I bought three small tomato plants and three small cucumber plants yesterday at Home Depot. I planted them in plant pots that I plan to leave on the southern side of the house where there may be enough sun for them. I did not try to plant them in the ground because the soil is like clay and contains many tree roots. I think the pots will be big enough.
When I looked at them a few hours later, there were little green caterpillars crawling up the outside of the plant pots. A few had made it so far as to be able to begin nibbling at plant leaves. I removed them by hand. And then again this morning there were more of them. I did some research on the internet and learned that something called bacillus thuringiensis is supposed to kill the caterpillars but not make the crops unfit for human consumption. So I got some at Home Depot. One has to mix a small quantity with water and then spray it on the leaves. So I made up twelve ounces of the stuff in a plastic spray bottle. About four ounces of the spray seemed enough when I actually sprayed it on the plants.
I plan to use the rest of the stuff in the spray bottle in the next few days. The instructions that came with the product say that one is not supposed to let the mixture sit for more than a few hours. But it doesn’t say what happens if one does that. If the house explodes tonight, that will be the reason.
I’m not sure that the stuff is going to do much good anyhow. It says that the caterpillars will die in two or three days after ingesting some. There are lots of them and they can probably do a lot of damage in two or three days.
