Our Homestead

Yep, and it really works!

Another way is to wrap aluminum foil around the stems, but I'm always afraid I'll break the young stems.
Using toothpicks or tiny sticks seems safer and it's so much faster!

In my experience, both methods work.

It happened year after year, I'd grow some real nice tomato plants, but they never had a chance to mature, the cutting worms would kill them off.Then, a few years ago, someone gave me yet another tip on how to avoid cutworms killing the plants. This tip worked great and I've never had another plant fall victim to the little pests.

It's simple: When you plant the tomato plants in the ground, put a toothpick right next to the stem and make sure it touches the stem. A cutworm cannot cut unless it is wrapped around the stem completely.

I was a bit suspicious of this method at first, but it really works.