Tomato Plant Progress and Nasty Slugs in Early August

Posted on | August 3, 2009 | 9 Comments

I’ve been relaxing at home since I got back from my Maine road trip. My garden has gotten huge. The tomato plants have completely taken over. Little babies are starting to grow. Maybe in the next couple of weeks I actually have some to eat.

A big chunk of my garden got eaten by nasty slugs while I was gone. Thankfully, they didn’t make it to the tomatoes. They did invite all their friends over for a hydrangea leaf eating party. My beautiful blue flowers are really looking sad. I tried to rid myself of the infestation by using the old school beer removal method.

The idea is to put plastic cups into the ground filled with stinky cheap beer. You want the cups low enough so the little buggers will crawl in, drown, and die. We were pretty successful. I think we captured 6-8. Slugs are so disgusting. We found one laying on the sidewalk still alive. The scary thing freaked everyone out. I heard lots of screams from my living room window Sunday morning. Greg felt bad for the ugly creature and found it a new home far away from my garden. Hopefully my plants will grow back and be happy now!

3785576285 d292beee25 Tomato Plant Progress and Nasty Slugs in Early August

Category: garden

Comments

9 Responses to “Tomato Plant Progress and Nasty Slugs in Early August”

Alexis
August 3rd, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
I've just started gardening, and I've quickly come to hate slugs. I think they might be pure evil.
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Lindsey
August 3rd, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
Your tomato plants are lovely. I lost my entire crop this year due to some evil little tomato virus… I have tomato envy!
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chelsea
August 3rd, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
Katy! Your garden is gorgeous! I can't believe how much it's grown since you posted the first pics.
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katy elliott
August 3rd, 2009 @ 7:03 pm
Oh know lindsey. I've heard a lot of people have the Tomato Blight! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html

Cross your fingers, I think I have a healthy crop!
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amy sprouse
August 3rd, 2009 @ 9:33 pm
Hey Katy:

I noticed you use rope to tie up/support your vines. You may want to try tomato tape. It is green and stretches with the weight of the vines once the toms ripen (you can find it in the gardening aisle or close by). Rope can damage the vines when they get heavy with unripened toms. I would hate to see all of your hard work go array with unforgiving rope. :|
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Brittany Noel
August 3rd, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
So far, the blight hasn't come to Michigan. Knock on wood…
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hmstrjam
August 4th, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
Your tomato plants look amazing! btw love all the photos from your trip to Maine – inspiring me to hop in the cars and head north!
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Lynne
August 4th, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
The garden's looking great. Congratulations are definitely in order. Slugs and snails aren't so much of a problem here in New Zealand with tomatoes, but white butterfly caterpillars are. The tomatoes end up looking like they are infested with borer unless you keep at them with pesticides (which I hate). Unfortunately the organic pesticides have to be re-applied every time it rains so gets both time-consuming and expensive.
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al carbonneau
July 12th, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
Hi all From Massachusetts. Miserable slugs go right for the ripening tomatos in my garden. I had soom extra roof shingles that I put around the beds as a barrier. Seems to work. Shingles were new and very sharp and rough…slugs don’t like crawing on it. I also put used coffee grounds around each plant as a back-up.
Good luck. Alan
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