While waiting to start homesteading, we aspiring homesteaders are convinced we are going to have the best homestead ever! It’s not egotistical its reality. We all build homesteads that suit our individual needs and so for us and our families they are the best. In line with this we are convinced that our first homestead garden will be amazing! We will have a huge productive garden, learn to can and put up all our extra food for the winter.
It is humbling to find that in reality our first homestead garden did not do well. And by not well I mean terrible. Sure we did manage to get about 6 cucumbers so far but that’s it! Of the tomato plants that we have left (4) a couple are flowering but not producing any tomatoes. Something is eating the heck out of them! The 5 cucumber plants were doing very well until we got pickle worms. These guys are terrible! They are the offspring of moths and are aggressive eaters. They like cucumbers, cantaloupe and squashes. Not only do they eat the actual fruit but they eat the blossoms making it hard for them to get pollinated and bury into the vines killing them. They are also hard to get rid of once your garden is already infected. Pretty much all you can do is remove the compromised fruit and hope it doesn’t get worse.
(This is what it'll look like when they burrow into your plant. The little balls on the outside are frass)
Yesterday we lost EIGHT cucumbers to these buggers, These were the cucumbers I thought we were going to be able to can for pickles as well as one I was leaving to harvest seeds from for next year. We don’t need the seeds but I was eager to learn a new skill! It was so exciting to think we would be able to actually preserve something from our first garden, even if it was just cucumbers!
At first I removed the 8 cucumbers that I could see had become pickle worm food. The next day the end of one of the vines inexplicably died. Then I saw it! A hole. Come to find out they like the vines too... and the leaves..... So I set out to destroy the most infected parts of our plants. Then sprinkled with DE. I didn't see it recommended anywhere but figured it was worth a shot.
(I had to remove almost all of the leaves from one of the plants. These worms are EVERYWHERE)
The good news is that you can prevent pickle worms if you’re proactive. Now that we know they exist and could be a potential problem we will work to prevent them next year. There is a bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis that you can spray on your plants. This naturally occurring bacteria paralyzes the digestive track of the worm causing it to starve to death. Since we are in a mild climate we’re assuming these worms will come back to destroy our plants next year and we will be using this bacteria from the very beginning!
I think most homesteaders find that along with learning to building things, animal husbandry and all the other ‘typical’ homestead skills, you learn little things like what pickle worms are and what to do to prevent them. These ‘little’ lessons are actually some of the most valuable and the most painful lessons on the homestead. Books, planning and advise can only get you so far. Sometimes you just gotta get down and dirty and mess it all up in order to get to that extremely successful garden that sustains your family.
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Garden 2017