Melon vines were looking ok, all of a sudden this tiny black stuff, looks like black dirt or poppy seeds showed up, now the leaves are gone and the same stuff is showing up in different areas of the garden. My watermelon plants have it, and now some of my cucumber plants!
Does anyone know what it is and how to get rid of it? Is there hope for my plants?
This message was edited May 22, 2009 8:48 AM
Here's a picture of the cucumbers
Hi, AuntBusy!
The black stuff is poop. Tomato hornworms as well as cabbage loopers (green inchworm looking caterpillars) will leave poop behind like that. Since it is most of your (different) plants, I would guess loopers. They can range from very small to very large in size. Where you see the droppings, look at the leaves above really well, especially on the undersides of the leaves. The loopers are hard to see, especially the little ones, as they are the color of the leaves. When you find them, pick them off and squish them.
Here is what they look like . . .
Kelly
Edited to say this - I am organic, thus the recommendation to pick and squish. There are chemical controls for the culprits, but that is not my area of expertise - lol. Maybe someone will chime in with a chemical solution if that is what you are looking for . . .
This message was edited May 22, 2009 8:58 AM
And here's the reason you have the caterpillars . . .
Yup, that's caterpillar poop! I think the mother moth flys at night - your best organic line of defense is bats! They love night flying moths! Black wasps will feed the caterpillars to their young.
Edited to correct spelling!
This message was edited May 22, 2009 12:31 PM
Thanks for the replies everyone. There is so much of it, I don't think I can control it organically. One evening you see this stuff next day the leaves are gone! I am embarrassed to say....I am also a wimp, don't think I could squash the caterpillars, have to find another solution, less graphic.
I have basically no gardening experience but read a lot.....so I thought I could do it, so far even though I have put a lot of work and money into it, nothing is looking great.
Started with no rain for 6 weeks, since I planted. Blight on the tomato plants next, rain the last 3 days and since the rains....now this stuff. I used all purchased growing medium "Jungle Grow" I think it was called for vegetables, at $7.00 per 2 c, but I might as well have used my own dirt. The pole beans, squash and zucchini plants since it rained are looking neon yellow....don't know what that is about! Maybe once it stops raining they will recover.
So far my gardening experience as been less then positive. Maybe will try again in the fall, ( I am in Zone 9B), if my plants don't recover, with the different weather conditions maybe I will do better then...
This message was edited May 22, 2009 12:04 PM
Any type of moth or buttrefly larva is easily controlled with Bt ( Dipel, Thuricide). It is on the approved list for organic growers.
AuntBusy - don't feel bad about being a wimp... You should see me finding bugs in the garden and then proceeding to scream as I throw them on the ground and step on them!! Keeps my kids (and husband) entertained to say the least - lol.
Farmerdill is on the money with the Bt. If I had to resort to something other than squish, that would be it. Thankfully I have had few issues this year with pests. I started my garden a little late and think I missed all the bad buggers because of it.
Here's a link with some info on Bt and similar products:
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/natural-pest-control-bt.html
The biggest thing is to not give up!! You will learn and have fun as time goes on. I know it sucks to see your hard work messed up, but there are some things we just can't control - like the weather. All the rain is probably causing the yellow you see on your plants and they should be OK once things dry out.
Like Phoenix, you can plant something pretty much year round. That will be good practice to see what works and what doesn't. Plus, there are some really smart cookies here at DG (like Farmerdill) who are very free with their good advice.
Good luck to you and keep us posted on your garden.
Kelly
A big thank you to Farmerdill and Locakelly, picturing you jumping on them bugs actually made me smile....it sounds just like me :-)
Thanks so much for your help and words of encouragement. I am not normally a person that gives up, but....you should see my pitiful garden. I only have 3 tomato plants, the first one looks almost balled, it had leaf miners early on and I started cutting off the leaves one at a time, it has 2 scrawny little tomatoes on it, the plant itself is kind yellowish with almost no leaves. My other 2 plants....the leaves started getting black and yellow spots, because my first plant ended up with almost no leaves.....I just let those 2 alone and prayed for the best. Mistake, it got worse and I came to find out it was Blight, the leaves ended up drying and falling off all on their own. My husband ended up spraying them with something he picked up at home depot and we are hoping they will recover.
