One of the more disheartening things a gardener can see when visiting the garden in the morning is the sight of a newly transplanted seedling laying prone on ground, as if it had been felled by some tiny lumberjack. This is the work of the cutworm, a small worm which chews through the stem of young seedlings at night. I've had cutworms eat both tomato and pepper plants in the past. When you find cutworm damage like this, you can often find the offender itself, curled up just under the soil level near the stem.
One of the recommended defenses against cutworms is to fashion some sort of collar around the stem, extending and inch above and below the soil level. Another is to wrap aluminum foil around the stem, which I've done to the rest of my tomato and pepper seedlings. If you start your own seedlings, it's a good idea to plant more than you need so that you'll have some in reserve to replace those that meet a fate like the one above.
No comments:
Post a Comment