Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Tomato Beavers

What's a tomato beaver you ask?  It's a mysterious and seldom seen creature.  It comes in the dead of night when you least expect it and fells tomato plants like a lumberjack downs a towering pine.  Of course, I'm joking.  There's really no such thing as a tomato beaver, but my poor tomato was gnawed on by something.


The unfortunate victim was a Celebrity tomato cut down in it's prime.  The plant was perfectly healthy when I checked on it yesterday.  It was as big as it's sister plant, Early Goliath, pictured below.

So, what would do this kind of damage?  The most likely culprit is a cutworm.  I have seen more cutworms in the garden this year than usual.  The cutworms I generally see are a smooth worm of about an inch or more.  They are usually dark colored, with long stripes traveling the length of their bodies.  When you hold a cutworm in your hand, they naturally curl themselves up.

Cutworms normally attack smaller seedlings with tender stems.  I really thought my tomatoes were large enough to be past the stage when cutworm damage would occur.  The stems on my plants are starting to get woody and the plants are already setting fruit.  I guess when you're a hungry cutworm, you'll take what you can get.  Here are some pictures of some of my first tomatoes.


I searched the soil surrounding the plant looking for the cutworm without any luck.  While searching the remainder of the bed I did find another cutworm, but I'm pretty sure it was too small to be the worm the killed my tomato.  Still, it's a cutworm, so it was immediately sentenced to death by chicken. 

To protect my tomatoes tonight, I wrapped the bottom of the tomato stems with foil.  This is just a temporary measure.  Hopefully, the foil will provide enough protection to save the plants from further damage.  

As for the dead plant, well, I guess tomorrow I'll be visiting my local nursery for a replacement.

8 comments:

  1. Darn beavers! Death by chicken is an appropriate punishment for felling a Celebrity tomato!

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    1. Thanks for playing along. You have a great sense of humor. I'm looking forward to meeting you this Sunday. See ya then.

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  2. I agree...death by chicken is too good, for an evil cutworm.

    I planted my Celebrities in the veggie garden Tues. Then yesterday we left for KS again. I hope when we get back that those ugly worms haven't struck mine. I knew about the foil trick. But, I didn't think to do it when I planted. I've never had trouble with those before. This year could be different.

    Hope no more of those beavers attack yours.

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    1. I'll cross my fingers that the beavers don't strike. Have fun on your trip!

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  3. So far I have lost 3 basil plants I grew from seed to cutworms. I dug down and found the culprit. The last plant had a pretty tight collar around it and was still cut off. I dug around but couldn't find it. Then I examined the plant and saw some poop and a tunnel. It was right in there. It had come up right by the stem! I'm blaming it on the fact that I didn't dig over the spot and remove the cutworms.

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    1. I've never had cutworms go after basil, but this could be the year. The worm population in my garden is off the charts. I think it's time to breakout the BT.

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  4. One of my friends is having the same problem this year - big plants that would have been spared by the cutworms in years past are getting toppled.

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    1. So far the foil is working on the tomatoes, but my asparagus, artichokes and potatoes are getting munched big time. I'm officially dubbing this year "the year of worm" at my house!

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