Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My little barrel system is finally showing a spurt of vegetation growth, and the first thing that happens is some uninvited guest seems to having it away with my produce!!

I've gone hunting, both in daylight and by torch at night, but can't see anything of the caterpillar, fly, mite varieties - or anything else for that matter. The leaves of my kale and chard plants look like they are being munched. Can anyone identify the damage pattern leading to a plan to make it stop?

Thanks in anticipation

Caterpillars or Slugs would be my guess.

Dipel for Caterpillars.

Beer traps for Slugs.

Could also be birds. I have finches that love to do that to greens - looks exactly like what you have damage wise.

Any of the above but I thought birds as well

Yep, I'd go caterpillars

Looks like caterpillar damage to me especially the holes within the leaves. There should be frass (solid excreta of insects) on the media somewhere so it is worth looking for to confirm caterpillar damage even if you cant find the caterpillar itself.
There are caterpillars that spend the day in the media and not under the leaves, and only emerge at night. A number of these types are native and can have a huge appetite.
recently I had a similar problem and could not find the culprit so I flooded the beds to above the media and up they came 11 caterpillars, several almost the size of my little finger, all happily living in the media by day and feasting on my vegies at night.

I had sprayed dipel but it did not appear to work. That could have been something to do with the size of the caterpillar or they died when in the media and so I never saw them. Anyhow after 2 weeks of dipel and with damage still occurring i used the flooded bed approach with great success.

Kale is damaged along the edge of the bed, right where birds would land. They'll peck the rest of the plant but sometimes they're just lazy. The ornery ones land on the plant and peck the entire plant. The edges look more torn out with jagged edges, than chewed out, which would have smoother edges. To me this is another indication it's birds. Chard and Kale are their favorites here.

It seems there is somewhat of a tie between birds and caterpillars. We also have chickens, and their eating habits ensure a plentiful supply of starlings - and I did previously see bird droppings on the edge of the grow bed.

I've never seen the starlings eat anything but mixed grain or layer pellets, and so had assumed the greens wouldn't interest them. Guess I'll have to make up a netting frame for the grow bed now - unless there are any better suggestions...

Thanks guys.

For sure looks like caterpillars feasting on your greens.

I voted twice

Let us know what happens.

I'm making up a frame for some netting from aluminium tube. While my 3d printer is making up the plastic joiner pieces (can't buy them for round tube), I corked the stand pipe while the pump was running to flood the growbed. No caterpillars came running out - so I guess the bird netting is still the best option.

Another option

Eat it before they do.

Sorry, beer is tasting good

Have a look at night with a torch to see what turns up

Bragger!

It took me nearly two years of intermittent grief to get the damnable printer working at all - so now that it is... I don't plan on hiding it!!