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wendybird13

Veges and Lizards

wendybird13
9 years ago

I have tried numerous times to grow tomatoes all flourished and then the Horn Worms came:( I decided to attempt to grow 3 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, 1 eggplant & 1 cucumber plant this year in smart pots. Guess Im not so smart. I sued a mix of top & potting soil nothing was growing then I added coffee grinds, egg shells and worm castings. Seems to have given a jolt. My question is I have a herd of curly tailed lizards ( I am in So flo) they hang out in the pots. Is this a good or bad thing?

I feed these guys egg yolks now and then but so far no horn worms,

Comments (4)

  • Donna
    9 years ago

    I'm not familiar with curly tailed lizards, but I have several varieties that hang out in my pots. I consider them good guys. They eat insects and they do the plants no harm. They can startle you when you're watering. Sometimes they jump, but they are far more startled by me than I of them.

    When you are growing vegetables in pots, fertility is very important. To get top results, use a slow release fertilizer (like Osmocote) in the pots once every 4 to 6 weeks, and a mild liquid fertilizer (like fish emulsion) weekly or at least every other week. Everytime you water you are washing nutrients out of the soil and through the drainage holes of the pot. This has to be replaced regularly if you want the plants to make fruit. The other important tip I would give you is to give each plant as large a pot as you can manage.

    That being said, I grow tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers in pots too every year. I get lots and lots of good food from them.

  • digdirt2
    9 years ago

    Good info from donna above. I fear your plants have more serious problems than the lizards.

    But no, I have lots of curly tails, blue-tails, and others and while they don't bother the vegetables much other than a munch here and there. But they don't help control hornworms since to get the hornworms they would have to climb far up into the plant.

    Hornworms are easy to control and there is no need to lose a plant to them for any reason so I'd suggest some research into that issue.

    Dave

  • Ohiofem 6a/5b Southwest Ohio
    9 years ago

    I've been container gardening for decades. Before I knew better, I used some of the things you used, which are mostly bad in containers. Soil of any kind will compact and get mucky, attracting things like fungus gnats. It will interfere with drainage and cause root death. Lucky for you, smart pots can handle heavier potting mixes than other containers. But a soilless potting mix would be much better.

    And all that other stuff is nothing but garbage in a pot, attracting other bad guys, including flies and rats. Lucky for you the lizards are probably eating a lot of the bad insects, but they can't eat rats. Food waste belongs in a compost pile, not a container. It can take a year to break down into a form that feeds your plants. Balanced chemical fertilizers work much better. If you're serious about container gardening, checkout the container gardening forum. Heres a long running discussion from that forum.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Container soils - Water movement and retention

  • wendybird13
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you everyone for the input :) I do not have a rat prob :)Will be getting a composter for next year though

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