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This year is the third season of my front yard vegetable garden and I’m having the best fall tomato harvest thus far!  Lot’s of material for salsa and gazpacho.  The key has been the discovery  that spider mites are basically decimating the central Oklahoma tomato crop.  For the last 2 years I have thought that it was some kind of disease killing my plants like blight or something but after looking at the leaves under a microscope and taking a  sample to the local extension office I found the real culprit.  Regular applications of a Pyrethrin (a plant based insecticide derived from pyrethrum Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium) based spray as much as twice a week seems to do the trick of controlling these little devils.  It’s a bit costly and laborious but I haven’t found any other good way to handle it.  Hopefully as the soil fertility increases, my plants will become more resistant to the mites.  Two varieties that seemed to show more natural resistance this year were: Cherokee Purple (one of the tastiest purple slicers) and Costaluto Genovese (an ugly looking but tasty Italian variety).  Below are some photos of various recent specimens.  The strange thing about the spider mite problem is that not many gardeners here seem to know about it and they therefore tend to attribute the death of their Tomato plants to heat.  Consider this a public service announcement to those in central Oklahoma.  Beware the spider mite!