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Old 09-03-2012, 01:57 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Dan Musicant Dan Musicant is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2010
Posts: 28
Default What is likely eating the foliage off my small tomatoes?

This has happened before. Maybe if I go out at night with a flashlight I
will catch the culprits, but right now I can only speculate. I usually
buy a 6 pack of Early Girl and plant about 3 weeks into March, sometimes
earlier sometimes later depending on the weather.

This year they only had 4" potted plants, so I bought 6 of those and
planted them 6 days ago in soil in which I'd worked in a lot of my
homemade compost. There were certainly lots of earwigs and sow bugs in
that compost, and plenty of earth worms. There are certainly slugs in
there too.

I was so busy yesterday I didn't get a chance to check out the plants,
but this morning to my dismay I see that 1/2 to 3/4 of the foliage has
been eaten from the plants! I'd put snail and slug pellets around the
plants and sprayed some water to activate them. I also sprinkled some
diazinon I've had for a number of years. I think it's unavailable now. I
only use it on seedlings when plants are vulnerable. The diazinon is so
old it may have lost its effectiveness, it wouldn't surprise me.

I made collars today out of thin sheet metal, and put more pellets and
diazinon granules around the bases of the seedlings, also I sprayed them
with Safer Soap. What is likely eating the plants and what can I do to
prevent further damage? I was hoping to see bigger plants by now, not
smaller!

Dan


Email: dmusicant at pacbell dot net