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A most distressing morning
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Posted by
springleaves 10 (
My Page) on
Mon, Jun 18, 12 at 19:27
| This morning, I've had to go out into my vegetable garden (containers) and cut off leaves with damage from leaf miners. It was so heartbreaking to cut away lettuce, collard and kale leaves plus calamondin and it makes me almost want to just quit . . . but, I won't. I've just placed an order for leaf miner pheromone traps and see if that will help aside from starting my next crop with insect barrier cloth covers. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: A most distressing morning
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| Plant columbines nearby, but not too close to your veggies. They seem to love them. They devoured my columbines, but did not touch any of my other plants. There is literally no leaf miner damage on anything else onmy property except the columbines. Past seasons, I would see damage here and there on a lot of stuff. I did not even know the liked columbines so much, just planted some because I like the flowers, but they have also done an excellent job as a trap crop for the leaf miners. At least so far :) |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| howelbama - Thank you! I will try that. I will try anything! I spoke with the Cooperative Extension Service and two different leaf miners may be at work here - tiny black flies - liriomyza sativae on the lettuce, liriomyza brassicae on kale and collards. I wonder if there are any pheromone traps of those species? They do their work during the day. I think I will have to resort to insect barrier cloth for the next bunch of seedlings. |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| Have you tried tulle? It's not too expensive and easy to use. |
Here is a link that might be useful: lettuce bowl with tulle covering
RE: A most distressing morning
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| lgteacher - Thanks! Pretty picture of your lettuce! And, you can still see the pretty green lettuce through it. Great idea. Off to the craft store I go. howelbama - How far away from the vegetables do you have them? |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| Not very far from most of the beds, and I'm not sure that the proximity matters because even things that were right next to them remained untouched. They were probably 15 ft or so from where I grow my leafy greens. I'm not sure if they are the same leaf miners, and it could just be pure coincidence, but I have read (after the fact) that leaf miners love columbines. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow to show how bad the columbines were hit and some comparison shots of the plants nearby. |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| howelbama - I found some columbine seeds online. I'm going to check the local Home Depot or Lowe's before I place an order. I've also read somewhere that velvetleaf is another trap crop, but the seeds are a little harder to find. I'll look for your pics! |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| Columbines are really slow growers from seed, I dont think they will help as a trap crop until next year. When I googled it, the solution is to immediately remove and dispose of the leaves that you see the little pathways on - the larvae are actually inside the leaf tunneling through. |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| A pic of my devastated columbines. No damage to any of my other plants yet, except the weeds that are growing directly in the columbines lol. Not sure if these are the same leaf miners that go after lettuces though... 
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RE: A most distressing morning
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| howelbama - Oh, you weren't kidding they devoured your columbines. We may not know which leaf miner it is, but as long as they stay away from my lettuce, collard and kale, it's worth a try. Today, I started harvesting and found that I lost 1 in 5 leaves. Now, I've got to find some columbines. Maybe Home Depot can special order it if they don't already have it. Thanks for posting that picture. |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| I'd put the money into soil nutrition. Fighting insects head-on is always a losing battle IME. It's like trying to prevent a cold after you notice the symptoms. |
RE: A most distressing morning
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When I was doing research on the leafminers that affect my columbines, I read somewhere that these are different species from the leafminers that affect vegetables--but of course I could not find a site to verify that for you. I did find this information from a cooperative extension website:
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05548.html I get them on my beets, and if I pull and discard the leaves as soon as I see evidence of their presence, the beets bounce back just fine. Of course row cover/tulle is a great idea, as is planting plenty of flowers to attract predators of the leaf miners. Good luck! |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| pnbrown: So true. I completely agree about soil nutrition. veeta: Thanks for the link. Very informative! I also read on several sites that adding too much N in your soil can bring on leaf miner problems, too. I side-dressed with only a few pellets of seabird guano to each plant. At least for the immediate future, I will be using the floating row covers. |
RE: A most distressing morning
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| If you cut those columbine down to the ground they will grow right back. The lettuce would to if it isnt to hot. |
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