Squash Vine Borer

I was walking along my squash row, looking at the plants as I walked along.  Then – there it was – a squash vine borer fly just there on the leaf.  I put my gloves on and picked it up – took it to the greenhouse and put it in a plastic zip bag.

This is the top side:

This is its underside:

I mixed up a fresh batch of BT worm killer and injected the stems of all of my decent sized summer squash.  The SVB is a moth and when I was trying to pick it up with my gloves, some of the glittery wing covering that moths have rubbed off on the leaves.

These evil little bugs have already claimed the lives of 2 of my large zucchini plants.  Constant vigilance is needed since it seems that they are a constant pest during the summer here in the hot south.

The Dreaded, Evil Squash Vine Borer?

Always on the lookout for signs of the evil squash vine borer, I think that I found a sign today.  This 8 Ball zucchini was wilting in the middle of the day and the other squashes were fine.

(Sorry for the blurry pic.)

So, I went on the offensive.  I got out my BT worm killer and mixed up about half a cup. I use 10cc of BT mixed with 4 oz of water – I mix it in an old 8 oz water bottle so that it is easy to measure, just fill it up half way with water. Also, this is enough of the mix to do the job for a few days.

I use a syringe, a 1″, 22 gauge needle – the fattest and shortest needle I could find – to inject the BT into the base of the squash stem.  I inject in 2 places along the first 4 or so inches of the stem.   If the needle gets plugged with stem material, just push down on the plunger until it clears the needle.  I hadn’t noticed any of the wet sawdust looking stuff the borers push out of their hole, but when I squirted the BT into some of the stems, it did squirt out of the bottom of the stem. I went ahead and injected all of the sizeable summer squash plants as a preventative. It does no harm if there are no borers. I will re-treat maybe a couple of times a week unless I see problems and need to take stronger action.

This zuke perked up in the evening shade. The smaller center leaves never wilted, so hopefully I treated the plant in time. These hybrid 8 Ball zukes are the strongest squash plants that I currently have growing. They sprout faster and grow faster and larger than the Obsidian zuke and the 2 yellow squash types that I have also planted.

Cabbages – Possibly My Favorite Winter Vegetable Crop

Originally published December 2011

I love growing cabbages.  I learned to like cabbage because I like to grow it.  I use it mainly in my stir fry in the summer and in my garden vegetable soup in the winter.  I have had good results in storing winter cabbage thru early summer.  Wrap it in newspaper and store in the refrigerator.

I start my cabbage seedlings while it is still blistering hot in August.  I then have quite a time trying to keep them cool and yet in plenty of sun. 

Here are pics of my just planted seedlings, after growing for about a month, and current pics with the heads starting to form.

When planting my seedlings, I scoop the hole, put about a tablespoon of both garden lime and bone meal in the hole before I place the seedling.  The bone meal seems to help the roots and the plants perk up and start to grow quickly and I hope the lime wards off the root diseases that cabbages suffer from.  These substances are what is in those containers you see in the left side of this pic.

Cabbages after maybe a month of planting the seedlings.  This is an evening picture.

Current picture – taken in the morning after a good freeze the night before.  These are red cabbages.  The leaves always look a bit floppy after a freeze – see leaves at top of the pic.

I’m hoping that these Early Dutch cabbages will form their 2-3 pound heads before year end.  I need to plant my spring cabbages by February, meaning that these plants need to be matured and out of the way.  I only have a tiny garden space, so I have to constantly recycle the growing area.  No room to leave dormant.  If only I had an acre for my garden….blueberries…blackberries….fruit trees….nut trees…..grains….perennials such as kiwi….actually enough space for all of the bean varieties I have and want to plant….herb garden….and so on…….dream on…….

In this pic below, see the bug holes in the middle leaves?  The plants grew fine for a while, then I noticed lots of small holes in the middle of the leaves – this means worms.  The leaves were infected with tiny, green 1/4″ worms.  I rubbed and squashed the ones I could find, then I sprayed the leaves with BT – an organic worm killer.  This solved the problem.  Notice that the newer growth does not have worm holes.  The red cabbages were not affected and not all of the green cabbage were affected either.

