May 23, 2012 - One of These Things....



.........is not like the other.

Yesterday they were twins.


The bush beans look fine.........


........but the pole beans are being eaten alive by leaf miners 


and insects.

I guess you win some and you lose some.



34 comments:

  1. That is what my garden is like. Some good some bad. I was trying to haul the cilantro back up tonight, but it just didn't want to go up. I have it barely propped right now. I'll have to do better later.

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    1. Daphne, this is my first year of growing beans against that fence, and they are all doing poorly. I guess it's back to the kennel garden for them, as I have to have my Fortex beans. I have some growing in a bucket by the tomato alley, and they look good. I was growing those to save for seeds though. I've already gone through about 2/3 of my Fortex bean seeds :-(

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  2. You are definitely in a buggy situation Granny! I wonder what happened to your broccoli plant.

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    1. Robin, last week I lost a cabbage plant exactly the same way. That was the one infested with ants, but there are no ants around the broccoli. I dug around the root just a bit and found nothing sinister. I'll just have to pull it up tomorrow and check the root system again. I hope it's not root maggots, I've never had a problem with them and I don't want to, either.

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    2. Ants did that to all my kohlrabi plants this year. They chewed through all the stems at ground level, and didn't eat anything else. Good luck finding the culprit!

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    3. Jennie, I almost wish it was ants in the broccoli, as I can control those. I didn't see anything, so I wonder if it was wire worms burrowing into the root. They are particularly bad this year. Maybe I can tell what killed it when I pull it tomorrow.

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  3. Oh,oh! Sorry you are having problems Annie. Hope you get them solved soon. Nancy

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    1. Nancy, it all comes with growing a garden. I just believe in telling the bad as well as the good that happens! It's not always perfect in Granny's garden, but as long as nothing catastrophic happens I'm OK with it :-)

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  4. Try Neem spray on your leaf miners. It did the trick for me and it is organic.

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    1. Tomato Thymes, I contemplated Neem and pyrethrum, and ended up with the latter, as it specifically named leaf miners on its list of targeted pests. I don't like using sprays in the garden, but at least it's one of the "safe" ones. I sprayed this afternoon, and hope it doesn't rain now.

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  5. I'm starting to figure out the gardening is about with the insects:) As long as you win most of the time it should be OK, right? At least that is what I'm telling myself:)

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    1. Tosh, insects, birds, dogs, neighbor's weeds.....but we overcome the hardships in the end. Just keep on gardening and smiling!

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  6. Oh my, I didn't know leaf miners could get into beans. Yipes. Better keep that chard for a trap crop. Hang in there. It's a constant adventure.

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  7. Yikes, I didn't know about pole beans and leaf miners. I'm growing pole beans for the first time this year in my greenhouse, hoping the leaf miners don't find them! The first year I grew beets here, the greens were totally destroyed by leaf miners, but now I use row cover and don't have any problems. I won't be able to keep the pole beans covered with row cover throughout the season though. Do you grow eggplant, what kind of pests do they get?

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    1. Elizabeth, bush beans can get leaf miners too. I had a small infestation once, a couple of years ago, and read up on them. I found legumes are quite the catch crop for miners. I've only had real problems with them on beets and spinach though, until now.

      Hate eggplant. Grew them a couple of years ago, they were gorgeous plants and had no pests, but we just didn't like them at all!

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    2. What kind of eggplant did you grow? I really like the long purple asian type, but then, I also love arugula. YOu probably think I'm nuts!

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    3. I grew "Red Egg", a small egg shaped variety. I blogged about it here:

      http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-23-2010-goodby-red-egg.html

      In another post I stated "I tried eating the first ripe eggplant, the variety called Red Egg, and I was not impressed. I salted the slices and let them sit to (supposedly) remove the bitterness, wiped them off with a paper towel,brushed them with olive oil, salted and peppered, then grilled them. They were bitter, and tasted awful! It was a beautiful plant, full of pretty red fruits, but out it went! " I remember trying some from the second plant, and still did not like them.

      I think I would like a peppery arugula, just not the "skunky" one I grew this year.

      I'm not an adventurous type of gardener. Garden space is at a premium, so I really strive to plant vegetable varieties that we actually really enjoy eating. If it's borderline, like arugula, it gets pulled out and replaced with a tasty lettuce. Zucchini only gets a spot because my husband loves it fried, and I can disguise it in bread, muffins and cakes. Broccoli gets grown because I like it, even though my husband thinks it's a horrid veggie. We agree on our dislike of kale, turnips and eggplant! So no, I don't think you're nuts, we all have our likes and dislikes!

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  8. Some garden days are better than the others. tough when you come to have vested interest in it all.

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    1. Stay @ Home, I always plant way more than i need, 'cause I know I'll eventually lose something!

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  9. Maybe I'm lucky my garden has NOTHING---LOL!
    Sorry about the leaf miners. See, you HID the spinach on them....they had no choice.
    :(

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    1. Well, DUH, Sue. Did you pant anything in your garden? Besides, leaf miners and bugs wouldn't have a chance with all your row covers!

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  10. I have the same with two of my cauliflower and my beans by the fence in the old garden also been demolished. Thankfully the new garden doesn't have so many pests yet.

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    1. Jenny, I looked out this morning and that broccoli plant looks completely normal again! Must have been some of my magic medicine, LOL!

      My red potatoes looked perfect the other day, now the leaves are full of tiny holes. I did a thorough examination, and found a lot of baby earwigs on the underneath part of the leaves. Earwigs and roly poly bugs (sow bugs, pill bugs) have always been some of my biggest garden destroyers, along with leaf miners and wire worms. And sparrows.

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  11. I am back on regular slug patrols in my garden as they have showed up in force with the rainy weather this week. No leafminers (yet) but slugs a plenty.

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    1. Kitsap, I moved one of the pepper pots yesterday and uncovered a big old slug, so I'm quite sure that's what has been eating on my rhubarb nearby. I wonder how he liked his ride down my garbage disposal :-)

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  12. Always something, I tell ya! My garden is suffering a plenty these days so I'm right there with ya - just different pest and different problems.

    My poor tomatoes. Looks like I'll be buying from the market this year. :-( Blah.

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    1. On no, Barbie! Losing a broccoli is one thing, but tomatoes....bummer! I am upset about my Fortex pole beans, as they are expensive seeds to begin with and I've lost so many to insect damage. I'm tempted to pull up my sweet peas (that aren't even close to blooming) and using that part of the kennel garden fencing to plant the beans again. I MUST have my pole beans!

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  13. I am the exact opposite. I gave up on my bush beans because they just couldn't withstand the bug attacks. I hope you can get some pole beans this year!

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    1. Prairie Cat, there's always something, isn't there? If it isn't the weather, it's the bugs.

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  14. Oh no. At least you have a few more planted to make up for the others!

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    1. Mrs. Pickles, there is still time to plant more if these don't survive the insect attack, but I was really counting on using that vertical fence space this year!

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  15. I've got something munching leaves too - not terrible but enough to warrant keeping an eye on...

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    1. David, I'm hoping the munchers leave something for us to eat!

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  16. Crazy! Here too, I have things being eaten while other things in the same bed remain untouched LOL

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