My cucumber plants were the best looking thing in the garden until I get up this morning and see the caterpillar poop all over some of them. Every morning is an adventure, lets see what kind of new plague took over my little garden while we slept. I am having fun, and hopefully learning something, I just wish I knew enough to prevent all these pests from attacking before it's too late. Oh well I will keep on working at it.
My yellow squash also looked pretty good, it has had a load of flowers.....but no squash, I guess maybe I should try and pollinate the flowers myself....?It is tuff being a gardener, it is not for wimps that is for sure :-)
Thanks again everyone I will keep you posted on my garden misadventures :-) If I get to eat anything off of it I will put up a photo :)
Take care
Did you buy any BT (bacillus thurigiensis) yet? I prefer the liquid concentrate so I can put it in my sprayer but some folks use the dust too. The caterpillar takes a few bites and then get a terminal case of indigestion. ;)
I haven't been able to find any BT locally! Bought copper sulphate + rotenone to hold me over and am going to order the BT online, I did see they have it in liquid format, so I will order that instead of dust, thank you Feldon30 for the tip.
What other items should I have in my garden pantry, to be ready next time? I always seem to have trouble finding things in my area. Don't know if this garden dust will work or not, anyone familiar with it?
Thank you :-)
This time of year my organic bug control is a road runner that shows up early morn. I toss it any grub or bug I find & the bird is on it. Couple times when I had several tid bits I've tossed them successively closer & have had the rr eating right at my feet. So I'm getting a little in return for the rr snacking on tomatos I leave out there until they get completely red.
Some for us, some for the critters - LOL!!!
Frank
Hello Aunt Betsy,
You say you have tomatoe blight? What did you find that is working? I have been having problems with it every year and can't seem to stop it. I have planted tomatoes in earth boxes, garden and 5 gallon buckets, it seems to find me!
Any help would be appreciated.
I have yellow spots on my cuke leaves also, recently had a lot of rain so they look really puny. There are no black spots, all the worms are currently working on my corn. I tried the Bt on the european corn borers, didn't phaze them. Am now hand picking and squashing. Don't like it, but hey, the worms have no sweat equity in the garden. So far the worms have gotten 1/3 of the garden. Now that some of the corn is ready, something (a critter) is eating it the night before it's ready to pick.
Used Sevin dust and spray for the green worms on corn, has them gone.
This is my first year for corn, thinking of heading to Zellwood next season and buy a bushell, freeze and can that! Whole lot less work and can have more squash and Okra!
Any thoughts or help will be appreciated.
Hi Ciddie,
I agree it is a big challenge gardening in Florida in the summer, so far it has been adequate exercise, fun, and a learning experience. Still have to go to the veggie market for food supplies :)
I am a beginner gardener, so am not able to give a lot of advise, can just tell you what I used. On the Tomatoes Early Blight, we sprayed them with "Ortho Max" Garden Disease Control. It stops and prevents diseases it advertises. It did stop the blight and it seems that after a couple weeks the plants are looking better and possibly recovering. I don't know how organic it is but it did work.
On the caterpillar problem I ended up using "Bonide" Garden Dust (Active Ingredient Copper Sulphate), It seems to have taken care of them for now.
I lost many of the cucumber plants as well, I think from all the rain we got in one week. Most of my leaves are yellow spotted as well. After the treatments and now recovering from the rain, they have some new growth and are getting a bunch of blooms again.....so maybe all will be well. The plants I lost just dried up wilted and collapsed, don't know if they got rotted roots from the rain, or too much caterpillar dust, or what happened there.