It is getting close to time to start my cabbage seedlings for this coming spring.  I prefer to only plant ‘early’ cabbage in the spring.  I do this because I want the heads to mature before the hot weather sets in.  Cabbages prefer cool, moist growing conditions – not hot, dry conditions.  Also, spring plantings are very much more subject to worms and aphids.  It is truly amazing, but I had several stunted looking cabbages this past spring – the stunted cabbages were covered with aphids, but the normal, health looking cabbage plants were NOT attacked by aphids.  I truly do believe that pests
zero in on weak plants and are lest apt to attack healthy plants.

Lemon Squash With Fruit

Originally published Summer 2011

Lemon squash is probably the most unique squash that I have grown.  It is a summer squash, but it grows a thick, long, hollow stem.  At about 4 weeks, it is about 4 feet long.  At each leaf junction, it puts out a useless, miniature tendril and several yellow, BB sized fruit which slowly grow to maturity – but not necessarily in the order they appear on the vine.

This vine is growing in amongst other summer squash so a pic of it’s full length is not possible.  This section of the vine is about 15 inches long – the total vine is almost 4 feet!

Since I am having so much trouble with the evil squash vine borer this year, I just injected 3 shots of BT into the stem near the base. This is just in case there is a SVB living in the stem – which there might be because when I stuck the top of the vine with the needle and shot the BT in, some squirted out of the bottom of the vine.  Chances it was a SVB hole in the un-visible bottom of the vine.

To use BT, I mix about 10cc/1ml of it in a small 8oz water bottle and add 4 oz of water.  If I did my math correctly, this is the proper dose.  I then use a 3 ml syringe with a  1″,20 gauge needle and fill up up and shoot the full dose into the stem – I am doing this in about 3 locations along the first 6 or so inches of the stem.  If there is a crack in the stem, which there frequently is, I just stick the needle into that crack.  Sometimes the needle gets filled with squash stem and I have to pull it out and press hard to clear the needle, then stick back into the same needle hole and squirt.  I’ve been hit hard by the evil SVB this year so I am doing serious preventive care.

The Evil, Dreaded Squash Vine Borer

Originally published June 2011

The evil, dreaded squash vine borer has been busy in my squash patch.

I killed this one:

I found this zuke plant this morning – yesterday it looked just fine, but today it is near dead. I am sure it won’t survive.

A few days ago I found this acorn winter squash with it’s leaves limp. It also was just fine the day before. It has held on for a few days. Because acorn squash is not c. moschata, it is susceptible to the evil SVB.

Since it appears the evil SVB is at work in my garden, I went on a pre-emptive strike against them. I mixed up a cup of BT worm killer and went around injecting a syringe or 2 full into the stem of each of my summer squashes and into the acorn squash. This spring I tried to keep an eye out for the SVB’s red eggs at the base of the stems, but never saw any. I also kept an eye out for that wet saw-dusty stuff that they make as they eat out the inside of the vines – it is usually visible in a crack or hole in the stem. In the case of this zuke plant, it was always on the bottom of the stems, so I never saw any until I squirted the BT into the stems and saw it leak out the bottoms. Anyway, I have squirted the worm killer into stems and it should kill any borers. I’ll plan on making the injecting rounds every week. I don’t know what else could have weakened the acorn squash and caused the wilt. With the exception of the acorn squash and the one crensha, all of my winter squashes this year are c. moschata – because they have solid stems and thus not susceptible to the evil squash vine borer.  All summer squash, however are c. pepo and are very susceptible.

Waltham Butternuts – First Fruits are Setting

First Published June 2011

Waltham Butternut winter squash is an old faithful squash.  I only planted 5′ of Waltham this year because I planted 5 other cucurbit moschata winter squashes.  The Waltham has set it’s fruit first.  I have gotten to where about the only winter squash I will plant is cucurbit moschata, because they have a solid stem and thus not susceptible to squash vine borers.

Last season, the evil squash vine borer ravished my cucurbit maxima. After the damage was done I learned that I could kill the borer inside the stem by using s syringe and injecting BT worm killer into the vine. This year I will be ready to inject BT into the hollow stems of my summer squash which are almost entirely cucurbit pepo. Everyday I walk the rows and at each summer squash, including zucchini, I examine the base of the plant, looking for the borer’s red eggs and looking for the wet saw-dust-looking stuff they push out of their holes. Haven’t found any so this year.