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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I initially mulched the seeds with wisps of straw to maintain moisture... plus I layered straw and compost on top of the potato ditch. Now, I'm seeing spiders everywhere so hopefully, they're keeping watch over my veggies. :D Also, I let the grass near the veggie beds go to seed and the little tiny wasp-like bugs are swarming all over them. I'm pretty sure they're the beneficial kind -- takes care of caterpillars?

Hmm... the trouble with that is I'm hoping to attract Black Swallowtail butterflies to my parsley.... Maybe I should go plant more parsley in the "Sunny Meadow-to-be" on the other side of the house.... I also found a source of Zizia in the Native Nursery List (thanks Lorax!) so I'll order a few of those.

TheLorax
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Angelicas are great for Black Swallowtail butterflies too!

yoki
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The grass doesn't seem to be attracting to many bugs yet so hopefully its ok....... If it turns out fine I think I'm going to do the same thing with my potatoes, keeps raining here I can't mound up the dirt around them when its mud !!!!!

If anyone has some tips on pruning tomatoes could use those :)...... The first flowers are starting to come out on them, could also use some cheap ideas to use for stakes to hold the tomatoes up last year I found out that bamboo doesn't hold a big plant up in the wind

I think I found some 1 gallon pots that I can hang and found an article that says I can put cucumbers / peppers / maybe strawberries in them and hang them up..... oh herbs too

yoki
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I'm almost certain it has to be ants eating my leaves, they are everywhere and I've caught them crawling on the tomato plants.... also some black ants around not sure if they are at war or what but caught one carrying another one around today....

I'm gonna try out some soap water on one plant to see if that gets rid of them without killing the plant..... any other suggestions would be great the little brown ants almost tricked me into thinking they were mites but I'm pretty sure they are ants...

TheLorax
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yoki, do you have black ants and brown ants? Why don't you take a photo of your ants please. Maybe take a photo of your chomped leaves too both tops and bottoms. The last thing in the world you want to do right now is to remove something that could be friend not foe. I will say that ants can farm aphids so please go online and do a google search for aphids to familiarize yourself with the many forms they can take then go back to your plants and look for the presence of aphids.

Even a Leaf Cutter Ant does not eat leaves and there are no leaf cutters ants anywhere in the Midwest. Ants don't eat leaves anyway because they don't have enzymes capable of digesting the cellulose in the leaves. It's not good to begin treating something until you have identified your foe. One stab in the dark leads to another stab in the dark and before you know it, you could very well end up with cures that have killed off your plants.

As far as pruning tomatoes, this is my first season growing them in containers and I've decided to go au naturelle this year. I thought back to my mother's garden and don't recall her doing anything other than staking them. I called my dad on the phone and asked him if he remembered how mom pruned tomatoes and he said he didn't remember her doing much other than staking them. Was mentioning it to a neighbor this morning and she said she'd never pruned or pinched hers before. Same deal with another neighbor. The information I've been getting could be falling into the conventional wisdom category so it might be best to post a question over in the tomato forum asking specifically for the pros and cons of pruning tomatoes so you can decide for yourself which route is best for you to take.

Andrewsmomma
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Hi,

This is my first post here, but I have been lurking for a while.

I am looking for what to use to rid my String Beans of Aphids. They really have done a number on them in a few days and because it has been raining I did not know it. I found this link, does this sound right? or are there other suggestions?

Thanks in Advance

Elizabeth

TheLorax
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A very warm welcome to you Andrewsmomma.

I tried beans once. They were destroyed by local critters before I could have any issues with them. I can't tell you what would be the best route to go for you to treat the aphids even though I've had to treat aphids on other plants. You've got a bean plant and that's out of my league.

Pretty much all of The Helpful Gardener site is green so most around here are going to go for the most environmentally responsible method of dealing with a pest first but... all the heavy hitter veggie folks are over in the veggie forum and they probably won't find your question buried back here in this thread. Here's a direct link to the veggie forum-
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4
I think you'll probably have much better luck over there where your request will catch the attention of somebody who has good solid experience growing beans. Really sorry I can't offer suggestions here but you wouldn't want my help with beans anyway.

yoki
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my digital camera is broke at the moment or I'd post a picture..... could it be flies? only thing I've seen are flies and ants, from what I've read anything about can cause the yellowing of leaves but if there are holes in the leafs and leafs disappear somethings gotta be eating them.......

