"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
In article , Steve
Harris writes
In article ,
(Alan Gould) wrote:

Potatoes grown in soil which has been down to lawn or not veg. cropped
for some time can often be attacked by wireworm

I believe most underground crops run this risk?

Quite possibly, though I would think that any tuberous or soft rooted
crops like potatoes and carrots would be more vulnerable to worm damage
than tougher brassica roots like swede, turnip, kohl rabi etc.
-- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

Having started a veg plot on newly cultivated ground that was absolutely
infested with wireworms of all ages and click beetles (the parents) let me
tell you if you have them they will attack anything at all, including pea
seeds. I managed the problem by firstly letting the chickens in over winter,
but I still had hundreds and hundreds by spring. I grew all the cabbages
from seed in peat pots and this I think helped to guard against the
wireworms doing damage to the roots whilst they were still tender and young.
Before planting the beds I set 'traps'. Old potatoes cut into thick discs
and skewered onto pieces of wire, then placed in the ground, I took them up
and replaced them every three days for about three weeks and gathered all
the worms as a treat for my chickens, I literally got hundreds of them this
way (time consuming, but worth the effort). The carrotts were not badly
affected though I did take them out at finger size, I notice some damage to
the swedes in the ground at the moment, I see the damage round the top, but
hopefully I'll be able to cut round the damage and use whats left, if not
there's always next year. Kale, lettuce, onions, corn, sprouts, cabbage,
cauli, peas (lost a few seeds) spring onions, strawberries, blackcurrants,
parsnips (taken out early due to a rampaging foal) were all mostly
unaffected. My potato crop was outside the actual plot and I hadn't laid any
traps nor let the chucks do their work and I managed to reap about a third
of the crop, the rest were absolutely crawling. It is said the lifecycle
takes about four years from start of cultivation to the complete eradication
of the worm so I've another three years left to deal with them, but I think
there'll be a lot less in the coming years because of the work done in year
one. The traps are certainly a help and I'll be using them again next spring
too.

HTH
Shannie