My beautiful broccoli transplants looked great, and I lost 1/3, nearest the edge of the plot, in one night. My initial thought is cutworm as they are cut off near the ground, and nothing else is touched. Going to put down chicken manure and leaves or make some bait for them tonight. A mockingbird may have eliminated the problem already, I only lost between 7 and 10 plants out of about 40, so it obviously isn't too bad, but any suggestions are appreciated. I'm using the book Organic Plant Protection from Rodale Press for ideas
Those include, eggshell bits around the plants covered with a thin layer of dirt, ashes watered to harden the soil, chickenmanure and leaves around the plants,and a toothpick next to the stem,
or maybe the toothpick and a bait made of hardwood sawdust, wheat bran and molasses applied at night. it sticks to them so they can't burrow in the morning and the birds get them.
I need to cut up some firewood anyway. They don't like pine sawdust, it repels them. This is looking like a lot of work but I got almost no veggies this year except peppers and zucchini
cutworm / fall army worm?
Push a small stick into the soil right at the base of the stem, so that the stick stands right by the stem while touching the it. This keeps the cut worm from wrapping itself around the stem and chewing it.
I put one stick on each side of the stem and it works great.
I did toothpicks just now (I lost all of my cucumber and bean starts in this bed to cutworms this summer using slit drinking straws that failed)
I also did crushed eggshells around the plant base and a liberal amount of semi composted oakleaves on top. I will be making the bait. I lost all but one bean plant, total harvest of 3 beans, and I sort of got half of a cucumber, really small and funny looking, owing to these little monsters. The big roma tomatoes lived, but did not produce much fruit even though they bloomed. Maybe the eggshell calcium is also needed?
The easiest remedy is to wrap a bottomless Dixie Cup around the seedling after planting OR use larger cups with the bottoms cut out and plant inside the cup. Either way, the cup should extend about 1/2" to 1" into the soil around the plant base and stick up perhaps 3-4" (or possibly more if you use large cups) above the soil line. With no bottom, the roots will grow normally into the soil base but the cup will deter cutworms which usually do their damage within 1-2" above the soil line. Old remedy but works wonderfully...
Steve
given the size of my broccolis and the sheer number - I've got over 30 out there, I settled for sprinkled crumbled eggshells topped by sprinkled partly composted oak leaves, with a tooth pick or twig next to each.
And after dark I put out the bait I made for the cutworms. Just molasses,wheat bran and oak sawdust, supposed to stick to their bodies and keep them from burrowing in the morning so the birds get them.
Mockingbird was out there yesterday morning, all my efforts MIGHT have been unnecessary. But I did not lose more plants last night, they look good this morning. Don't see any worms in the bait, still see the bait. time will tell. I lost almost everything I planted in this area this year, strawberries lived, large roma tomatoes lived, but the rest died and died and the roly polies got the blame. this time it was clearly fresh cutworm I think, since armyworms would have eaten more of the plants they cut. Photo shows my romas, with strawberries in the back, taken in August. But many cucumbers and beans in the middle all were eaten as soon as they came up.
I see one cucumber vine in the pic, it never produced much. Broccoli is where the romas are, and all the way up to the roses on the fence.
This message was edited Oct 29, 2013 9:36 AM
