Share your frustrations!

[hendi_alex]

Here are some of mine in no particular order.

1. Tomato disease, more specifically interruptions in having a continuos supply of tomatoes from spring to frost. Efforts to solve this involve or have involved succession planting, wide selection of varieties with inclusion of resistant varieties, planting in sterile soil, bottom watering, mulching, pruning, shading, spraying with natural products.......
2. Breaks in production of cucumbers and squash from spring to frost. Mostly fight this issue via succession planting.
3. Over run with leaf footed bugs on tomatoes and squash.
4. Aphid infestation on greens. Once established, the are difficult to eradicate.
5. Deer damage.
6. Root not nematode damage.
7. Competing against oak tree roots.
8. Losing the battle against squash vine borer. I fight this pest by using screened covers on younger plants and by succession planting to keep young vigorous plants at different stages of growth.

[Lindsaylew82]

Hornworms. The end.

[hendi_alex]

For us hornworms are pretty easy to manage by hand picking. One seldom does much damage before being. found and squished. Hand squishing works only marginally for leaf footed bugs as they are quick to fly. I did find this year, that early in the mornings the bugs are sluggish and pretty easy to harvest. As with most pests, the key is in aggressive control before the second generation eggs can be laid.

[rainbowgardener]

The biggest one for me is the squash vine borer. Everything else chews or sips on plants and it takes a good while and probably a pretty big infestation of them before it does serious damage. ONE SVB larva eating through the circulation channels at the base of the squash plant can completely kill a big beautiful plant practically over night. I hate them. Basically have given up growing zucchini because of them.

Lower on the list is squash bugs, stink bugs, and critters (deer, raccoons, groundhogs, etc). But the critters are managed pretty well with the deer netting.

Hornworms don't even show up on my list, because they are so well controlled by the braconid wasp parasitization.

[Lindsaylew82]

I never did anything but handpick them as control, but Lordy LORDY! I handpicked my honey off! A lot of parasitized cats later in July, but before that, it's an all out battle.

There's really nothing I cando to prevent SVB... We get them bad here, but by the time they get to the first plantings, the plants are large enough to withstand the damage for quite a few weeks. We had frass on adult squash and zucchini plant that were producing heavily for 3 weeks. Then the SVB and pickle worms start boring into the fruits...and then the squash bugs show up...

But we got hornworms ALL season last year! I've NEVER seen them like that!!! Ever!

[hendi_alex]

We tend to get hornworms in waves, two the times per summer. Last year was very light, maybe lightest ever. Guess they were all up in the Greenville area!

[Lindsaylew82]

Haaaaa! I put a hurtin on the wee beasties!

[imafan26]

1. Slugs and snails eating my seedlings
2. Birds eating my seeds right out of the pots and every slicer tomato, and now they are after the cherry tomatoes too.
3. Peach scale. It is resistant to pesticides so now I am resorting to culling the worst plants and cutting off branches and a toothbrush.
4. Thrips-- they are so ubiquitous and I don't want to spray and then be stuck having to spray
5. Weeds, everywhere
6. Weed whackers. I hate the things, they do the job but they are heavy and I get tired trying to get them started, and then there is the spool that never wants to cooperate.
7. This crazy weather. Rain is good I don't have to water as much, but it is bad, the weeds grow into monsters in no time. Strong winds (less than hurricane force enough to knock down a few trees though), rain flooding my pots and wind drying them out too fast. The annoying drizzle that starts everytime I want to do something outside, but stops just when I decided to give up for the day.
8. Erineum mites and white flies are seasonal annoyances
9. Mosquitoes that appear 3 days after it rains and makes staying outside a real challenge.

[hendi_alex]

And here I was thinking that Hawaii is paradise!

[imafan26]

It is a paradise for bugs and weeds, no off season or winter to slow them down much.

It is why disease resistance and heat tolerance are important in selecting cultivars. Now, the hard part is finding ones that also taste good.

I don't envy you snow.

I am such a procrastinator , sometimes the garden it just has to take care of itself.

[pepperhead212]

Like Rainbow, my #1 frustration is the SVB. I have tried every trick I have read, to no avail, getting maybe one or two usable squash, before the plant is on its way out. Last year I tried isolating a parthenocarpic zucchini - Cavilir - in an Earthbox, by totally wrapping it with fabric, and it worked. No SVB the entire time, but not many good squash, which may be due to the variety. Pepper maggots used to frustrate me, but I have since found out how to control those, by growing prone varieties under cover until the flies are gone for the season, about a week into Aug. Though I have not seen anything about this, I have a suspicion that SVBs infest a native plant, much like the PMs, which is why it is always in my garden, yet friends not too far away have never seen them.

