Posted: 8/7/2015 11:06:58 AM EDT
This year I planted potatoes in two garden boxes and some in the soil. The moths feast on the leaves and lay eggs in the soil which become worms that eat the tuber. Dug up one plant today and found one spud that was all mushy on the inside. 
Any suggestions on combatting these pests? I started putting lime powder on the leaves, but should have done it a long time ago but didn't know about it until last week (the lime). Sorry...edited your post by mistake. Apologies. Meant to reply...now other mods can laugh at me. Kitties |
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My father in law would use beer can traps for potatoes. Take a can of cheap beer, pour it into a pie tin in the garden. The bugs are attracted to it. Don't remember if he did that for slugs or potato worms though. That's a classic slug trap. Dunno that I think it would work for the nematodes (I'm guessing) that are turning potatoes into mush. |
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This year I planted potatoes in two garden boxes and some in the soil. The moths feast on the leaves and lay eggs in the soil which become worms that eat the tuber. Dug up one plant today and found one spud that was all mushy on the inside.
Any suggestions on combatting these pests? I started putting lime powder on the leaves, but should have done it a long time ago but didn't know about it until last week (the lime). Do you know what moth this is? Or what kind of worm this is? Do you have a photo? |
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http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1534989/the-potato-beattle-larva-cometh This may help? http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1534989/the-potato-beattle-larva-cometh Made the link hot. 
However I am not seeing that the CPB is what he's describing. Sounds like some kind of worm attacking his potato tubers. Not the plants themselves. |
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This year I planted potatoes in two garden boxes and some in the soil. The moths feast on the leaves and lay eggs in the soil which become worms that eat the tuber. Dug up one plant today and found one spud that was all mushy on the inside.
Any suggestions on combatting these pests? I started putting lime powder on the leaves, but should have done it a long time ago but didn't know about it until last week (the lime). Sorry...edited your post by mistake. Apologies. Meant to reply...now other mods can laugh at me. Kitties Maybe we should start from the beginning. I'm not going to say a moth isn't eating the leaves of your plants, but that's not generally what moths do. I'm wondering if you're seeing moths, and thinking they are the problem, but perhaps they are not? |
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Quoted: I only read about it. The worms I'm digging up are 1 1/4" long and about 1/4" fat. They are a whitish color with dark heads. |
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Sounds like June bug larvae? They love root crops. Had them. Only way to combat is to keep the garden weed free and well worked for a fewyears. Quoted:
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I only read about it. The worms I'm digging up are 1 1/4" long and about 1/4" fat. They are a whitish color with dark heads. Interesting. We don't see June bug larvae as a big problem here..at least not in my experience. Japanese Beetle grubs look like that here too, and we have tons of those. Usually potatoes here are harvested before Japanese beetles get too bad. |
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Quoted: Interesting. We don't see June bug larvae as a big problem here..at least not in my experience. Japanese Beetle grubs look like that here too, and we have tons of those. Usually potatoes here are harvested before Japanese beetles get too bad. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I only read about it. The worms I'm digging up are 1 1/4" long and about 1/4" fat. They are a whitish color with dark heads. Interesting. We don't see June bug larvae as a big problem here..at least not in my experience. Japanese Beetle grubs look like that here too, and we have tons of those. Usually potatoes here are harvested before Japanese beetles get too bad. Their life cycle is up to 3 years underground, then they turn into the beetle and fly away. For me, usually by the second year I rarely see them and they do only minimal damage, if any. You can spray of course, but we garden organically. My solution is to not plant root veggies (especially potatoes) in virgin beds. Corn seems to be doing OK though in a new first year garden bad that I KNOW has the larvae. |
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June bugs usually lay the eggs only in grass/sod conditions, not open well weeded gardens. I have had june bug larvae destroy potatoes a couple times after I planted in what was fresh tilled virgin sod the fall before. Even after 3-4 passes with the tiller, most grubs survive. Their life cycle is up to 3 years underground, then they turn into the beetle and fly away. For me, usually by the second year I rarely see them and they do only minimal damage, if any. You can spray of course, but we garden organically. My solution is to not plant root veggies (especially potatoes) in virgin beds. Corn seems to be doing OK though in a new first year garden bad that I KNOW has the larvae. Quoted:
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I only read about it. The worms I'm digging up are 1 1/4" long and about 1/4" fat. They are a whitish color with dark heads. Interesting. We don't see June bug larvae as a big problem here..at least not in my experience. Japanese Beetle grubs look like that here too, and we have tons of those. Usually potatoes here are harvested before Japanese beetles get too bad. Their life cycle is up to 3 years underground, then they turn into the beetle and fly away. For me, usually by the second year I rarely see them and they do only minimal damage, if any. You can spray of course, but we garden organically. My solution is to not plant root veggies (especially potatoes) in virgin beds. Corn seems to be doing OK though in a new first year garden bad that I KNOW has the larvae. Interesting. Very different type of root though...Corn with its shallow, fibrous roots, and potatoes with their fat tubers. Sounds like the June bug larvae go for the tubers. |
