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Old March 31, 2012   #1
attml
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Annapolis, Maryland
Posts: 222
Default It looks like the chewers are back early?

Last year I had an absolutely horrible time with something defoliating my plants at a pretty rapid pace. I believe the offender was Tuta Absoluta (Tomato Leaf Miner). The symptoms were perfectly healthy tomato leaves one day would have light brown sections on the leaf the next day. The brown section looked like onion paper and was "thined out"compared to the rest of the leaf. It looked like a lawn mower had cleanly cut out the onion powder section where it met the still healthy section of the leaf. There was a very defined sharp edge between the 2 sections. I believe the culprit was the tomato leaf miner. I tried pulling leaves to stay ahead and that wasn't working out. I tried Sevin Dust and that didn't work. I basically was watching my plants get thinner and thiner until they stopped producing and I gave up on my season in the August / September time frame.

This year I had an early batch of some varieties that I love and ones that I am excited about which I started early. I took 4 of my biggest seedlings and started the process of hardening them off (part shade, part light) outside to go into large containers (in case we had a frost I could move them back inside). They hadn't even been outside for 2 days and one of the plants appears to be getting chewed on already? Even last year it seemed like the Leaf Miners didn't show up until May/June? We have had a very mild winter and spring here in the mid-atlantic so I am guessing that could be a contributor, but geeze, this isn't the way I wanted to start my season!!

I have purchased 10 Tuta Absoluta pheremone traps/ lures from these guys http://www.iscatech.com/ecommerce/in...products_id=13 . I am hopefull that they will help my situation. The lures only last a couple of months so I was hoping not to deploy them until June or so because of the $ factor?

Here is a picture of the leaf that appeared chewed from this year. Please take a look and tell me what your thoughts are. I watered this plant when I left in the morning and it had no damage - when I got home from work it looked like this. I have had problems with horn worms in the past but they cause damage differently.

Any imput, advice, etc.. on other methods to control whatever is chewing on my plants would be appreciated. Also, if you think I have mis-diagnosed my situation I would love to hear any other ideas? Thanks in advance!

Mark



Last edited by attml; March 31, 2012 at 09:55 AM.
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