Once upon a time on usenet ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Bloke Down The Pub wrote:
"F Murtz" wrote in message
eb.com...
Jeßus wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jan 2016 12:07:54 +1300, "~misfit~"
wrote:

Once upon a time on usenet F Murtz wrote:
How dis these little green caterpillars get up on my elevated
tomato seedlings and eat all the leaves?spose some naughty moth
flew up and laid them when I was not looking?

Probably - or a butterfly. You really need to watch them 24/7 to
be sure. Or
just remove the caterpillars when you find them and incinerate
them - before
they eat *all* of the leaves is good.

Yep. If there's a lot of caterpillars/seedlings, I can recommend
Yate's Success. It's just a spray on bacteria which is perfectly
safe, unless you happen to be a caterpillar, sawfly larvae or
similar. Highly effective.

It was strange because I had two lots, 10 cups big tomatoes ten cups
tiny tomato strains in the one tray and they only ate the large
variety seedlings.have since sprinkled tomato dust on, don't know if
that works and if new leaves will come.


It probably will. The active ingrediant in most 'tomato dust' is
Carbaryl, an extremely insect-toxic synthetic chemical manufactured
by Bayer. I hate the stuff but admit to having used it (carefully) a
couple of times on wasps nest - because I hate wasps as much and
can't control where they get to.
Last year I bought some yellow cherry tomatoes from the supermarket,
I enjoyed the taste so volunteered a couple of tomatoes in to what
would have been a fallow piece of ground. Considering there were
only 2 or 3 tomatoes squeezed over the ground and raked in I have a
good crop. However I have, randomly, red cherry tomatoes in amongst
the plants.

That's not unusual at all. By far most of the tomatoes sold in
supermarkets are at the least hybrids (which don't breed true) and

Eeek! My bad. I should have written "F1 hybrids" rather than just 'hybrids'.
I'm used to using the term hybrid to mean F1 hybrid with regards to tomatoes
and wether to keep seed.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

just as likely genetically engineered*.

* Australia's first genetically engineered commercial tomato variety
was imported from the US in 1993. Tomato fruits are 'designed' by
nature to go soft and break down not long after ripening so that the
flesh of the fruit releases the seeds and becomes compost for the new
plants. Researchers isolated the gene responsible for this and,
although they couldn't remove it (then at least) they found that, by
using a virus to inject another copy of the gene into the DNA of the
plant the two copies cancelled each other out. The result was
tomatoes that stay firm for up to 10 days after ripening.
Since then, due to public backlash the companies doing the GE are more
secretive so the gods only know what's going on with current
commercial varieties. All I know is that most tomatoes bought in the
last decade leave a 'cucumberish' aftertaste in my oesophagus for
hours (trans-genetic engineering?) and as I dislike cucumbers I
mostly refuse to buy them. I say 'mostly' because as I get older
sometimes my eyes over-rule my memory and I see some tomatoes that
look and feel awesome (which after all is the only things they're
engineered for) so buy a few - only to regret it after eating them.

Back on topic, if I find any worms in the tomatoes they,
so far, have only been in the red tomatoes. I am guessing that, like
me, the bugs in my garden are traditionalists and don't believe
tomatoes should be anything but red. The red and the yellow both
taste fine and straight off the vine they taste great.

I find them on my hybrids, on any tomatoes actually fairly randomly.
I think it's just where the moth (?) manages to get to to lay eggs. I
was a bit late in hand-removing one the other day and it's pupated
inside a curled leaf and silk 'nest'. It was quite fragile but I've
tried to not damage it and have it in a jar and am waiting to see
what emerges. Are we all talking about the green 'inchworm' type
larvae that only have legs at the front and back of the body?