Any suggestions to prevent this. Thanks for your help. Bernice Bernice - I believe that your idea may work fine as long as the root system doesn't get too cramped. It should be ok as long as the plants aren't real large. The whitefly predators don't usually help much unless you are in a very controlled environment and even then I haven't seen much success.
Whiteflies are very difficult to get rid of, but with some persistence it can be done.
They are all organic and safe for humans. Safer's makes a couple of products that I would recommend, Safer's Insecticide soap and Safer's Bio-Neem which contains Neem oil. We also sell a product called Exclude which is an aerosol that is made of natural Pyrethrum which is a extract made from chrysanthemums. All the above products are organic and can be applied up to the day of harvest. The most important thing to remember is that the treatment is a contact killer so it needs to be done once a week for three to five weeks, otherwise new bugs will hatch out and the problem returns.