Q. Something is bothering my newly planted tomato plants. I keep finding leaves that have been cleanly clipped from the stem lying on the soil surface. I looked for horn worms, but the plants are so small I don’t think this is the problem. Any ideas on possible causes and solutions? Thank you.
-Pueblo, Colorado
A. If the stem is being clipped, it’s most likely cutworms–they are most active this time of year and love to form a ring around small transplants and fell them like trees. They can be easily thwarted by inserting two toothpicks vertically into the soil along the sides of the plants’ stem. However, from your description it sounds more like the leaves are being clipped while the stem remains. I’m afraid I don’t know what might be doing that. It’s never something I’ve personally encountered; it’s possible it’s a regional problem that we don’t face in the Northeast. I’d check with your local extension office and see if they can advise.
Luckily, tomatoes are really resilient, so even if you can’t figure out what the problem is, you’ll probably end up with healthy mature plants–as long as they can barrel through this stress. (Here the most common stress on young plants is flea beetles; within a few weeks, the plants will be so robust that you’d never guess they were once being munched so badly…)
Good luck!
-Doug Muller, Hudson Valley Seed Library
Accord, NY
www.seedlibrary.org
