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A Sad Day For Tomatoes: Slugs!

I’ve written a lot about growing tomatoes here in the Northwest. We have to start them early from seed, plant them with protection, grow varieties that ripen early, and then pray for warm weather.

Even then, we get a year like last year: Cold, wet spring + cool, wet summer = lots of green tomatoes with finally a decent amount of ripe ones by the end of September and October (I did get the first ripe one on August 10th, but they were few and far between after that).

And if we’re going by this spring, we might be in for a repeat.

Nevertheless, last year I did the same things I always do to get tomatoes here and after a few weeks out in the garden covered with row cloth I peeked inside and saw this:

good tomatoes

Looking good, just like the previous three years using my crazy tomato cover.

But this last Saturday, when I peeked inside my tomato cover to see how this year’s tomato seedlings were faring, I found this:


Only 5 plants left out of the 12 I planted in this bed! Arggggg.

Tomato Plant Damage


This is the damage I found on the few that weren’t completely gone.


The stems have been eaten on by…? Any ideas?

I thought cutworms, but they usually cut the plant down around ground level (hence the name…) and I searched and searched around the base of the plants and can’t find any worms.

Then I thought slugs, but I see only a few tiny trails and they would eat the leaves too, right?


The leaves are not touched on the plants left, but there are markings on the stems of all the tomatoes- even the ones still standing.

This was not a very happy birthday present, no siree.

So, I’m off to try and find some of the varieties I painstakingly grew from seed. *sniff* But now I’m worried- will whatever ate these attack the new plants? This bed grew broccoli and cauliflower last year (I practice crop rotation to try and ward off these kinds of things…), but I can’t find the culprit.

Follow-up:

Guess what I discovered decimated my tomatoes?

Slugs. Hundreds of them- I can’t remember when they’ve been this bad. I inadvertently made a trap for them when I stuck the new tomatoes I bought to replace the ones lost in their cardboard tray under the cover over the tomato bed last Friday. I meant to plant them Saturday, but it rained (as in, poured- I’d plant in light drizzle – after all, I’m an Oregonian!). When I went out to plant them on Sunday I was again driven in by heavy rain and HAIL before getting them planted.

So it wasn’t until Monday that I finally looked in on them – and found about 50 slugs slumbering in and around the pots on the cardboard plant carrier. Aaacckk! I killed each and every one – plus many more that I went looking for. And you can bet I liberally applied the slug bait after planting!

About Jami

Since 2009 Jami Boys has helped readers live a simple homemade life through whole food recipes, doable gardening, and easy DIY projects on An Oregon Cottage. Whether it's baking bread, creating a floor from paper and glue, or growing vegetables and canning them, Jami's done it and written about it. She's been featured in Cottages and Bungalows, Old House Journal, and First for Women magazines as well as numerous sites like Good Housekeeping, Huffington Post, and Apartment Therapy.

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  1. Mika says

    Oh no! This is my first year gardening and I have flea beetles on my eggplant and I think on the younger tomato plants too. And something is eating my bean plant leaves but I have no idea what. Sigh..prayer doesn’t seem like the best pesticide at the moment lol.

    Reply

  2. Kari says

    Did you send a pic of your damage to the Oregon Extension service? They are wonderful and nailed what was eating my corn.

    Reply

  6. The Schneiders says

    I’m so sorry for you! We had the same problems with our squash from the vine borer. Your picture made me think it was a vine borer, but they don’t eat tomatoes only squashes and sometimes melons. I almost cried as we pulled up and burned our infected zucchini plants.

    I don’t know if you know, but you can use bt – (dipel dust) on any kind of worm or caterpillar. It is a bacteria that makes the worms stop eating and eventually they die. It will not harm any other bugs, animals or people. We started using it after my entire crop of cabbage and broccoli was eaten last fall.

    Reply

  7. Lexa says

    Jami- So sorry abou tthe tomatoes. It has just been one VERY challenging gardening year so far in Oregon. Between the not-stop rain, and the critter damage, it is hard not to get a little depressed. The good news is, it is still early and getting replacements will be easy. Plus you haven’t lost too much time on the calendar, especially with all of this stinkin’ cold weather. Here’s to sunny , critter-free days ahead!

    Reply

  11. Barb-Harmony Art Mom says

    Wow, they must have been hungry! I started growing my tomatoes in pots a few years ago because of critter problems and then at the end of last season we had hornworms! HUGE hornworms. I had to get rid of everything out of the big pots because someone told me they hibernate in the soil and I didn’t want to take a chance of having them eat my plants again.
    I say try again with seedlings from the nursery once the weather turns more conducive. We put our tomatoes out last Sat eve and it snowed Sun morning….yikes.

    Thanks for hosting this event..I think about it all week!

    Reply

  12. Sunny Simple Life says

    I have no idea. Some sort of munching snail or slimy thing. I have not had that happen here before but other than snails we don’t have too many problems but Ihave never had snails on my maters so that is probably not what it is. Bummer.

    Reply

  13. Barb @ A Life in Balance says

    Oh, no! I think the bugs are going to be bad this year. I noticed lots of cabbage worms on our broccoli and enrolled the kids in helping get rid of them. There’s quite a few aphids on my tomato plants, but there is a lady bug patrolling the area. Ticks are bad, too, around here.

    I’ll be sending positive vibes for your tomatoes!

    Reply

  16. La Vie Quotidienne says

    How disapointing. I have no idea what did this…but after all of your work and effort it is heart breaking. I have given up growing tomatoes in the ground and now I grow them in big pots…so much easier for crop rotation.

    Reply