Plant Surgery

Oh, my tomato plants sure give me fits.  

They are so finicky, get diseases easily, and bugs like to get after them.  

My first year of gardening I successfully killed 4 out of the 6 tomato plants we planted.  There should be some kind of award for that. ha!  And each year, many others have found their demise in our backyard.  I've just learned to plant more than we need, knowing they all won't make it.  

There's so much to know about tomato plants!  They don't like water on their leaves; do you pinch off the suckers or not?; if you put this red plastic down underneath tomato plants supposedly they produce more; don't plant them near potato plants because they share similar diseases; watch out for ugly green worms that can eat your whole plant in one night; and lastly....

Cut worm collars are necessary so your plant's stalk, just under the dirt, doesn't get sawed off by tiny worms!!!!!! 

Over a week ago I noticed this cherry tomato plant on my deck starting to look ill. 

I wasn't over watering or under watering, and typically potted plants do really well.  

I was stumped.  

So I had to perform surgery.  

I started digging by the base of the plant and noticed this smelly, slimy goup and these tiny little white/translucent worms.  

WHAT IN THE WORLD? 

And the base of the plant had been eaten almost all the way through!  One more day and the plant probably would have fallen over. 

These worms are like little beavers.... 

So, thankfully, with the help of a trusty google search, I identified the problem and a solution. (though there's no guarantee a plant who's stem has been halfway eaten will survive, I had to try). 

A little foil around the base of it, some crushed eggs shells around too, and hopefully they won't find a way to cut through any more of my poor plant. 

 This little buger is a Cut-Worm. He's the size of my fingernail!!!! 

I killed them all and did not feel remorse.

I checked all of my other plants and found that 6 more already had cutworm damage, one had it pretty severe and is not going to make it.  So now all of my tomato plants have a nice foil barrier, lovely.  Next year, I know to put a cutworm barrier around the plants.  My mother-in-law says a mason jar band works great, they can't crawl over it.  Now I know why I've seen people planting tomato plants with tin cans around them... makes sense now!

Now if only I could figure out why my San Marzano tomato plants look so scraggily and sick... there's still so much to learn!