what is lopping off bush bean branches/stems/leaves? UPDATE

[patandchickens]

I am thinking rabbit or hornworm, but am I missing some other obvious possibility? I don't recall having this problem before but then I usually grow pole beans - these are for my 4 yr old so he can reach to harvest. And SOMETHING is making fairly clean diagonal cuts thru the stalks, leaving large chunks of detached vegetation wilting on the ground. The plants are about a foot, foot and a half high, and have been blooming for a week or more now -- much too big for cutworms I would have thought.

I am aggravated and Harry is distressed (they are *his* beans, *he* planted and watered them, he wants a crop to eat).

I put up an electronet fence today, in case it is rabbits (my personal bet), but am not sure the charger is really getting it sufficiently 'hot'. I need to shell out for a DIGITAL fencemeter someday, sigh, those neon things are so untrustworthy.

I haven't *seen* any hornworms but you know that doesn't mean much.

Anything else I should be considering?

Pat

 

[Grow 4 Food]

wascally wabbits.

Call Elmer Fudd maybe he can help

 

[patandchickens]

Well, after a night with electronet around the beans (although as I said above, I am not entirely sure I have enough charge on the fence to unambiguously deter rabbits :/) there is loads more new damage

I am so pissed off. Harry is really upset. The bean plants are just being disassembled right and left, with diagonal cuts thru the stems. Some flowers and new leaves seem to be being eaten, but in large part it is just like we've had a small axe-murderer running amok in there.

(And the runner beans are not setting any fruit this year, which I would just chalk up to insufficient time except that last year we got almost zero fruit set so this seems ominous. Working hypothesis last year was pollinator deficit but I dunno).

AAAAAARRRGH.

I suppose 4 yr olds need to learn the hard lessons about life sometime (and their mommies need to be reminded) but that doesn't make it fun.

On the 'bright' side, even my youngest lettuce plants are now starting to bolt, so it looks like the salad deluge may be over for a while


Pat

 

[Tutter]

I'm so sorry! I hate to disappoint a child in the garden when they are just becoming enthusiastic. Poor, Harry.

Maybe, just in case you can't stop whatever it is, you can get him something potted up, so that while he will learn that this sometimes happens, and he won't get miles of beans, he will get to harvest something of his own still.

Goodness, we are so far away from lettuce season here that I'd almost forgotten about it!

I hope that something gives, in your favor!

 

[bills]

You would think that rabbits would just nibble at the foilage, and not cut right thru the stalk. As well the foilage left on the ground should have lots of chew marks.

I know cutworms can really mess up a new planting of beans, but usually when they get the size of yours they back off. Maybe you have some mutant size cutworms.

Any deer tracks around? They could probably reach right over the rabbit fencing. Perhaps stake some chicken wire around the patch, and see how it fairs.

It's darn upsetting when some pest discovers your garden, after all the hard work.

 

[patandchickens]

Well, I set a rabbit live-trap (baited with carrots) last night, and left the electronet fence in place but turned off... and the trap and carrots were untouched in the morning, despite more bush-bean carnage.

I suppose it is *possible* I just have a very savvy rabbit.

I am now thinking more in terms of insects, or maybe concievably voles???, though.

We don't have deer around here - not *right* around here, I mean; I have never seen within a coupla miles of here. And it isn't really 'tops browsed off' -- all parts of the plant, including a lot of lower bits, are severed.

I would go out at night with a flashlight except we have SO many mosquitoes that I Don't Think So.

Grrrrrrrr.


Pat

 

[Grow 4 Food]

Till your ground around it and smooth it out very very level. Then lets wait and see what foot prints are left after the damage. Maybe then we can figure out what is messing with Harry's crop.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

It really is unfortunate when they have to learn those little life lessons.

Voles amongst other rodents are sometimes deterred by citrus. Have any oranges handy? Eat a few and scatter the peels around your plants.

You can use a garlic/pepper/onion and soap spray to try and discourage nibbling. I've found that this will work in a variety of situations with insects and other pests.

 

[patandchickens]

Till your ground around it and smooth it out very very level. Then lets wait and see what foot prints are left after the damage. Maybe then we can figure out what is messing with Harry's crop.

Doh! That is exactly what I should do, of course! I have some 'retired' sandbox sand (gotten too fine and dusty) that I can spread around some of the beans, and see what if anything shows up.

I'm reluctant to use a spray with hot peppers in it because I'm not sure that a small lost crop of beans is worth risking blinding the local vole or rabbit population. I'm not saying sometimes it *isn't*, I'm just saying, not really for this. Any idea how well the spray works without the chilis?

Thanks,

Pat

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Till your ground around it and smooth it out very very level. Then lets wait and see what foot prints are left after the damage. Maybe then we can figure out what is messing with Harry's crop.

Doh! That is exactly what I should do, of course! I have some 'retired' sandbox sand (gotten too fine and dusty) that I can spread around some of the beans, and see what if anything shows up.

I'm reluctant to use a spray with hot peppers in it because I'm not sure that a small lost crop of beans is worth risking blinding the local vole or rabbit population. I'm not saying sometimes it *isn't*, I'm just saying, not really for this. Any idea how well the spray works without the chilis?

Thanks,

Pat

Just the garlic spray works just fine.