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Post by hiven on Feb 17, 2010 10:40:29 GMT -5
Thanks, Telsing, I will try to set the edging way at our perennial garden. I have big problems dealing with cutworms, seeds I sow directly produce ton of seedlings, but they were thin out almost the whole row  . Bigger seedlings such as tomatoes, chilies, peppers, squashes, aubergines, peas, beans, corn,cukes, brassicas and several other things were not harmed or even untouched as they were rather big. I know the pain of raising hundreds of seedlings and the forever repotting chores... same problem here  , just don't think about it for now ! After knowing how much cutworms around us, I will be carefull with mulching next winter as I don't want the cutworms to overwinter too. Goodluck with your leek moth fight... if you see any adult moth, squeeze em! I do that  . Killing 1 female leek moth will prevent hundreds of leek moth larvas coming. Steveont:  Hiven: It is a huge pain to collar everything and I don't but thankfully I have a lot of perennials and self seeding annual veggies that I just leave to be thinned by the cutworms / slugs. I do however collar all my beans, peas, squash, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers... I'm getting tired just thinking about it. For areas where I will broadcast small seed, I use that common black garden edging. I surround the area to be planted with the edging, stuck several inches into the soil but left to stand above the soil. It can be hard to force it into shape. Then I stir the soil inside and leave it to be picked over by birds. Next, I plant the crop and hope that no cutworms survived if there were any there to begin with. It doesn't work as well as the collars. Leek moths! Eek. They don't yet have any 'natural' predators here though I keep telling the local predators about them... so they are quite destructive. Oh and for cutworms, I've also retrofitted pepper and tomato stems with aluminum foil. I wrap the stem, pushing it into the ground a bit, and then pull some soil/mulch around it. This has worked to protect large plants that were attacked, even those that were partially chewed. |
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Post by steveont on Feb 17, 2010 11:45:43 GMT -5
un fortunatly the maguinty comes from ottawa! randy from lanark, not upset that he traded in his pitch fork, some one has to do the job right! same reason i joined city hall here, job needed doing and it was not being done right! Howz about we aim fer a politition from our neck of the woods that got sent to queens park?!  You're not referring to Randy are you? Are you upset that he turned in his overalls and tractor for a business suit? And Ladies, just wait until you have Chickens to help with gardening...Those durn grubs will be a thing of the past! |
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Post by kilalunie on Aug 1, 2011 18:46:33 GMT -5
Hi all. I'm new here. Wondering about the leek moth this year. I am new to this problem and in my area nobody seems to know anything about them. I got them in my garden. They wiped out all my seedlings last Fall and this year I was afraid to try them from seed. They were in my garlic and in the onions I started from sets. Now I have a lot of seeds I want to try, but I know they have a short life span (onion seeds) Will my seeds still be worth trying next year and is there a way to protect from the moth? I read that it required getting rid of the soil (I don't think so) and then covering with remay. Also, I have perennial green onions and walking onions. I don't want to destroy those. Can anyone help?
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Post by mnjrutherford on Aug 1, 2011 20:17:26 GMT -5
I don't have any experience with leek moths yet.
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Post by kilalunie on Aug 2, 2011 4:50:42 GMT -5
Hope you never do. I am just not sure what to do here. Removing all alliums in the Fall seems so awfull. Not sure how well remay would work. I have had animals (Neighborhood cats) ripping it before. Chives have started doing their own thing around here. I am not very good at controling some of this stuff. They were not badly affected. Hoping someone can help me figure this out.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Aug 2, 2011 5:49:17 GMT -5
TRUST ME! I'm exceedingly grateful for every pest I don't have! I adore tomatoes and back in California grew a lot of them. I can't grow a decent tomato here to save my soul! I'm giving up on them next year. On the other hand, interestingly enough, I have had decent luck with alliums. I've only grown them for 2 years now, major focus on garlic. This fall; however, I'll be planting out a few sets grown from seed of a special onion from Italy. Cortona sent me the seed. I'll also be planting out some of the onions (if they keep) that I grew from sets last year for the purpose of acquiring seed.
If I accomplish this, I will at last know the full onion cycle. Garlic didn't do very well this year because of the drought. It did well enough, but it wasn't big and lovely like Bunkie's.
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Post by kilalunie on Aug 2, 2011 14:25:12 GMT -5
I can grow tomatoes. Lots almost ready now. Lots of canning ahead. Hard to see why you can't grow them in z 8. I grew garlic for the first time this year. Fall planted. It is alright, not great. Have never grown a decent sized onion. Good walking onions. I do consider myself a new gardener, not because I have not gardened before, but, well it's a long story about a long weird road. Literaly. But that is all behind me now, just the way I like it. But it has left me with a sense that I need to make up for lost time and I am working on covincing myself that I have the rest of my life to do this, lol. I have some allium seeds I really want to grow anyway next year. There is a permaculture book I saw once and she had no way of getting fertilizer for her onions and she used urine, called it urine charge, and grew some great bulbs. Think I might try that next year. This year it is going on the corn.
