This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Help! Cutworms are cutting down my plants.

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

So far I've lost one swiss chard, one zucchini plant, and a few broccolis 
and cauliflowers.  They were totally gone overnight, cut down at the base of 
the stem. (But not all on the same night.) Like it says in the book, I 
looked around the soil of the dead plants and found a cutworm at the base of 
the plant. (At least that's what I assumed it to be -- brown, looks like a 
caterpillar but without the hair, and curled up sleeping.)

How can I prevent this from happening to other plants?  I remember reading 
something about putting a toilet paper tube around the stem of cauliflower 
plants.... should I do this for *all* of my plants, cauliflower or not?

The zucchini I lost was only a very young plant, so I still have time to 
catch up.  But I fear that this might happen in the future to an older 
plant, and for the vertically growing ones where a zillion fruit depend on 
one single stem, if that stem gets destroyed, all will be lost.  Ack!!   
What can I do...........

Thanks a million for your advice!

- Lisa in Ottawa



______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index