How's your garden...I got a problem... (Raton: organic, moving) - New Mexico (NM) - City-Data Forum

Hunter Wold · 05-12-2009, 08:04 PM

IN my smaller garden area...12x12 and double fenced etc. I planted a couple peppers and a couple really nice 10" tall tomatoes. I covered them and there was about 1" open at the bottom of the bucket over the tomatoes.

checked them today...and

chewed off at the bottom of the stock.
Happened last year also...I even put fine netting over them...

But again tomatoes gone...??

Maybe I need rat traps, or ??? no signs of diggin....
I don't trust those digger squirrels,,,no signs of moles, gopher either..hmmm.

Anyway...I also have about 8 pans of seedlings in the barn ready to go outside as soon as I think no frost...and the big garden has onion sets, radish, carrots, and green onions in..Also 4 watermelon plants...that area really covered....

I also put down
Blood meal in the soil and also bone meal....

think I need something stronger for the pests...although I try and be organic as possible.

HW standing guard on the garden...

Cathy4017 · 05-12-2009, 08:15 PM

Got cutworms? They'll do that to both peppers and tomatoes.

I sprinkled diatomaceous earth and corn meal around my newly planted tomatoes/chiles...as well as wrapping the stalks in newspaper.

But I don't have to do that here, since they aren't ground plants.

chilegal · 05-13-2009, 06:30 AM

Kent said sounds like cutworms.. Kathy has it right.. follow her advice.

Vinegaroon · 05-13-2009, 08:20 AM

Probably is cutworms....container gardening is better for tomatoes IMO

mortimer · 05-13-2009, 08:36 AM

Last year, we discovered Green Hornworms. Same thing?

It completely stripped a tomato plant.

The plant later recovered and produced more tomatos.

Cathy4017 · 05-13-2009, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mortimer

Last year, we discovered Green Hornworms. Same thing?

It completely stripped a tomato plant.

The plant later recovered and produced more tomatos.

No. Entirely different varmints. Cutworms are dark gray/brown and burrow in the soil. They shear the plant off close to ground level, and that's all she wrote.

Tomato hornworms hatch from eggs laid on the plant by a moth.

I've had plants recover if they weren't completely stripped, but if the plant has too much damage, it sometimes doesn't come back.

I check the plants a couple of times a day for both egg cases and worms, pick them off with tongs (I can't STAND their scratchy

feet)....drop in a bucket of water...then go pour them out on the front driveway for the birds.

They're gone in short order!

It's also fun to pick them off, then toss them high in the air...and seeing them SPLAT!!!! on the pavement. Birds eat those, too! All that nice protein.

mcol · 05-13-2009, 07:50 PM

LOL - I raised many a tomato plant in Raton, but only saw hornworms
after moving here to Missouri. YUCK! I put on a pair of gloves,
get REALLY big pliers out of the garage, have a bucket of water handy,
and pluck those suckers off and right into the bucket they go.
Sometimes I squeeze too tightly and their green guts spew out - blech.
After 3 or 4 days and I am sure they're dead because they turn brown

I then empty the bucket in a far off place away from where I walk.

SW Native · 05-13-2009, 11:20 PM

My garden SUCKS! Everything is dying. Literally. I water them but still. I'm so frustrated. I think what's doing it is the iron sulfate the guy from the nursery had me add to it last fall. I also amended the soil with mushroom compost and peat moss. I think I added too much iron sulfate and the soil is acidic or something. In the front yard, I planted a bunch of shrubs and they are all doing great. I amended the soil though sans the iron sulfate. I'm getting a soil sample kit this weekend to see whats going on.