Today while tinkering in one of my tomato patch's out of the corner of my eye I spotted something.... It was green and wriggly and definitely should NOT of been making a meal out of my tomatoes, but it was!!!!!
It was a caterpillar looking grub thing and on further investigation I noticed that quite a few of my lovely big green tomatoes had diseased looking flesh like this.....
What's going on here??? What am I doing wrong??? I've never had problems like this before with my tomatoes.... Is all of this damage from the caterpillar grub or is it something else??? I would really love some advice if you have any.....
On a brighter note , I did manage to harvest something from the garden today, tomatoes (from a patch not infested by caterpillar type grubs), mini zucchini, cucumber, button squash and purple beans........
Yum-mo!!! What are you harvesting at the moment????
Take Care..... :)
Hope you can get some answers regarding the toms. Fresh vegies...there is nothing like it! Jo x
ReplyDeleteBummer! Hope you are able to get that figured out! I've never seen purple beans. How are they different from green beans?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a tomato fruitworm. There's a great book for identifying garden pests: "Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control" by Ellis and Bradley. You can search the book by plant, by symptom, or by bug. Regardless of how you deal with the bug afterwards, the book is helpful for IDing them in the first place. Maybe your library has it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
-Holly
hollybrown@berkeley.edu
I'm no help with the Tomato Bugs either Sorry Jodie, busy dealing with my Strawberry theives! I harvested the Purple garlic and soon will get a few pea pods ...
ReplyDeleteNot much else ready here yet.
OMG....YUK... I hope my toms dont get any ideas from yours!! I just remembered that I have a pest book here somewhere I will see if I can find it for you today!!.... Not really harvesting anything at the moment...just watching the miracle of growth!! LOL.
ReplyDeleteNo good at all Jodie. Those horrible bugs do terrible things dont they. Can you google it on the internet, might be faster to get a solution that way and perhaps you can use something natural to get rid of them. Am glad the other tomatoes havent caught it yet.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bummner! I have no advice for you I am afraid, I am a total L-Plate gardener, in fact I got planting after being inspired by your garden and all the yummy veggies you harvest. Hope you get the answer you are looking for and can solve it without resorting to yucky chemicals. If you get the answer, please share so we all can learn.
ReplyDeleteHey Jodie,
ReplyDeleteSame same same! My little potted tomato plants in the back were ravaged by a green wormy caterpillar thing haha. I took him off of a green tomato he was sucking on and put him far far away in someone else's front yard. LOL. Not sure how he got there but I have seen some of those white butterfly moth things flyign about my garden so was wondering whether he was one of their babies. Not sure but am keeping a close eye on my tomatoes now. xo m.
That does look yummy - except the tomatoes...
ReplyDeleteThough this reminds me of The Very Hungry Caterpillar book!
Hope you get it figured out.
Hello Jodie
ReplyDeleteThiose tomatoes look like Grosse Lisse tomatoes? My Father was an avid vegie gardener and gave up groing the Grosse Lisse as they seemed to be very 'prone' to pests. I never grow them! I think these caterpillars are the produce of the white butterfly - have you seen them around?
Anyway I think it is too late for that crop and the best thing for the protection of other vegies is to get rid of them altogether unless you are prepared to spray them with LEBAYCID or a similar chemical on a very regular basis after removing all the fruit on the plants before starting the spraying. All the fruit that looks ok now will probably prove to be infested.
I never use chemicals on my vegies and you probably don't either. I have a good 'recipe' to share....
mix a teaspoon each of vegemite and sugar into a cup of warm water until it dossolves and add a couple of drops of malathon. Pour the mixture into a plastic bottle that has had a small hole cut into the top half of it. (hole aboout as big as 10 or 20cents) Screww the cap on the bottle and place several in the vegie patch. Pests are attracted into it and die.
It is not 100% but certainly does help.
Hope this info helps Jodie and it is only from my personal experience and my Dad's many yearsof gardening experience and we are not experts by any means....lol...
good luck and hope youare able ot salvage the restof your crop of tomatoes.
Vanessa
PS - your girls are beautiful and growing so fast!