[applestar]

WCB's, SVB's, TRM's and TLM's

...OK OK...

White Cabbage Butterflies, Squash Vine Borers, Tomato Russet Mites and Tomato Leaf Miners.

...yes most of these are Lepidoptera and I *could* use Bt... But I'm trying to get Monarch Butterflies to come back to my garden after they were devastated by the Mexican winter habitat disaster a couple of years ago, so that is not an option.

...I think I did witness recovery of TRM affected plants later in the last season so hopefully, my Garden Patrol has been reinforced by appropriate combatants to deal with this new menace.

GroundHOG incursions are still a problem, and I lost the nylon deer netting that blocked span bordering the woods in the back last year, so definitely new defense plans are in order for this season.

...I hear you about the mosquitoes, though I suppose what I consider a swarm may not compare to what you get in tropical Hawaii -- is it anything like what attacked Pleakly?

[catgrass]

SVB's and Stink bugs, stink bugs, stink bugs!

[imafan26]

I occasionally have stink bugs but they don't cause a lot of problems. What do they do?

[Voices30]

1. Tomato Hornworm

2. Neighbor getting upset about the massive pile of compost I have near the edge of the property... "snakes could live there and come into my yard"....

You would understand if you visited my neighborhood. It's not sub-urban... it's rural.. we live in the woods. It's crazy to worry about that pile, there are snakes everywhere! My land is small, only 1 acre, but my neighbor lives on 90....really....

[Lindsaylew82]

Stink bugs suck the juices out of fruits. Tomatoes, peaches, plums, corn, peppers. They make tomatoes and peppers have a blotchy, yellowish "rash" that goes deeper than just the skin.

http://extension.udel.edu/kentagextension/2008/08/06/stink-bug-damage-on-tomato/

[hendi_alex]

"I occasionally have stink bugs but they don't cause a lot of problems. What do they do?"

That was my feeling as well, though have more than occasional stink bug. They don't seem to cause too much trouble until late summer when their pierced spots become abundant and cause the tomatoes to have a very short shelf life. I suspect that the bugs also spread diseased from plant to plant. Still, they are a minor nuisance compared to the leaf footed bugs, which also stink when squished. Squishing is my only means of control, for both stink bugs and leaf footed bugs. The leaf footed bugs tend to be at least 10X to 20X more abundant than the stink bugs. I may start buying some of those fruit footies that some gardeners use to protect apples, don't know if they would work to protect tomatoes or not, the bugs have such a long proboscis. Still might be worth a try, to protect some of those late season tomatoes. The bugs don't seem to bother the fruit too much until it gets a blush and contains more liquid, so could probably wait until full size green and then slip on the footie. Maybe an experiment for this year!

[imafan26]

Leaf footed bugs, yes, I agree. I used to have them when I lived next to a ravine. They ate everything. I had to net my garden, but once they got in, it was the same thing. I have to bag my big tomatoes anyway to keep them from being stung by fruit flies so I don't have stink bugs on them. Bags will not stop birds or slugs unfortunately, the birds get under the bird netting and break the bags and bird netting does not even slow the slugs and snails down. Snails will climb fences and trees.

[Mian5]

1. Squash vine borers have destroyed every zucchini plant I've planted in the past two years. I don't want to use pesticides so I'm going to try some other methods I read about - wrapping stems in foil, using nasturtiums to deter them, and removing eggs by hand.

2. Squirrels destroyed all my sunflowers and nibble on my tomatoes. I was hoping to show my preschool - kindergarten students where sunflower seeds come from and how to remove them as a fun summertime science project, but squirrels damaged them and the birds finished what was left. This year I'm going to try a hot pepper spray for my tomatoes and bags (or cheesecloth) for the sunflowers once they wilt.

