One of the uninvited guests to my garden this years was this tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta as identified by its red horn is not to be confused with its equally voracious cousin - the tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata) - which sports a black horn and slightly different markings. Often found together, they grow into large caterpillars - about the size of your middle finger. (The ultimate insult!)
It is an eating machine that defoliates plants and eats the fruit as well. It can cause a lot of damage in just a few days on tomato plants because it strips leaves that are needed to shade the ripening tomatoes.
The good news is that they have a natural enemy (other than the gardener). The enemy is a parasitic wasp that lays eggs on the caterpillar. The eggs hatch and start to feed on the caterpillar, killing it. The bottom picture is the same hornworm a few days later, covered with wasp cocoons. The crops are saved!
Finally, with the first frost date for Northeast gardens approaching quickly, we have managed to pick a few ripening tomatoes. I pick them when they first start to blush pink and let them ripen indoors. If I do not do this, the squirrels will come and take the red ones.
Homegrown tomatoes will fully ripen in 2-3 days inside in a warm place, unlike the tasteless things you buy at the supermarket, which have been bred for long shelf-life.
Unfortunately, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the attributes that give longer shelf-life and those that produce wonderful flavor.
1 comment:
My advice -- let the tomatoes ripen on the vine and then eat the squirrels.
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