Cut tomato leaves

[Ridgerunner]

I set out some tomato plants Saturday. I noticed this morning (Tuesday) that something had cut off some of my tomato leaves last night or early this morning. It does not look like cutworms as the leaves (sometimes one, as many as three on one plant) were cut off, not the main stem. I also dug and could not find a cutworm. The leaves were still there, laying on the ground.

There was a lot of freshly cultivated ground around but I saw no animal tracks. We've had a light rain, less than 0.1 inch, but I felt I should have been able to see tracks if anything substantial was there. I'm half blind even with glasses, however, so I might have missed something. It was seven different plants, as if something had gone down the row, getting maybe 2 out of 3 plants.

This is the second year of having the garden here. Last year, this area had pole beans. I mulched with one year old rotted, not composted, wood chips.

I know I have rabbits and groundhogs in the area.

I can't think of anything else that might be significant. Does anyone have suggestions as to what the culprit might be?

editted to add: Peppers and eggplant in the area but in a separate row were not damaged.

Thanks

 

[momofdrew]

It could be a bird... I have had starlings nip off tips of plant leaves...

 

[bid]

If you know you have rabbits, could be them. Baby bunny played havoc with some of my tomatos last year, 'till he/she got too fat to get through the fence. Thats about what it would do too. Ate on the plants but didn't seem to like the taste and the leaves would be laying on the ground. Look for a sharp type angled cut on the stem.

 

[vfem]

Or an evil cat taking a walk by them.... I've lost all my onions to cats having to use the litter box!!!!

 

[patandchickens]

I had a similar problem with my bush beans last year -- bits lopped off by clean, angled cuts. Probably not rabbits, as fencing did no good and sand revealed no tracks. My belief is that it was slugs and/or earwigs but I can't prove it.

I'd suggest removing the mulch, see if that helps.

Good luck, probably the tomatoes will outgrow it (my beans eventually did, although I didn't get as good a crop),

Pat

 

[Ridgerunner]

I managed to talk to the county extension agent who referred me to their expert. His thoughts were that it was beetles. He would not speculate as to which kind. He thought a rabbit would take out the center of the plant, not just nip off the leaves. From my description, he did not believe it was cutworms. I don't either. I'm very familiar with cutworms.

At his suggestion, I sprayed with Sevin. If other leaves are gone in the morning, I will remove the mulch as Pat suggested. I do believe that tomatoes can come back very well from something like this if I can just stop further damage.

Thanks for the help.

 

[897tgigvib]

Did that turn out to be Beetles do you think? I would have guessed Beetles, mice, or towhees or mountain chickadees. slugs would have left slime marks to spot. Baby lizards do that kind of thing sometimes too.

Rabbits would have done more munching.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That was a few years back, Marshall. I never figured out what exactly had happened but after I sprayed with Sevin the problem went away. It could have been a beetle but I really think it was a rabbit that didnt like the taste of Sevin. Ive had a lot of trouble with rabbits in that garden.