My beans and cukes are devastated.

[wildeyed]

I am pretty sure the beans sprouts are getting eaten by sow bugs. I put down diatomaceous earth and thought I had it under control, but the recent sprouts are coming up damaged. Sow bugs are not usually a pest, but in large numbers, they can damage small plants. I had large numbers.

My cuke sprouts were munched, too, but by something different. After losing the first round of direct sowed plants, I bought a flat of larger plants from the garden store hoping that the large size would give them some immunity to whatever was eating them. No dice, they are gone now too. The beets and melons have been eaten down to the ground repeatedly as well. I have checked for bugs, but never see anything on the plants. Put out beer for slugs, but didn't get any, so I don't think that is the problem. :banghead:

I am having a modest pest problem with the peppers, a little more with the basil but both are surviving. Never had any problem with either of those in the past. Lettuce, kale, broccoli and tomatoes are great.

I have never grown beans or cukes before, but I was lead to believe that they would not be a huge challenge. I had good luck with tomatoes and lettuce in the past, so I figured adding new veggies to my repertoire would be no problem. I built nice supports, ordered seeds and planted. But no luck :cry:

I soaked the surviving bean sprouts with neem and dusted again with diatomaceous earth today. I am starting cukes in a tray on the deck and hope to give them another go in the big garden in a few weeks. But I am getting discouraged. Why the huge problems this year? I rotate crops every year, so that is not the problem. I mixed lots of nice worm and yard compost and some kelp meal into my beds in the spring, just like always. I have been watering on an appropriate schedule. The plants should be lovely and strong by this point in the year. But they are not. They are ragged, stunted and chewed. So why why why all the issues this year after never a serious problem in the past? :crazy:

[China_cat]

1. I don't know about the cukes

but the beans may have a larger pest than any bug. One year I put in beans and was watching them start when one morning I went out and found most of the plants no longer had leaves and the ones that did had big holes in them. No leaves on the ground or anything, they were just gone.

Took a while of watching...and I never did get any beans that year...but it turned out that a small colony of feral cats were EATING my bean leaves. That was one I certainly didn't expect.

[wildeyed]

2. I made a tent of special lightweight bug screen material.

The material was never disturbed, but the plants continued to get damaged. When I scratched around in the dirt at the base of the plants, I noticed tons of sow bugs. I think they are eating the debris around the plants and getting bits of the embryonic leaves and the roots in the process.

Maybe I need to resign myself to no beans or cukes this year. But it is hard after spending time and money on the supports. :( Plus I was looking forward to the fresh produce.

[China_cat]

3. Have you thought of putting them in containers with

clean soil? I did that with my bush beans and I've got a good crop coming. (About another week and I'll have beans for dinner)

[wildeyed]

4. I have a number of plants growing in pots this year, mostly tomatoes.

I have one 'salad bush' cuke going. So far that one looks ok. I have a few 5-gallon plastic pots from landscape plants I bought early in the season. Maybe I will try a few beans in those. It won't be enough to feed the family, but at least it will be something, and so far I got a whole lot of nothing, so something would be good :)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Just a thought here

Perhaps you could start them in paper pots that are biodegradable? Once they're ready to be moved to the soil they should be large enough to be safe from the pillbugs.

I'd at least give it a shot. You've nothing to lose but some folded newspaper and a few seeds. :)

[China_cat]

6. I just picked my first beans today.

Will probably be picking every day for a while now.

btw, the containers I use are empty kitty litter buckets...the type that Costco sells. They make great veggie planters, line up beautifully and don't cost a penny if, like us, you have cats...or if you friends or neighbors who have cats and don't know what to do with those containers.

(Each bucket holds 6 bush bean plants without overcrowding, or 1 tomato plant, or 1 medium lemon grass, or 6 lettuce, or I imagine several of others too but I've put some in the ground, too)

[bhikkhu]

7. Posts about picking ripe veggies should be banned until June at least!

My pole beans are sprouts just getting their 2nd leaves, and I had to go out and cover them tonight because it should get to 30 degrees and the wind is blowing hard...:(

On edit...well, I don't mind really. A picture would be nice though, as I have a month before I expect to be seeing anything ripe here. :)

[China_cat]

8. I've also got tomatoes with the first blush of red on them.

Another day or 2 and it'll be blt's.