Leaf miner issues

8 years ago

I've had leaf miners for a couple of years now. They generally attack my chard, beet leaves and late-season spinach. Of course it's only stuff I eat leaves of. I've never had any on my tomatoes or peppers or anything else obvious. I've mostly given up on chard and the leaf part of the beets and spinach bolts too early in the spring and does not grow well in the fall anyway.

I now have some nursery-bought Malabar Spinach that I'm pretty excited about and it already has egg clusters under the leaves, which I know were laid at my place. If anything like what happens with my chard or beets, this bodes badly for how much of it I'll actually get to eat, which has me worried.

Other than the laborious removal of new egg clusters, is there much that can be done? I don't know if a row cover would help, seeing how I probably have some hatching from the soil and the plant's vining habit would make it awkward. I'd rather not spray anything nasty on the leaves as it's what I eat too.

Any tips?

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Comments (4)

digdirt2
8 years ago
Row covers can definitely help. Especially if you get them on from day one before the flies can lay eggs on the plants. But even if they go on later they can reduce the population and damage substantially IF you do a good egg cleaning and infested leaf removal first.

Soil emergence isn't much of a problem once the LM season begins. It is the eggs laid by those flies that first emerged that do most of the damage. I'm guessing that as far north as you are you likely only have 1 life cycle per year and iIf you interrupt the cycle you can reduce damage quite a bit.

Dave
isgen
Original Author
8 years ago
Alright, perhaps row cover might be an option then. I was planing to have the plants vine up on a vertical trellis, I can probably find a way to lay the cover over this. Thanks!
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spartanapples
8 years ago
Many years ago I used to raise spinach by planting in the spring (southern WI). We used to pick huge bags full from the garden. Then the pesky leaf miner came to my area and after a lot of desperation I gave up on spring planting spinach.

I started planting a fall crop instead and had much better luck. One year I fall planted a bit too late and found birds were attacking my little spinach plants and kept ripping off the leaves. No fall crop that year. I got lazy and left the tiny plants in the ground. To my surprise the following spring I had the best spinach crop I ever had and it was ready in April! Seemed to beat the leaf miners too!

Later I heard from a friend of mine that he always fall plants his spinach late too as it seems to overwinter and produce a large and early spring crop. Not sure if this will work as far north as you are but just wanted to share this info.
isgen
Original Author
8 years ago
spartanapples,

I tried overwintering spinach this season actually. It survived our harsh winter under a bunch of straw and a tarp, but with our spring often is, the period between the ground thaw and relatively long daylight duration is very short. I think my overwintered bolted a bit earlier than my yearlings too. My best bet as far as real spinach goes, is probably indoor starts in late-Feb or early March, planting out in mid-April or so. It still usually bolts by June though, even if I mulch to keep the soil cool and moist.