Samantha

Ok, so this is my first year having a garden and I was doing well up until about 2 weeks ago. That is when it all started. Raspberry plant was stripped bare to the ground of all it leaves. The next day it was my strawberry plant leaves (some animal from the way it looked). A few days went by with no activity. Then I found some strange droppings in my tomatoes. I thought it might be from birds or wildlife. So I took the action of dusting the area around my garden with blood meal as I had heard that it can deter ungulates from foraging. Then last night I found the critters and I was seriously upset. The top half of my tomato plants and about half of the unripened fruit had been eaten by none other than Hornworms!! I spent 2 hours going through all my tomato plants pulling about a dozen very large hornworms out. And as if that weren't enough my cherry bomb peppers that I was going to pick last night had been eaten by some animal. I was very surprised by this as the peppers have a scoville rating between jalapeno and habanero.

UgH!! Next year there will be an electric fence around my garden.

Does anyone have any tips for ridding tomatoes of hornworms? I read something about BTK and it looked ok to use in organic gardens.

Thanks for any help!!

Farmer Samantha

Ugggg, sounds so frustrating, Samantha!

I think the electric fence is a very good idea. There are portable electric fences that are fairly easy to install if you decide you want to do it sooner.

From what I've read of hornworms (I don't think we get them here), picking them off is the best way to control them. But BT is also a solution (and I think fine for an organic garden). If it was me, I'd probably go with the BT, but also watch them carefully and smoosh them whenever I find 'em.

It sounds like parasitic wasps love them. There are things I've heard you can do to encourage parasitic wasps. I don't know if it would encourage the right types, but a variety of flowers is probably a good idea, especially the umbrella type flowers, the ones shaped like a carrot or queen anne's lace.

You also might grow your tomatoes in a method that makes it easier to find the horn worms. If you do a trellis system (see http://www.plantworking.com/blog/how-to-trellis-tomatoes), you're practically forced to look carefully at your plant as it grows, so it might help you find the hornworms.

Fortunately, tomatoes can be pretty tough, and grow back from almost anything. (see a tomato I almost severed in two places: http://www.plantworking.com/updates/4c535a15b075ae7b7f000003)

I wonder if chickens would be a good way to eat the pupa or larva during the winter. They love to till the soil looking for bugs!
Jade
Aug 13, 2010

By the time I read the article on trellising my tomatoes already had cages and were almost mature so next year I'll be doing that. One thing I was not sure of was if I am planning on doing 60-80 tomato plants next year will I be spending a lot of time training the plants up the trellis.

Samantha
Aug 13, 2010

Yeah, you don't want to do it with 60-80 tomato plants! I think BT and encouraging parasitical wasps are maybe your best bet, plus bug patrol.
Jade
Aug 13, 2010

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