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Growing Tomatoes

Help! Identify what is eating my tomato stem!

15 years ago

Hi! i'm new to this forum.... but have been a long time reader... great advice and info! Anyways, i posted on the tomato pest forum, but this forum is more active... so i was wondering if anyone can help me!

something has been eating my tomato stems... i came out one morning and found my tomato stem eaten nearly all the way through... the little buggers are eating the main stem... and have started eating on the new growth stems...

Pic of problem here:

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/yennie_p/tomatostemproblem.jpg

Hope someone can help! many thanks!

yennie

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Comments (5)

digdirt2
15 years ago
Here is your photo.

Do you have slugs or snails? Rabbits and other herbivores would be doing more damage than that. Cutworms too. So my best guess would be slugs.

Dave
yennie
Original Author
15 years ago
mmm... i never thought it would be slugs... i'll have to go get some pellets... do slugs climb up that high? sorry, might be a dumb question.... but i have seen some snails and slugs on the mulch... but did not realise that they crawl up my stem that high...

you learn something new every day... many thanks... :)
oh and thanks for loading my pic up... i'm so computer dumb! :)
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Wow, I never thought about a plant cam, too funny! I found a half eaten tomato and lots of droppings and posted pics in another thread; and with helpful suggestions there, I found out it's hornworms or catepillars. Had I looked closer at the picture above I would have known right away....but the good news is, I think I've gotten rid of all of them and have beautiful tomatoes ripening! Yay!
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lehua49
15 years ago
Hi Yennie,

Slugs feed at night. Check the night activity a couple hours after dark with a flashlight. Take a bag and a pair of chopsticks with you. You never know what is out there.
Aloha.
desertfarmerjohn
15 years ago
Hi Yennie. I had a similar problem this last year with the three tomato plants that I tried to grow in the ground instead of in containers. Something, and I never saw what, ate completely through their stems. Whatever it was never touched the leaves. I would just come out in the morning and an otherwise healthy looking plant would be on the ground with its stem chewed through. I've never seen a slug here, but have had problems with cutworms. But if cutworms were to blame, you'd think some leaves would be damaged as well. Anyhow, I think there are a few posts about it on my garden blog linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening in the Desert
yennie
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you all for your input and suggestions... i scattered some snail pellets around and i'll just have to wait and see... thanks for all your advice... thanks desertfarmerjohn for your link... i am starting to grow some cherry tomatoes in containers and i have a tigerella in a container... i hope i get some great results like you did!

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