Colorado beetle

[dragonrouge]

I am hoping that the gardening guru Tony F Dordogne picks this up

We moved to the Vendee from Normandie around Xmas and be it Normandie or the UK we never have had any experience with the above.

Here in the village we rent a large plot and we know that two years ago the owner stuffed it simply full of pots.

This year everything has grown superbly from onions shallots courgettes the parsnips are wonderful melons the lot.  However just seen the pots and have not looked at them for a few days and they are devasted with this beetle.

Have dug them up and going to burn them and killed as many of the beetles as we can.

 

A few questions if I may please.  In the UK its notifiable here is it the same.  I understand that they live in the soil so could it be from when there was only pots in the ground.  The pots themselves are they safe to eat or should they be destroyed as well.

Many questions sorry not a few.  Does this beetle attack other crops and if so does it finally mean I should leave the ground not touch it again or just plant anything bar pots.  Of course tomatoes are the same family so do they attack those please for its a wonderful crop and ripening nicely (toms) that is.

#

regards

[Ron Avery]

A great pity you didn't post this before digging up and burning your potato crop.  Colorado beetle is not treated with anything like the seriousness here as it is in the UK.

You can get a spray for it, either a liquid spray or powder, If you don't want to spray, the other thing you could have done is to pick off the eggs, red bugs or beetles and kill them, it really is a case of just patrolling daily and picking off the bugs/beetles.  Not seen any transfer to tomatoes but it is possible apparently, but just keep an eye on them and pick off any bugs if you see them don't dig them up and burn them!!

Edit

The beetle attacks the leaves, not the tubers, if the infestation is controlled the crop is quite safe to use, the leaves will actually come back on potatoes if early enough in the growth cycle.

[dragonrouge]

I am so grateful to you and reality it was only just four rows that had it and they have gone but the other rows seemingly are ok.  Have been patrolling since seen some beetles and then just destroyed  them.  Tomatoes seem ok so fingers crossed.  I suppose the problem is for commercial growers.

 

Thanks Ron

[chris pp]

""I suppose the problem is for commercial growers""

Not really, they spray them all the time.

Chris

[dragonrouge]

Thanks Chris we do not spray at all nothing whatsoever totally bio and here in our village the commune is absolutely behind a 'green' approach lots of recycled compost and free issue of compost bins and t he like.

 

regards

[Iceni]

CB also attack aubergines.

John

[tracteurtom]

I'm in a similar position, having a garden thar was previously used for large quatities of potatoes.  I'm in my 4th season and the fight with Doraphore is still just as strong as the first.  Spraying is the ONLY way you will get an upper hand with these things.  Its all very well thinking I'll be "green", but the reality is the amount of work involved in hand picking the bugs/larvae/eggs is never ever worth it.  So, IMO, if you want to grow pots (and you should !) swallow your principles and spray.  I'd recommend you get a spray that also does Mildew and give the toms and aubergines a covering to.  But do not spray more than 3 -4 times in the season and use different products from one season to the next.  Apparently these little bug-gers mutate and can become immume to the insecticide.  Plan to spray to kill the larvae, not the bugs as they are the most sensitive.  Of course, walkin gup and down the rows on a hot afternoon picking of the bugs does help keep the numbers down, but for every bug you kill, I'll gaurantee there's ten you've missed !

One thing you must do is rotavate the potatoe beds before you plant the tubers.  This helps to kill the bugs in the soil before they set to eating your potatoes leaves.   On the plus side, its not as devestating as Mildew / Blight.  so long as the plant still has some leaves, you'll have a crop, albeit limited in tuber size.  Now Mildew, spray spray and spray !!!

[dragonrouge]

Do understand and recognise the need for spraying but maybe a step too far for us.  Have rotivated the soil and will continue to do so this autumn.  Spoke to a neighbour last night with a huge garden just yards from ours.  He says mildew on his toms so we are next in line.  Again our previous neighbours in Normandie report this year as bad as last year lots of mildew.

such is life

[Callie]

[quote user="tracteurtom"] Its all very well thinking I'll be "green", but the reality is the amount of work involved in hand picking the bugs/larvae/eggs is never ever worth it.  [/quote]

I'm not sure many of us would agree with this !  But the rest of your posting was very interesting, Tracteurtom.

I'm all for picking the bugs off in a small veg patch but can understand the use of sprays in a large area, even if I don't like it.  Yes, it can be time consuming and not everyone has enough ! !

Mildew has been a terrible problem this year in our garden, and we have had to spray.  But I remember visiting a friend's vineyard last year and he told me that mildew had caused havoc with the vines in the Loire/Touraine region.  Presumably due to the warm wet atmosphere of last summer.

[tracteurtom]

The problem with being "green" (I think the french term "bio" is much neater!) is that you must have a through understanding of plants and their needs.  Fine you if just have a small patch, and are willing to put in the time to learn.  But once you start to cultavate a larger area you simply dont have enough time in the day to check each plant individually and cater for its needs like a baby.   I think our mistake was setting off with too large a patch, - in excess of 1500m2, complete with weeds in year 1.  We had in over 500 potatoe plants and it simply was impossible to keep control of the doraphore and the weeds.  This year, we are running 2 patches, one of  800m2 the other is 300m2, still alot, but we now know a lot more about proirites (hoeing hoeing and more hoeing) and use sprays to keep the bugs and mildew at bay.  We have also limited the potatoes to just 100 plants and found this to be more managable.  Lets face it, even after some limited spraying, your own produce has 10 times the flavour and goodness of any supermarket stuff, even that that is passed off as "organic", whatever that means.

So yes be Bio when ever you can, but be realistic and dont put off spraying should the need arise.

anyone for a cabbage or 5 ....

[cassis]

[quote user="tracteurtom"]We had in over 500 potatoe plants ...

[/quote]

Good grief!  How many of you are there?  What did you do with all the potatoes?  We find that 100 plants does two of us for a year! [:-))]