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Post by themotherhen on Jul 6, 2015 18:05:05 GMT
Maybe once the corn starts to have it's "growing corn smell" the potato beetles don't like it and leave?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2015 18:29:54 GMT
Interesting observation. We always have a couple volunteer potatoes in the garden as well that don't usually have as many potato bugs on them either. No corn, though, so that doesn't answer your question. We do know that we will not be planting Red Norlands anymore as they seem to be the most inviting to the bugs. Our Yukon Golds have very few bugs but the red ones are loaded.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 6, 2015 18:36:20 GMT
Potato bugs are poor fliers and depend upon wind to assist them when searching for suitable sites. Once they land, everything is on foot. Female will climb to near the top of a plant and lay a small cluster of eggs. Then she climbs down to go to the next plant and so on. That's why you might find 5 or 6 plants in a row with lots of larva. If she can't find the first plant, she'd not find the second and so on. If there's just 2 or 3 plants, she will walk around and end up returning to the same plants. So, what it amounts to with the volunteers in the corn is that the bugs can't find them to lay eggs on.
Martin
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Post by paquebot on Jul 6, 2015 21:34:40 GMT
Yes, there is a three-lined potato beetle which has a more varied appetite than the Colorado one. I've seen it mainly on tomatillos and eggplant. The young are yellowish or gray rather than red or purple.
Martin
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Post by Callie on Jul 7, 2015 12:38:26 GMT
I battle potato beetles every year. I hate them. Even the volunteer in the greenbeans had potato beetles this year. I thinkn they are as big of a battle as the weeds.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 7, 2015 15:12:19 GMT
Lone volunteer plants often get really hammered. Female lays her normal cluster of eggs and walks around to find another plant. Then she comes back to the same one and lays another cluster. Eventually all of her eggs end up on the same plant and it doesn't stand a chance of survival.
Martin
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Post by oxankle on Jul 17, 2015 0:06:16 GMT
I may be some sort of gardening apostate, but I use Sevin on potatoes. when I find that the potato beetles are active I dust the rows of potatoes and that ends that. I'm told one could eat a Sevin sandwich and not be harmed--I don't believe that, but Sevin does seem to be one of the less dangerous garden products. I've dusted by shaking a sock full of sevin over the rows, I've used the fly-spray type dusters and now I have a little squirrel-cage fan type duster.
I seldom have to dust more than once--the potato beetles seem to come all in one wave. My concern is that I cannot dust when there are pollinating bees or other pollinators around, and I cannot get dust on flowers to be pollinated.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2015 23:16:08 GMT
I may be some sort of gardening apostate, but I use Sevin on potatoes. Heresy! Haha. Just funnin with you. While I don't use Sevin and the ilk, my dad used it regularly in his garden. Maybe that's why he died so young at the age of 84. |
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Post by paquebot on Jul 20, 2015 3:15:52 GMT
One should not have to worry about bees around potatoes. I expected honey bees the two years that I had potatoes at WeGrowGarlic but never saw a one. This despite two hives within sight which were being used to pollinate cucumbers for Harris Moran. Potato blossoms have no nectar and very little pollen. Also, no need to spray or dust anything on the blossoms. Potato bugs are only interested in the leaves.
Martin
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