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@tkg-nc.bsky.socialOct 14, 2026, 7:15 PM

The Wild Harvest Digest: October 2026, #3

Welcome back neighbors,

Our focus this week isn’t just on plants, you see I caught something interesting on camera and I think you will find it pretty interesting. #Tomato #ParasiticWasp #TobaccoHornworm #Collards #MustardGreens #Carrots

This is the first time I’ve ever seen this happening in the Test Gardens and it’s a sign of healthy biodiversity. In the first picture, this is a Tobacco Hornworm, the larval or caterpillar stage of a Carolina Sphinx Moth’s (Manduca sexta) life cycle. Tobacco Hornworms if not caught early can cause a lot of destruction to a Tomato plant and ruin your planned harvests. A Tobacco Hornworm can grow up to four inches long and be as thick as a thumb. The worst part is they can grow to those big sizes very rapidly, a Tobacco Hornworm can reach full size in three to four weeks and this varies based on the weather and availability of food. In our area they tend to be a summer problem as the larva emerges from the soil in late July through August, takes its adult form, then they mate, and lay eggs on your prized Tomato plants. It is possible to see up to three separate generations of Tobacco Hornworms in a given year in our state so they are a serious problem. Just so we’re clear, a Tobacco Hornworm is not the same thing as a Tomato Hornworm; they might both attack Tomatoes, but they are the larva of two different Moths. There are two ways to tell the caterpillars apart, the first is a mnemonic, if it has “Seven lucky stripes, Lucky Strikes, Tobacco Hornworm” and, Eight V’s, V8 Juice, Tomato Hornworm”. An alternative way to be sure is to look at the horn on the rear of the Caterpillar, if it’s reddish in color it’s a Tobacco Hornworm, whereas if the horn is blue, black or dark green it’s a Tomato Hornworm. Also keep in mind that the Tomato Hornworm is the larval stage of a different moth, the Five-spotted Hawk Moth (Manduca quinquemaculata). In the picture, you can see bunch of little white things on the Tobacco Hornworm, and that’s where the biodiversity comes in. Those little white cotton swab looking things are the cocoons of the Braconid Wasp (Cotesia congregata). In a life cycle that would have made H.R. Geiger and Ridley Scott giddy, this the tiny Braconid Wasp’s females hunt larger caterpillars. They use and ovipositor to inject their eggs into the caterpillar and then those eggs hatch inside the Caterpillar, and start eating the Caterpillar’s fat stores and internal fluids but this does not kill the unwary host. Once the Wasp larva is mature enough they chew their way out and spin the little cocoons you see on the Caterpillar’s body. The Caterpillar at this stage is paralyzed; it has the agony of just sitting there and starving to death. The new wasps hatch and then start seeking out new hosts which repeats the cycle. With all that said this same picture shows you what kind of foliage damage to look for so you can get ahead of Hornworm problems. Notice the skeletonized leaf in the lower right side of the photo that is out of focus. Hornworms will skeletonize leaves like that and if they can get to fruit, they will eat entire chunks out of fruit regardless of if it’s green or not. The easiest control method is to hand pick them off your plants but when they’re carrying a load of Wasps like this letting nature take its course is the best call. So now that the topic of extra-hungry caterpillars and their even more hungry somewhat sadistic wasp ‘friends’ has been covered in detail let’s take a look at some garden photos. First is a nice picture of the current status of the two raised beds that make up the vegetable patch. On the far left, that’s Lavender (Lavendula x intermedia ‘phenomenal’) and a Common Sage (Salvia officinalis). The four large plants in the center are Collard Greens (Brassica oleracea var. acephala ‘Green Glaze’) and the tiny seedlings below the Collards are Carrots (Daucus carota ‘Red Cored Chantenay’). Last we have what’s behind the cattle panel and what’s on the right.The seedlings on the other side of the cattle panel are Arugula (Eruca sativa) seedlings, and the ones to the left are Mustard Spinach (Brassica rapa perviridis). Now some folks light think I planted things too closely, however, the Collards are spaced for maximum growth while the Carrots are underneath them for a double-purpose, they keep the weeds down and I get a harvest of Carrot greens and roots out of the deal. The Mustard Spinach was somewhat of an accident; the seed was at least a year and a half old and I was expecting a poor germination rate. The Mustard Spinach said ‘Hold my Fertilizer’ and did whatever the heck it wanted. Mustard Spinach is a type of Mustard Greens that are known for fast growth and spicy mustard flavor. It’s unclear if this variety can survive our coldest cold weather but I look forward to a whole lot of tasty greens soon. The third picture shows the other Vegetable Patch bed, which was planted a bit after the other one. The seedlings on the right are Mustard Greens (Brassica juncea ‘Henpecked Southern’), an old school type of mustard greens that as seed needs little encouragement to germinate. The four large plants in the middle are the same type of collards in the other bed, and the seedlings around them are some Carrots. Behind the cattle panel in the middle, the seedlings are Arugula. In the upper right there are several Rue (Ruta graveolens ‘Blue Mound Rue’) plants while in the lower right I’ve planted Lavender of the same type as is in the other bed. In gardening you will eventually find that certain vegetable seeds can be treated like those flower seed mixes in that you can just distribute the seed on the ground, keep it moist for about two weeks and the crops will do the rest. There are many vegetables that will come up on their own if you just toss the seeds on the ground and that can save you a lot of propagating trouble in the long run.