuse to admit I need glasses ) and did see little teeny tiny bugs with legs that were almost transparent looking, actually a little lighter white color than the "rice". They don't look like catapillers, they actually look more like ticks (round body) and I have no idea what aphids are or look like

I just don't know if I shoud start over since these are so infested? Would they still be safe to eat if they did harvest?

The guy at the nursey said that the Vitamin B added to the soil was an excellent source of nourishment for the container soil, since most were not planted in the ground.

Since I am new to vegetable gardening I always appreciate any advice and thank you so much for yours!

Now I have to look up cabbage moth larvae to see if I can see any photos...

Thanks again!!

Definitely sounds like aphids to me. Here's a link to a pic, but keep in mind that while the aphids in this pic are green, aphids come in all sorts of colors: white, cream, orange, red, etc., etc. But at least this gives you an idea of shape & size:

Aphids

I did some looking around re: your nurseryman's claim about the Vitamin B. Found nothing to substantiate it, but DID find one site that claims it's nothing but a garden myth, so you're probably wasting your money. Here's the site link:

Garden Myths

As far as cabbage worms, there are several didn't species produced by several different moths. However, the larvae all look pretty much the same - little green caterpillars, like inchworms. They are fairly pest-specific to the brassica family, so won't bother your cucumbers & are only rarely found on radishes.

As far as crop safety, neither of the above will make your veggies inedible, but you will have to get rid of the bugs to save the plants. For aphids I consistently & gently rinse them off with just plain water as much as possible, but for a bad infestation I've had excellent luck with the Safer insecticidal soap products.