[lakngulf]

1. Tomato diseases. Plants start off so pretty, bloom, become loaded with golf ball size fruit and BAM, they wilt away
2. Squirrels. Water everywhere but those little creatures love green and red tomatoes. They are considerate enough to leave me about half a tomato on the gate so I will know they enjoyed it.
3. Raccoons. I understand why they LOVE the corn. I do too! But difficult to keep them out. Electric fence was some help last year but not fool proof.
4. Blossom end Rot on early tomatoes. Does not occur after that but annoying to think I have a tomato ripening to find it has a black bottom.
5. When to give up on a plant. "Well, this squash plant might produce some more, or this tomato vine still has a few blossoms"
6. Stink bugs at the farm. Not much problem with them here, but the tomatoes I plant in the fields at the farm get several hard core spots that seem to be cause by stinkers.
7. Crows. Difficult to get corn and beans going at the farm when the crows realize the seeds are in the ground.

[rainbowgardener]

1. Squash vine borers have destroyed every zucchini plant I've planted in the past two years. I don't want to use pesticides so I'm going to try some other methods I read about - wrapping stems in foil, using nasturtiums to deter them, and removing eggs by hand.

Yup, me too! Pesticides don't work against them anyway, since they are protected inside the stem. Removing eggs by hand is very difficult. The pictures you often see of clusters of bronzy eggs on the underside of leaves are actually squash BUG eggs, not squash vine borer eggs. The SVB eggs are very small, laid one or two at a time at the base of the stem, and difficult to find.



Good luck with the nasturtium thing. I don't belive it will make any difference. The adult SVB is a moth that can fly right over them. The egg is laid at the base of the stem. When the larva emerges, it immediately burrows into the stem, so the nasturtium won't bother them either.

That leaves wrapping the stems, row covers, or kaolin clay. The kaolin is a spray on clay coating for the stems. Row covers work if they are tightly sealed to the ground and in place BEFORE any eggs are laid. But then you have to open them up and hand pollinate the flowers, since the pollinators can't get in either.

Unfortunately none of this is guaranteed, and I have just given up on growing zucchini. I grow winter squash instead, not as susceptible.

2. Squirrels destroyed all my sunflowers and nibble on my tomatoes. I was hoping to show my preschool - kindergarten students where sunflower seeds come from and how to remove them as a fun summertime science project, but squirrels damaged them and the birds finished what was left. This year I'm going to try a hot pepper spray for my tomatoes and bags (or cheesecloth) for the sunflowers once they wilt.

Wrap your tomato beds in deer netting to keep squirrels away from them and bag your sunflower seed heads. Lots of people swear by the hot pepper spray, so maybe it will work for you. Didn't seem to bother my squirrels any.

Sorry to be the bearer of so much bad tidings!!

[Mian5]

Sorry to be the bearer of so much bad tidings!!

The squirrels I believe I can manage, frustrating, but manageable. Squash vine borers are a challenge. I probably will try other squash varieties that are not as susceptible.

[jal_ut]

Those pesky little black flea beetles that punch holes in the leaves of radish, turnip and all the cabbage family.
The corn earworm.
The Codling moth, apple worms.
Grass hoppers.
Crows.
Deer.
Plenty of critters in nature that like to sample the garden produce. Some can be tolerated, but at times
these infestations threaten to take a full crop, then control measures are necessary If I am to get a harvest.

[jal_ut]

Perhaps it is our hard cold winters, but we seldom get any thing bothering the squash? I suspect they can't overwinter in this area and don't get moved in on the wind during summer? I am not complaining. Just interesting that something that gives many of you so much grief is not a problem here.

[digitS']

I'll set up my I Can't stand and complain about the lemons that life threw at me in 2014! (This is a good time for it . Until I can actually see that there is life after Ground Hogs Day, I'm all for complaining!)

Exposure in the big garden! It's just too much! Too much wind right through the season. Blow the foliage off to the leeward then too much sunscald on the tomatoes and peppers.

That's not the only problem with the wind. Damaged plants are damaged plants. May as well turn a water buffalo loose in there! Disease gets a start. Bugs move in on the damage.

Steve

[weterman]

I grew poppies last year, and I saved my seeds from them. I put all the seeds from big pods into one bag, medium seeds in another, and the smallest seeds in another bag. My plan is to breed 2 strains, one with big flowers, the other as small as I can get them. I tried growing some indoors, so I foolishly dumped all the big seeds into my indoor pot, I grew them under a light, they grew a little, but they started falling over because of the soft potting soil, and I couldn't keep them alive because of that, so I ended up wasting a whole season of breeding poppies for big flowers in a few days. At least I still have some of these seeds, they don't sell them anymore so I have to be careful with them.