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Post by ottawagardener on Aug 2, 2011 14:39:49 GMT -5
Remay is what I heard too. I find that I (and a few of my friends) can grow hardneck, fall planted garlic with little problem just the scapes get chewed on mostly but you can get a pretty good harvest. I also found I can grow onions if they are early maturing. Leeks generally get anihilated but this year, I'm still harvesting!! I don't see why you would have to get rid of all the soil. They overwinter on garden debris was my understanding??
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Post by kilalunie on Aug 3, 2011 5:37:26 GMT -5
Thanks, Ottawa. My leeks are not very big, but they seem to be healthy. Elephant garlic did not stand a chance. My research online says they lay eggs around the leftover alliums in garden, so get rid of soil and eggs. But... my fall planted garlic did ok.
I like leaving my garden debris on the garden to rot (I'm lazy and contrary in my neighborhood).
Btw, I have been looking for a thread on living mulch in garden. Can you tell me if there is one and if not maybe one can get started. I'd love to know if anyone here is doing this and what has worked for them. I'm leaving town. Back in a few days.
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Post by ottawagardener on Aug 3, 2011 10:49:49 GMT -5
If you switch where the alliums are planted (like the other side of the yard entirely) and apply remay, it might work then. As for a living mulch, I interplant for that purpose but I've heard of some brave folks using mint relatives (I know, I know) or various vetches and clovers. Were you looking for something temporary or permanent?
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Post by mnjrutherford on Aug 4, 2011 6:49:07 GMT -5
Hard to see why you can't grow them in z 8. I do consider myself a new gardener, not because I have not gardened before, but, well it's a long story about a long weird road. Literaly. But that is all behind me now, just the way I like it. But it has left me with a sense that I need to make up for lost time and I am working on covincing myself that I have the rest of my life to do this, lol. Don't feel like the lone stranger. I'm 52 years old and LOVING it! I can promise you, your "road" probably isn't any more or less weird than a lot of other folks. The good news is that you are still on it! As for making up for lost time, you DO have the rest of your life to do it! The carrot I keep before my eyes is that fact that life is worth living and worth living well. So GO FOR IT! ummm... Grow all the tomatoes and garlic you can while your at it! ;o) |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 10, 2011 12:36:10 GMT -5
Is there any internet info on the leek moth? I do know it is moving south in NY and will be here sooner or later. I am wondering if possibly the perrenial onions might be more resistant to them? Potato onion, topsett walking onions etc. How severe a pest are they? The kind of pest that devastates all plantings of a crop no matter how small, or one that is only a big deal if you are an onion grower with acres and acres of onions?
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Post by ottawagardener on Aug 10, 2011 13:54:19 GMT -5
Oxbowfarm: My experience is that they can devastate leeks - entirely wiping out a small planting, but I can grow both onions and garlic with some losses but mostly just chew damage. Perennial onions including potato onion/shallots, walking onion and other hollow stemmed onions suffer damage, sometimes significant such as destroying the scapes so you get no seeds or causing them to die back early but I have had no trouble growing them without protection. Garlic chives aren't affected much. I have a type of primative perennial leek too that seems okay and regular chives aren't that affected. My Allium karataviense suffered only slight damage but Allium moly took a bigger hit. The nodding onion didn't seem much bothered. Not sure if that answer was helpful. I suppose to wrap up, it doesn't mean you can't grow alliums but they are pesty. BTW, my leeks are holding out this year. I'm leaving them unprotected to see if I get some new growth in the fall.
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Post by canadamike on Aug 10, 2011 20:12:02 GMT -5
There is an organic farm in the Gatineau Hills near Ottawa that will expand its allium crops despite the leek moth. They have had success with BT.
I feel pretty sure Neem oil would help to, it takes care of leaf feeding insects on just about any plant.
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Post by kilalunie on Aug 14, 2011 7:02:16 GMT -5
ottawagardener, I was debating about planting some 2" high white clover in the pathways, but the bees would be in there so that is not going to happen. I want to practice more green manure and covercropping.
Anyhow, I was wondering if you have any of the perennial leeks to share. I don't live too far from Ottawa. Don't know if I have anything you want in trade or maybe a money exchange. I have some interesting stuff from Richters seedzoo. I have a few of the altrei coffee lupines, cutworms got most of those, but there are a few to share. Perennial java celery, bantu beans and onland brown beans, el cuneo beans, The bantu and brown beans are the earliest beans in my garden this year. Let me know.
Thanks
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Steveont: 
. Bigger seedlings such as tomatoes, chilies, peppers, squashes, aubergines, peas, beans, corn,cukes, brassicas and several other things were not harmed or even untouched as they were rather big. I know the pain of raising hundreds of seedlings and the forever repotting chores... same problem here 
, just don't think about it for now ! 
. 
