I haven't written much about the pests, but there have been a lot of them. I secretly blame the people who lived here before me. They left so many types of pesticides in the garage, I'm surprised anything can live in the backyard. My theory is that the bug population is out of whack because of all their pesticide use. That belief has gotten me through this year, and I'm hoping that next year will be better.
At any rate, one day after work last week, I went out to the garden to see what I could pick, and I ended up deciding that the green beans were done. Some of the plants still looked okay with a few small beans, but some were starting to turn yellow, so I tore them off the trellis and threw them in the composter. There's a big empty spot where they used to be.
That'll make some room for my cabbages to grow. That is, if the bug that's been eating them doesn't kill them all first.
This is one of the better looking cabbages at this point.
Some of them are leafless. I've sprayed with an alcohol, water, and soap mixture, but it didn't seem to help.
Oh well, the radishes don't look too bad, and neither does the cabbage living next to them.
The beets are growing, but are a little scraggly looking.
I felt like doing a little more fall cleanup this afternoon, so I cut down the Mexico midget cherry tomato plant. I've reached the point where I can hardly give away more cherry tomatoes, so I picked what was ripe and cut the plant down. The tomatoes went in the dehydrator.
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| big hole where Mexico midget used to be |
I'm so sorry to hear that you've had such bad bug issues. Perhaps the culprit in the case of the cabbages are slugs? I know that you guys have Sluggo over there, which many people seem to use successfully. Since we can't get that in Canada I've used both coarsely crushed eggshells (placed around the plant) and diatomaceous earth with relatively good results.
ReplyDeleteYou might be right about the slugs on the cabbage. I did have slugs on the cabbage earlier. I'm going to try a beer trap first, since I always have beer on hand.
DeleteLet us know how that works out - I tried using beer a few years ago, but I didn't even catch one slug with it. I'm not sure why - may have been the type of beer or how I set up the trap.
DeleteNo slugs in the beer trap. Only a couple ants and pillbugs. I did find the culprits, however - green caterpillars. I picked a few off the other day, so we'll see if any of the cabbages survive.
DeleteAh, cabbage worms - they are very hard to spot on cabbage leaves, especially when they are small, so I would check those leaves often & cover the plants (if possible) to keep the butterflies from laying more eggs.
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