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My potatoes are doomed. :(
I thought I was getting a handle on the Colorado potato bugs. Today I only pulled off about 12 adults from my potato patch. There were hundreds and hundreds of these red bugs with black dots, though...sort of like mutated, overgrown lady bugs. Come to find out...these are juvenile Colorado potato bugs.
I broke down and sprayed the potatoes with liquid 7, trying to drown the f
ers, and knocked all of the bugs I could get off the potatoes, but at the time I didn't know what they were. They are destroying my potatoes and I don't know what I can do about it that I'm not already doing. I know the adult beetles are pretty much immune to most pesticides, but how about the juveniles that haven't formed the hard shell yet? Any chance my spraying will kill them off or disrupt their breeding cycle? Is there any hope at all?
My potatoes are about 2 feet tall and flowering right now. I planted 50 lbs. of seed potatoes and let me tell you...it's been a lot of work. They were doing so good. Even now they look great, but if you walk through there are several plants that have some serious damage. I've read that this is a critical stage for potatoes and that they can only lose about 10% of their foliage and still do well because they need all their energy in forming the tubers.
I'm really discouraged right now.
I broke down and sprayed the potatoes with liquid 7, trying to drown the f
ers, and knocked all of the bugs I could get off the potatoes, but at the time I didn't know what they were. They are destroying my potatoes and I don't know what I can do about it that I'm not already doing. I know the adult beetles are pretty much immune to most pesticides, but how about the juveniles that haven't formed the hard shell yet? Any chance my spraying will kill them off or disrupt their breeding cycle? Is there any hope at all?My potatoes are about 2 feet tall and flowering right now. I planted 50 lbs. of seed potatoes and let me tell you...it's been a lot of work. They were doing so good. Even now they look great, but if you walk through there are several plants that have some serious damage. I've read that this is a critical stage for potatoes and that they can only lose about 10% of their foliage and still do well because they need all their energy in forming the tubers.
I'm really discouraged right now.
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