I'm going to test the garlic / onion spray on a couple plants to see if it is harmful........ its not supposed to harm the bugs only make have a bad taste and only lasts until washed off by next rain so worth a shot I think :)

Too much rain I think is part of the problem and it just won't quit.......

TheLorax
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yoki, please hold off on your garlic onion spray. I know you are chomping at the bit to do something but... holes in the leaves? Sounds like maybe slugs. Do a search here for posts by a member named brian. He's been dealing with slugs or maybe it was snails. Quite a few affordable and easy ways to nail those leaf chompers non chemically! You can always private message brian too and I'm sure he'd try to tell you what's working best for him.

Silly question but, did you check into how best to meet the needs of all the plants you are growing before you planted them? A best defense approach to prevention is to meet as many of the needs of your plants as is possible. Healthy plants are happy plants! Healthy plants are considerably less susceptible to disease than unhealthy plants.

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brian
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Location: Ontario, Canada

Hello Yoki,
I had holes appearing in some of the leaves on my plants and it turned out to be snails eating them. They are not readily visible on the surface because they like to stay where it is damp. I can find them by pulling away a bit of the soil close to the base of my plants and I find them hiding there laying in wait for the cover of darkness to sit down to dinner. Some of the other members gave me all kinds of good suggestions for getting rid of them but for now they seem to be under control. if you want to find out who is doing the damage I suggest you check out your plants at different times of day and night to see if there is something on them. It seems that most of the damage in my garden
was occuring at night and When I looked with a flashlight there they were munching away. If you do find out it is snails post back and I will pass on all of the wonderful advice I recieved about getting rid of them.
Have a great day and God Bless, Brian :D

yoki
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I'll check tonight to see if I see anything on them at night, I have some copper things sticking out of the ground supposed to help for slugs but will look tonight for sure......

I'm just testing my onion garlic on one of each type of plants to see if it harms the plants :), I'm gonna try to capture me some spiders to see if I can put them in my greenhouse to deal with the flies.... Are butterflies harmful ? one was stuck inside my greenhouse today

I try to read about what is best but I'm sure that I miss stuff or forget things, my wife is always reminding me that those are my best qualities hehe.

Thanks for all the help so far I've been learning lots :)

setting an alarm now to go slug hunting hehe, let ya know how it goes

cynthia_h
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Another "drive-by" comment:

1) Butterflies are pollinators, thus beneficial.

2) It's advisable to plant things together according to all their needs, including water. Water hogs planted near one another, drought-tolerant plants near one another, etc. Giving plants too much or too little water will make them susceptible to insects/disease/anything that happens by.

Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17

yoki
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went slug hunting at midnight but couldn't find any, but I'm pretty sure I found a couple spider mites little guys that look kinda like spiders and found this webbing stuff around the bottom of a cabbage plant........

I couldn't tell if they had 6 or 8 legs though was trying hard to count but it was dark........ from what I've read everything says other mites hunt mites is there anything else I can do to get rid of them ?

Way to much water everywhere in Iowa right now, but not much I can do about that probably not helping my insect problem either.......

Had another problem the other day come up hehe, never ending story........ My strawberries are molding because of the excess water, any suggestions there or just have to toss out the bad ones? I'm afraid everything is gonna rot if the rain doesn't stop soon

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brian
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here is a link to a site I fond about spider mites
https://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef438.asp

It seems that spider mites do not like the dampness that you are experiencing from all of the rain so you might have to keep looking for an answer. They also do not cause holes as you have described from what I have read, anyways good luck and God Bless, Brian :D [/url]

TheLorax
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Hey yoki, backing up to pruning tomatoes again, I found a neat little explainer that provides a visual if you are interested-
https://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx?

yoki
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I will keep my eye open for slugs, it seems the pests have backed off some and the plants are looking a lot healthier so maybe they were just weak and as they get stronger will repel the pests on their own

Thanks for the links will check those out

The lawn clippings as mulch seems to be working out quite well, I think I'm going to expand that to my potatoes this week......

What tips did you have for repelling slugs? I mize well learn about them now I'm sure I'll get some at some point :)



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