Some bug ate the leaves off my tomato plants
 

"Omelet" wrote

Wil wrote:

I couldn't find the culprit smong my tomato plants.

Hornworms are VERY hard to spot!

Yes they are. Their fresh droppings also illuminate the trail.
They're so large and prolific you swear you'll need a big stick to tangle
with the culprit :(

I find it helpful to have a few 8 foot stakes amongst the tomatoes

Birds perch on them and help me out.

Only once in the past 10 years have I had to tangle with them.

Some bug ate the leaves off my tomato plants
 

On Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:42:50 -0700 (PDT), vorange
wrote:

I thought I'd get a head start and plant my tomatos early this year.
Everything was going well. I planted a whole bunch of heirloom
tomatoes (yellow tomatoes, orange tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes
I had cross polinated myself - a beefstake tomato with a tiny cherry
variety).

I planted them in trays, they sprouted, I transplanted them then to
the garden. Some damn bug chewed all the leaves up and killed them
all.

It annoys me no end that they destroyed my tomato plants.

I lost all my heirloom tomato seeds and the ones I had cross polinated
last year. I wanted to see what they would result in. But now its
all gone including my seeds.


I planted 38 heirlooms, 35 in garden and 3 currant types in pots on
the front deck.

Came out a couple of weeks ago, and the leaves were all gone on one of
the potted ones. Had 2 tiny tomatoes on it. Found a hornworm
trucking along in the pot. Could get in but couldn't get out. Weird
that of all the targets I had, that so far, only one sitting alone on
a deck was hit. HTH did it find that one?

BTW Just because the leaves are gone, doesn't mean it's dead. Don't
throw it out unless you're sure.

After 2 weeks, just noticed last night that the naked one has
sprouted new leaves on top starting to shade those 2 tiny tomatoes.

hth,
tom