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The worst thing thats happened to your plants

DatilDaddy

DatilDaddy

Banned
What are the worst things you have had happen to your plants in your growing experience? I havent got years under my belt but the worst so far has been kids playing around them and knocking them over, the dog walking through the garden when they were all sprouts, and dealing with caterpillars before discovering BT. Lost half of my plants to these combined attacks (maybe more actually).

Yall had any bad experiences you would like to share?
 
Only got two seasons under my belt. Last season was a aphid infestation, pretty much stopping all my pepper plants from growing.

This year there has been no aphids. Now I'm battling crazy amounts of thrips, so far a losing battle!
 
Broad mite and Queensland fruit fly. Both notorious for their ability to swiftly destroy. With broad mite attacking plant growth and fruit fly attacking pods, the combination is pure evil.
 
rats eating my anaheims, poblanos, most annuums....and no way to stop them.....can't use poison because I have a dog...
 
This year even though I've battled aphids, spider mites, horn worm, and over watering... The worst is coming home from work to see that the AT&T service person moved my BBQ that had two plants knocked off of it and laying in the yard and one of my tomatillos trampled and broken laying on its side.
 
hooda said:
This year even though I've battled aphids, spider mites, horn worm, and over watering... The worst is coming home from work to see that the AT&T service person moved my BBQ that had two plants knocked off of it and laying in the yard and one of my tomatillos trampled and broken laying on its side.
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Whoa, I would have been hot.
 
Well you would think aphids (got them) ants (have them also) slugs have been a problem & so have caterpillars.

Worth thing so far was my chickens eating my Bhut`s down to the stalk, yum yum roast chicken.

Mezo.
 
had a horse eat a "kind" plant once.. it was about 6' tall and had about 10 foot long buds on it he got the colic soo bad.. too tough for him to digest i guess.. the vet had to come out and don the shoulder length glove and a half gallon of lube to clear out my plugged up horsey.. it was no bueno for my stash and my horse hahahaha.. strange the vet just took it instride.. he was examining the half digested "matter" after saying hmmmmm i wonder what this is? in a very sarcastic voice...
 
^ yeah it's always a bummer when the frosts come. I've never had any major disasters, always a few things at a time like the neighbor's kids stripping one tomato plant and throwing them at each other, or a giant sized grape tomato taken out by a gust of wind, or lots of minor wind damage, or trying for a month and a half to raise okra from bad seed, or some random animal will come along and chew off a young plant at the base of the stem, or the neighbor's cat will get a little too curious or want to hide inside a garden plot or even in one of the pots with a plant.

Worst thing plant related didn't happen to my plants though, it happened to me. I'd mixed up a batch of fertilizer water and somehow managed to dump it on myself. 10, maybe 15 minutes later I was half unconscious, had no muscle strength at all (couldn't even move) and was taken to the ER in an ambulance. They never pinned down the exact cause with their blood work but I suspect ammonia poisoning. It probably didn't help that I had a bit of heat exhaustion too but not like that.
 
Never had much bad happen with peppers, they're pretty self-sufficient.

Squash I try to grow always gets ruined by SVB though. Its always so bad, I don't see how the plants survive extinction out in the wild. They sprout, grow, grow a couple fruit then wilt and die.

Usually for peppers/tomatos/eggplant I'll use Sevin to control insects. No dust, just spray, since the dust kills honey bees.

For mammalian pests, if you're a guy you can fertilize with urine. The smell repels most mammals, because of the testosterone in it (small pests think its a much larger mammal marking its territory). As an added benefit, urine is high in urea content and trace minerals, just what plants need.
 
overwatered them and they died. its like i killed them with love.

also, tried to overwinter my goronong without washing the roots with hydrogen peroxide and didnt shield it from sun after transplanting. my beautiful goronong died as well.

all planter's errors, and i hate those.
 
DatilDaddy said:
What are the worst things you have had happen to your plants in your growing experience? I havent got years under my belt but the worst so far has been kids playing around them and knocking them over, the dog walking through the garden when they were all sprouts, and dealing with caterpillars before discovering BT. Lost half of my plants to these combined attacks (maybe more actually).

Yall had any bad experiences you would like to share?
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Have had aphids, broad, thrips, leafminers you name it ... bacterial leaf spot (currently battling and winning VERY slowly) wins hands down.
 
Trying to grow them in the ground instead of a container. It was a good learning lesson though. Out of frustration I did hours upon hours of research which helped out tremendously.
 
LGHT said:
Trying to grow them in the ground instead of a container. It was a good learning lesson though. Out of frustration I did hours upon hours of research which helped out tremendously.
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What is your native soil like?

I plant mine right in the ground and with no fertilizer they thrive!! I have clay/sand soil.

Because air porosity is higher in soilless media, I agree it MORE effective then in ground. Just like hydroponics outgrow in ground.
 
This year has been the worst for me.
Army Worms, Rabbits, Broad Mites, Aphids, Sudden Shock, Wind and Hail all have been brutal this year.
Still waiting to see if I get a decent harvest or not.
 
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