flea beetles
Jennie Lee
tulipcreek at dixie-net.com
Tue Mar 4 16:45:48 EST 2008
Hi all -
I need some advice about flea beetles. I lost a lot of
beautiful greens last year to these guys so I've been really diligent
this year about keeping row covers on all my brassicas and arugula -
I put them on right after seeding and they've been on ever since.
However, there are some flea beetles under my row covers - not a ton
of them but enough to riddle all my little greens - particularly the
Asian greens - with holes. My Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural
Insect and Disease Control says that I should leave the row covers on
and the adults that have taken up residence underneath them will
eventually die off, leaving my mizuna to continue growing¨unriddled.
What I'd like to know is - how likely is this to happen
really? I'm interested in hearing particularly from Southern
gardeners (I'm in north Mississippi, zone 7) as I find my insect
experiences often radically different (i.e. more vicious) from the
way they're described in the books. I tried last year to avoid peak
populations by staggering my plantings of susceptible plants but
seemed to have peak populations pretty consistently into late June.
And by then, its fairly hot and dry here to be starting leafy green
things. Should I stop fighting Mother Nature and just give up on
spring planted brassicas? They grow beautifully here in the fall,
untouched by any insects.
Any observations or experiences would be greatly appreciated -
Jennie Lee
Oxford, MS
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/market-farming/attachments/19560902/6aad8290/attachment.htm
More information about the Market-farming
mailing list