Where have all the lettuce gone? Nine little Two Stars seedlings vanished overnight with only stubs of stem to mark their place. This is a new one for early lettuce in the hoophouse, nothing similar happened in the past. It’s probably field mice (actually, voles), particularly since no leaves were left behind. I dug around for cutworms (a pest I haven’t yet had a chance to meet)—thankfully, nothing! Whatever it was, I found where mice have tunneled in (the hoophouse sits on 4x4s bolted to T-bars pounded 3′ into the ground, IOW, a wood frame sitting on the surface, easy to tunnel under), and filled the holes, which won’t stop ’em, but will be an indicator if they’re out and about tonight. Other than that, there’s nothing else to do right now, besides starting a tray of replacement lettuce, in case the munching turns into a wholesale lettuce slaughter. Let’s see what’s up tomorrow…
I recently discovered a new trick for outing cutworm: drench the area in LOTS of water for a full minute or so. The cutworm (presumably) can’t manage without air and come up in a hurry, gasping, at which point, “Gotcha!” Works well for seed trays.
Sorry to here about the lettuce. I hope it is not too much of a set back. The blog is an inspiration. I love it.
Mike,
That sounds like a good trick. Luckily, I haven’t run into cutworms so far, I’ll try that if I do. Having to out them in TRAYS sounds quite alarming… :)
Alastair,
No, the lettuce isn’t a big setback, and stuff always happens, for me half the satisfaction is working around little setbacks and occasionally lucking out (oh, I didn’t get that golf ball sized hail that pummeled everything in sight only 10 miles down the road, that sorta luck!)…and always making a solid weekly harvest. Thanks for the extreme compliment…it’ll make it that much easier to stay on course with my daily-or-so posting plan once the season really gets rolling.
Mike