argh! cutworms......

almost all my peas have been felled by cutworms I can't really go out and buy anything such as de (rainy now anyway). any other ideas? Its not too late to replant but there is no point if the little mini lumber jacks are going to stick around......

Found some info about dealing with cutworms:

http://gardening.yardener.com/YardenersPlantProblemSolver/DealingWithPestInsects/PestInsectsInTheVegetableGarden/Cutworm/ControllingCutwormsWithoutInsecticides

cut worms suck. I might try to drown them out to get them. I can't see putting tiny barriers around each of the 100 pea plants though! I wonder if I could form one large barrier around the whole trellis....... I was digging in my broccoli and found one. I think my first try will be to cultivate around the trellis to see if i can find any of the buggers. I wonder how far they will travel?

Got chickens?  Put a fence around your intended pea area with room to spare, add chickens.  Let them do their thing for a week or two.  This is the fastest and easiest way to knock down the population.  As a bonus, the hens will fertilize the bed and till it a few inches deep.

If you only have a couple hundred pea plants, start them in trays/cells or cups, transplant them when they are larger, may survive the onslaught.

Sift the soil, prepare a deep bed with the sifted soil, put your peas in there.  This method would be the greatest work and would only last a year

Thanks for the link to Yardener, Gwen--I've not come across it and it looks awesome!

Ken Peavey wrote:Got chickens?  Put a fence around your intended pea area with room to spare, add chickens.  Let them do their thing for a week or two.  This is the fastest and easiest way to knock down the population.  As a bonus, the hens will fertilize the bed and till it a few inches deep.

If you only have a couple hundred pea plants, start them in trays/cells or cups, transplant them when they are larger, may survive the onslaught.

Sift the soil, prepare a deep bed with the sifted soil, put your peas in there.  This method would be the greatest work and would only last a year

I'm always surprised when people recommend chickens to control bugs in the garden. Chickens are destructo-bots and will kill anything except the most mature plants. For peas or beans, there is no way the plant would make it through a visit from my chickens.

Jamie, it depends on the space the chickens have to feed and entertain themselves, if the garden's big enough, chickens won't do much damage.

Irene Kightley wrote:Jamie, it depends on the space the chickens have to feed and entertain themselves, if the garden's big enough, chickens won't do much damage.

Must be my chickens. They are free range on 30 acres and can go as far as they want. We're a permaculture based system so there are trees, leaves, flowers and whatever they want for as far as the eye can see. But if they get in the garden, they are taking out some plants. They have turbo scratchers.

Well that's strange. It sounds as though you have a huge amount of things for them to do/eat !

I wonder what causes them to focus on the veggies in your garden and not in mine.

What kind of chickens do you have ?

Irene Kightley wrote:Well that's strange. It sounds as though you have a huge amount of things for them to do/eat !

I wonder what causes them to focus on the veggies in your garden and not in mine.

What kind of chickens do you have ?

No they don't eat the veggies, they just scratch so hard at the straw that they tear plants out of the ground. We had 3 very tall huglebeds and the gate blew open. they scratched the dirt and straw so hard, they completely reshaped the beds into wide mounds. I sort of like them better, but that's how powerful they are. We have Rhode Island Reds, and some others that I don't know the name of.

I've just looked at your blog, then at your photobucket photos (nice !) and you have a different system to us for your beds.

I see now why moving all the mulch on those mounds would be a problem.

Could you fence the chickens in a new bed for a day or so to let them scratch before you start using the earth ?

Irene Kightley wrote:I've just looked at your blog, then at your photobucket photos (nice !) and you have a different system to us for your beds.

I see now why moving all the mulch on those mounds would be a problem.

Could you fence the chickens in a new bed for a day or so to let them scratch before you start using the earth ?

on some of the beds we do let the chickens in before we plant. The beds are all planted now though and there is no way I'm letting those chickens in. When everything dies in the late fall or winter I let them in some of the beds. Teh mature Kale can take a beating from the chickens, but the baby pepper plants we just put out would be toast.