Protecting seeds from being eaten by insects right after planting

solaron
solaron Posts: 2 ✭✭✭

I live in Costa Rica and have no experience farming. But that's about to change as I'll be planting some corn very soon. The locals tell me I need to put something around the seeds to keep insects from eating them in the beginning. Those like myself who favor natural methods, recommend lime, the others, chemicals. Any feedback or other recommendations?

Comments

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin
    edited August 2020

    @solaron Welcome to TGN's forum!

    If you can find out which insect(s) might be eating the seeds, it could help narrow down a natural solutions specific to the insect(s). Is corn a popular crop for Costa Rica? What other crops do well in your area? Perhaps there is a crop you could start with that has less issues with insect problems.

    Learn from experienced gardeners and farmers in your area. Do you have a farmers market or some other type of Co-op?

    Good luck with your first garden efforts!

  • solaron
    solaron Posts: 2 ✭✭✭

    Thanks Torey. I forgot to check for replies, so a couple days went by. Supposedly the problem is ants and birds. But I suspect in the term ants, are included plenty of other insects.

    Corn is very popular here. Pineapples too since they like the naturally acidic soil where I live. I didn't count them, since they require almost zero upkeep, but I have planted nearly 100, so I guess I'm actually moving on to crop #2.

    There's no shortage of local corn growers, but the ones I know have been hoodwinked into thinking chemical agriculture is a necessity, so I'm not seeking their advice about seed preparation, etc.

    Since I didn't know what to do, but wanted to get the corn planted during the waxing moon/beginning of full moon (or wait for the new moon, but I don't actually want to wait), I'd planned to do it yesterday, but it didn't work out so we'll be doing it tomorrow.

    The plan is to finely chop up the existing vegetation, which there's a lot of, put some lime (cal in spanish) on the soil as the deterrent, and plant the corn.

    Though I have no idea if it's an advantage or handicap, I pre-soaked the seeds, and since we were going to plant yesterday but didn't, the presoaking has turned into sprouting and now they have 1/2"+ tails.