What to look out for, potato varmints?

10 years ago

last modified: 10 years ago

It's our first time trying to grow potatoes (suburb north of Boston)...I figure they probably need to be protected...but not sure what from. Will the deer eat the tops? Will things dig to get the potatoes (before the people have a chance?) thanks for any info, as that will help me figure what kind of cage, deterrent, etc, will help. Thank you.

Featured Answer

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

10 years ago

My biggest issue always is potato bugs, two kinds, both of which are yellow and black striped. The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) is shaped like a ladybug, round and domed, but about 3x as large, and the three-lined potato beetle (Lema daturaphila) is about the shape of a squash vine beetle or lightning bug, but a bit smaller. You can either do daily patrols with a container of soapy water and knock bugs in to drown along with scraping any eggs off the under side of the leaves and dropping them into the water as well, or you can spray with a form of Bt bacteria that is specific to potato bugs making sure to get the underside and top of the leaves and respray after rain, or you can cover the whole crop with hoops and spunbond row cover or tule fabric/fine netting with the edges well weighted down to prevent access. There may be nonorganic methods, but I don't use them. If you don't remove or exclude the adults and eggs, the larvae will eat all the leaves down to the ribs and so you won't have a lot of potatoes. The only other insect issue I've had is cutworms, so I usually give each plant a cutworm collar around the entire group of stems made from two quart yogurt containers with the bottom cut out and slit open the long way so that each one makes half of the circle of protection.

This year for the first time in 25+ years I haven't planted any because I am having a major issue with voles. Last year they ate several regular potatoes as well as every one of my sweet potatoes (which are otherwise pest-free in my garden.) So far this year I've had 3 entire plants disappear overnight into holes, though not potato plants, so it just didn't seem worth the trouble.

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Comments (9)

H B
Original Author
10 years ago
Oh my goodness, can you tell bugs never occurred to me, ack! Thank you for such complete information! Will watch out and put cutworm collars on. I was wondering if putting a fine mesh on the surface and weighting it down with an inch of dirt or so might stop or slow down voles.
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NHBabs z4b-5a NH
10 years ago
What I really need to do is build raised beds with a wire mesh bottom. My voles seem to mostly stay underground for shelter in the soft garden dirt so a surface mesh wouldn't help. This hole in the middle of a cutworm collar used to be a parsley plant and the vole tunneled to and from it 3"-4" deep.
H B thanked NHBabs z4b-5a NH
H B
Original Author
10 years ago
That is amazing! Think I am stuck for this year but if the potatoes otherwise grow well, could dig and install a vole cage for next year. Wow. Just wow! (Heehee autocorrect wants to call them "vile")
asarum
10 years ago
There are many different things that could affect your potatoes both pests and diseases. Gardening is an adventure and at the end of the season you will know more. A gardener who lived very close to you and grows potatoes might be able to predict what problems you may encounter. I live south of Boston and happen to grow potatoes in growbags. I have been fortunate. Deer are not interested in my tomatoes/potatoes and I have not at this time been bothered by voles or potato bugs. My tomatoes tend to get septoria leaf spot, and maybe my potatoes do to some extent as well. So you never know until you grow. Then you develop strategies as NHBabs has done. (I tend to ignore the septoria leaf spot.)
H B thanked asarum
defrost49
10 years ago
Voles or some other rodents went after carrots and beets but only did major damage in one patch in my high tunnel. I had a 3x3' area for carrots and they got them all. I agree with NHBabs on daily, sometimes twice daily potato bug patrol. I put the cover back on the plastic container of water and leave it in the potato patch so it's always ready. I don't dump it every day. I've only been growing potatoes for a few years. My major problem year #1 was hilling with straw but waiting too long to tuck the straw around the base of the plants so some of the fingerlings got exposed to light and turned green/poisonous. Since then I have been more careful to tuck the straw well around the plants stems and thickly. A bale of straw is $10 this year and goes a long way.

We had something tunneling into my high tunnel. I caught several mice in traps but last fall my husband put some poison bait at each tunnel hole that they take back to their nests. I hoped that the poisoned rodents would be underground when they died and not be eaten by owls or hawks.
H B thanked defrost49
defrost49
10 years ago
Found first of the season Colorado potato beetles in the garden yesterday. Time for daily patrols and removal.
H B thanked defrost49
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
I've been finding them for about 10 days. I didn't plant potatoes, but I do have a few volunteers from potatoes I missed last season so I also have potato beetles.
defrost49
10 years ago
my husband said he saw some but I didn't want to believe him. I've been away and didn't get out in the garden until yesterday.