Produce > Pests & Diseases

asparagus beetle, again

(1/1)

small:
What a year for them. I only have a ten foot row of asparagus and I'm killing dozens of beetles every day. I've not had them this early before, how are others managing this year? The crop is wonderful but it's a race to cut the spears before they are ruined by the eggs....

squeezyjohn:
That's funny ... I had them bad the last couple of years and haven't seen one this year!

In all honesty there isn't much you can do beyond squishing and trying to maintain good hygeine with cutting down and burning the asparagus foliage at the end of the autumn.  Bob Flowerdew suggests letting one spear develop in to a fern early on as "bait" for the beetles while you continue to cut the spears - burning the bait ferns every now and then along with the beetles ... I haven't tried that one - but it seems logical!

small:
I hadn't read the Flowerdew advice, but I had let the last plant in the row grow on, it's only ever sprue, I think because it is too close to an inadvertent oak sapling (dang those squirrels and their acorn-burying....). That fern has had the fewest beetles of all, while the sturdy, healthy fat spears further along are crawling with the beasties.  Having said that, with a cold wet morning there were none at all to catch yet today!

pumkinlover:
My treatment a few years ago was in desperation I chopped off all the foliage though it was a bit later in the season. Not had as much problem since but it might be a coincidence....

Navigation

[0] Message Index