Hope this helps, have fun and keeps us posted. Take care.....B
Hi there again Ciddie,
I answered your question regarding the early blight but forgot to say that I read somewhere Tabasco sauce will deter some of the critters eating your corn. Try a couple drops of Tabasco sauce near the tip of the ear and see if that helps. You could also try sprinkling some of the corn with Cayenne pepper and see what works best. I noticed at Lowe's the other day, they sell stuff to deter creatures, didn't take a close look, but you might want to check it out as well. Good luck and please let me know what works, planning to plant some corn this fall. Take care.....................Busy
Hello Aunt Betsy,
Thanks for the tip. I will pick some up tomorrow. What did you use on the cucumbers? Mine are not being eaten, just yellow around edge of the leaves. Getting cukes, just not as many as I should.
Does anyone have an idea what the yellowing is?
Thanks,
Ciddie
Hi Ciddie,
Mine have yellow spots also...don't know if the powder I used burned them or what happened. I used "Bonide" Garden Dust (Active Ingredient Copper Sulphate), now have also purchased BT (bacillus thurigiensis), liquid format, that's what most people are recommending for any caterpillar problem. Someone else pointed out they might be being attacked by spider mites and suggested Neem oil as a treatment. Going to do that tonight.
Regarding your corn problems it might be a good idea to post a fresh new post asking for help, see what experience gardeners have to say that might be of help to you.
Let me know how it all works out. The best of luck :-)
I tried the Bt on the corn, didn't do much at all, of course mine were already active. The european corn borers where what got me. I ended up hand picking all of them. I used sevin on the corn later (still hand pick the european ones) and that kept off the green corn worms. I haven't seen any more worms in the past two days, but my cucumber plants look really puny! I have gotten some cukes though, but not enough for the plants I have.
I will try what you suggested. Too early in the season for them to be completely done!
Thank you again. I will let you know what I learn about the corn.
Ciddie
Hi Ciddie,
Haven't been around for a couple days. Unfortunately don't have great news to report. I think my cukes were too far gone with "mites" before we finally sprayed them, they have a lot of dead, dry leaves, and are not looking good at all. We haven't had any cukes out of these plants yet....but we were late, planting them on April 4th.
My tomatoes plants also were infested with mites, and by the time we sprayed them with Neem Oil, too far gone. I cut out all the brown dead dry leaves and now, I have one plant with 2 tomatoes and no leaves, a second one with 2 tomatoes and a couple little puny leaves, and my cherry tomato plant, which originally was doing the best, still has a bunch of green tomatoes, but only a few leaves after the clean up. Don't know if the plants will be able to survive with this lack of leaves, and if they will bounce back...Started some new tomato seedlings last Saturday, for the fall season, maybe will have better luck then.
My cantaloupe plants, were also infested and have mainly dried out dead leaves, just a few green ones on top, no melons.
My watermelon vines are loaded with baby melons, very cute, but also have a lot of damage. They seem to be more resilient, and might still do ok.
One thing I have learned, will start spraying my plants as a preventative, if I weight until the mites, the caterpillars and the blight, etc, happens, it's too late...
Also have to be careful when I spray, if plants are sprayed when the sun is out and strong, the plants seem to get fried. They either get damaged by the plagues, or by the cure!
Keep me posted about your garden tales :-)
One of the best organic sprays I've found that works on larvae and catepillars is Spinosad. It's very similiar to BT (it's a bacterial strain like BT) but longer lasting and more effective. It will last 3-4 weeks so you don't have to spray as often. You can find it labeled as Monterey Garden Insect Spray. Plant Earth sells it online:
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/monterey-garden-insect.html
It kills leaf loopers and tomato worms without any problem and basically any other larvae and catepillar out there. The insect has to ingest a leaf sprayed with it before it can work. Once ingested the insect stops feeding and dies. So after spraying you'll still see the insects on the plants still moving around but they won't be feeding any longer and within 3-4 days they die off.
Good luck!
Some bugs is good bugs! Especially bees. I have read that it is best to spray in the evening after bees have gone to bed.
