flea beetles & cut worms

[blackthumbmary]

Any suggestions for organic control of flea beetles?

My Hooker's corn is mid calf high and doing fairly well except some leaves look like they have flea beetle nibbles on them! Close to dusk, I have noticed a few small black bugs which look like flea beetles on a few of the plants. The affected plants don't seem worse for the wear at all and the damage looks minimal..for now.

Has anyone had experiences with using Dipel DF to control cut worms?

My second planting of Hookers and Triple Play in a different field are just breaking through the soil and some are a few inches tall, leaves just starting to unfurl. I have noticed a few shoots that have been snipped off - in a manner consistent with a cut worm! It seems these guys are randomly going around and snipping a shoot here and there. They don't seem to be going after the more mature plants whose leaves have unfurled. I just sprayed that field with a solution of Dipel DF (Bacillus thuringiensis ).

Speaking of sprayers...any suggestion for a good spraying system? I am currently using a hand bottle sprayer which is drudgery it seems...

I am in southern Indiana and have clay soil. Thanks in advance for the help This is my first year planting corn so pardon my numerous questions. Everyone else around me is growing hybrid and GM corns and using non organic pesticides (lets not even talk about soil prep)....so you guys are my best resource

[grunt]

Mary: If you have grassy areas around your corn, keep them as well watered (or better) as your corn, and the flea beetles will probably leave the corn alone. We get flea beetles around here quite heavily, but I never have problems with them, unless I let the pathways (grass) dry out. Another option for the future, is a trap crop of any chinese cabbage, mustard, radishes or turnips. They will home in on the trap crop and leave the "good stuff" alone = just don't count on harvesting anything from your trap crop.

[blackthumbmary]

Grunt thanks for the advice. I just ordered some mustard greens to plant as my 'trap crop'.

My garden is surrounded by a rather large untended lawn of weeds and native grasses (we never did anything with it). My husband mowed it a week ago so that might have set up a migration of the flea beetles to my garden!

Right now, I have been trying to keep the weeds at a minimum between my corn rows. Should I plant a trap crop or grass between the corn rows - or will that only over tax the soil? Silly question but I have visions of avoiding weeding while providing more fodder for the beetles-wish full thinking I am sure...

[grunt]

Mary: If you look at the albums of my garden, I have grass pathways between all of the beds. Much easier to keep them mowed than trying to keep them weed free, and it gives you an un-ending supply of mulch to add to the garden beds, or to throw on top of weeds that manage to come up in the beds. Also keeps feeding your soil in the beds. I now have almost black soil in all of my beds, and they all started out light sand color, five years ago.

[bunkie]

for flea beetles we've used a light dusting of wood ash from the woodstove. it seems to deter them quite well.

for cut worms, we've used cardboard collars, like from tp and paper towel rolls.

[blackthumbmary]

Thanks for both responses to my question. Sorry to be late in responding but 'tis the season to plant

Grunt- your mowed grass pathways sound like a great idea. I especially like the idea of using the clipping for mulch. About two weeks ago, I put down some aged manure, hot manure, and old hay mulch between the rows and that has helped suppress a lot of the weeds. It has also given my corn a huge growth boost.

Bunkie - regarding the use of ash for flea beetles...do you put your light ash dusting on or in between the plants? While we do not have a wood stove, we do have a burn pile (trash, miscellaneous shrubs and tree branches).

Cardboard collars for my corn...what an ingenious idea. I am going to start saving the TP collars for my next corn crop. The cut worms only seem to go after the brand new shoots...they leave the bigger (with three or more leaves) ones alone.

I have also done two sprayings with BT Dipel which seems to have helped also with both pests. I am trying to use Dipel only when absolutely needed. The mulch between the rows..plus the emerging grass on the field border seems to have cut down the number of flea beetles..for now.

[blackthumbmary]

Grunt - one more note...I am green with envy over your gardens. They are absolutely stunning! What beautiful dark loamy looking soil. So different from my reddish clay soil...sigh. I have managed to build up the worst field with loads of manure and mulch...but it will take years to change my red martian soil LOL.

Thanks sharing your soil building experiences...it is an inspiration.