Before tilling in all the leaves I harvested the rest of the Leeks I had planted this spring. Much to my disappointment (and disgust) they were infested with what appeared to be onion maggots. A small fly lays its eggs at the base of the plant and when you harvest instead of seeing roots you see a wriggling mass. Needless to say we didn’t eat any of this last harvest. I need to do some research on this pest. I have only grown onions one other year and didn’t have a problem with the maggots then or on the crop of multipliers I grew this spring. Perhaps they prefer leeks? I’ve got all winter to determine what, if anything I will need to do next year for next year’s onions. Anybody know any organic controls for this one?
2 thoughts on “Are leeks supposed to wriggle?”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
sorry to hear about the maggots…
One organic way to prevent that from happening is to make a tea from burdock leaves, let it cool to room temp and poor it on and around the base of each plant.
I find my burdock in my woods.
GGG,
Thanks for the burdock info. How strong should the tea be and how often does it need to be applied?