pic of cluster of Cherokee Purple

[indigosand]

Beautiful! I had some similar problems with my corn last year, I believe it was due to trauma from worms as well. They were horrible last year!

[Vespertino]

All these pictures of delicious tomatoes is making me hungry.

[mikej]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

Mike,
The trick with army worms is to spray where they are not, including the grass of your yard. Yes you have to spray the corn, but the reason they are called army worms is they will eat at a spot and march as an "army" to your crop. Even if the crop is protected with Bt (or even a chemical pesticide), they typically have to eat a little before they die because they probably were no where near your crop when you sprayed the crop. And a huge army eating a little each before they die can still devastate a crop. Another trick is a DE barrier they would have to march over to get to your crop. This way the only army worms you would have to deal with are the ones the eggs are laid directly on your crop. Those worms will be small and the bites they take before dying will be small.

This is the thing about chemical pesticides. Since you must spray all over, it would devastate all your beneficials too. So Bt is a good one, since it is specific to caterpillars.

Hope this helps.

PS Don't worry about the kernels on the tassels. Lots of corn does that.

Thanks Scott! Yes that is what I have been doing with the BT. I spray it in and around the perimeter of the garden. About 5' outside the fence all the way around. It has slowed down quite a bit but still seeing some fresh signs. About every 4 days at first now I am about once a week.

I have eaten 3 Cherokee Purples and given away 3 to some neighbors to try since all people's taste buds are not the same. All of us so far say they are good, but not as good as the Brandywines were last winter. Starting to get more ripening now. Maybe they will get better. I have been picking them as they start to turn colors to try to keep the birds away. I now have a couple hidden in the foliage that I will let ripen completely on the vine and see how those taste.

I put up new fence around my expanded garden last week and it looks much better than the poultry fencing I had up. I used 4 x 4 as corner and gate posts and used T-posts as line post. The wire is 2" x 4" x 4' welded wire. It is fun to do by yourself. I did have a friend help me the 2 hrs it took to hang the fence. In the new area I plan to plant conk (cream 40) peas as the first crop in August or September. Now I have a thick layer of hay covered by tarps to kill the St. Augustine (floratam) grass.

[Sodak]

very nice looking garden and fence, mikej. VERY NICE!