Is This A Squash Vine Borer?

I have seen several of these bugs flying around.  I don’t think that they are squash vine borers – the wings look different from other squash vine borers I have smashed in the past. (I also don’t know what that green think is in the top right corner on that marigold bud.)

I had massive summer squash die off, but I don’t think it was from squash vine borers, but it could have been. I don’t know what to think. Next spring I will have to keep better tract of the stems of my squash. I use BT and inject it into the base of my squash stems with a syringe until it squirts back out. If it leaks out of the stem somewhere along the bottom, then it is probably leaking out of a borer hole.

The Squash Bugs Are Here, The Squash Bugs Are Here!!

I was harvesting when I saw this vile little bugger, my first squash bug. Since it was laying eggs when I caught it (see the eggs circled in red),  I knew that there are obviously 2 squash bugs around.

I smashed this squash bug against the wood bed.  Squash bugs are related to stink bugs and give off a disagreeable odor when smashed.  I then smashed each egg – I scraped them off the leaf with my finger nail and then smashed each egg.

A couple of days later, I noticed two adult squash bugs around the stems of a squash plant in another bed.  I have not seen any mass hatching of nymphs.  When those egg clusters hatch, the nymphs stay together for a while, feeding on the under side of the leaf.  This causes bleached-out looking clusters of tiny spots on the top of the leaf.  This is a sign that must be watched for so that the baby squash bug nymphs can be smushed.  Squash bugs don’t have any known predators, so the gardener must take care of them.  If they get out of hand, I like to sprinkle sevin dust around the stems of the squash plants – being careful to keep the sevin away from blossoms so that bees are not affected.  I don’t anticipate a troubling population of squash bugs this season, but next spring may be another story.

Basil And Squash Overview

The plants on the left side of the pic of the first bed are Basil. I start Basil from seed each year, with occasionally buying a pack of another variety of basil. Most of the seeds that I started from last year are ‘regular’ Basil. This year I bought a pack of Globe Basil seeds – those plants grow somewhat slower, but are very interesting. They do indeed grow in a round ball and the leaves are smaller. Hopefully they won’t cross with my ‘regular Basil’ for next year.

Under the raised cattle panel, I plant a climbing winter squash.  On the other edge of the bed are summer squash.

A closeup of Obsidian Zucchini, which is a hybrid that I purchased from Twilley Seed.  I like it and plan to purchase some more.  It matures shortly after 8 Ball zucchini, and well before all of my yellow summer squash.

This is a bed of zucchini down the middle and a row of summer squash along each side.  The zucchini is already producing, but the summer squash is still growing.

I mulch each bed with several inches of dry oak leaves and other leaves.

Cucumbers – Marching Right Along

Because of the move and having to build my raised beds, these cucumbers were planted a month late. These tiny seedlings are popping up through oak tree mulch. Cute – eh?

I am using last spring’s left over Tasty Green hybrid cucumbers from Twilley Seed Co.  I had excellent germination.  I like an ‘English’ type of cucumber and Tasty Green is Twilley’s closest match.  Last year I had an excellent harvest and expect one this year.  These cukes are best harvested at about 12″ in length.

I use cattle panels as trellises.  Here I am weaving the growing tips in and out of the openings.

I had to make raised beds because our soil is red clay – I don’t understand how all these trees grow in the stuff!  My raised beds are about 5’x16′.  I have a raised cattle panel running down the middle length of some of the beds.  On the outer 2 long edges, I plant other things – bushing summer squash in this bed.

The Squash Row

This little beauty has plenty of blooms.  This is what a happy squash plant looks like.

This year I inter-planted over 3 dozen basil seedlings in and throughout the garden. You can see a few of the first planted basil popping above the squash. Today, the last day of July, these large, beautiful squash are all gone and only the basil are left. They are now enormous – all at least 2 feet tall and bushy from having their seed heads pinched out regularly for a month.

Zucchini Appears To Be Recovering From Squash Vine Borers

Several posts ago I showed a picture of a zucchini plant that was wilting probably because of the evil squash vine borer.  I have treated all sizeable summer squash plants numerous times with in-stem injections of BT.  These 2 zuchs look like they recovered enough and are trying to regrow.  They should have an excellent root structure to build on.  Look at those new leaves !  The old, dead yellow leaf stems are still visible.  (The white powder at the stem is diacatamous earth to try to cut down on the excessive pill bug population – it seems to be working).

And:

What could have been, look at this beautiful zucchini. Absolutely wonderful. I don’t expect the damaged plants to attain such stature, but I do expect production out of them.  (You can see the 2nd above damaged plant off to the bottom right side, by the Marigold).

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.

Hybrid Summer Squash Out-Performs Open Pollinated Varieties

I prefer to grow open pollinated/heirloom varieties of plants. (I get a thrill out of saving seeds). However, here in east Texas, the growing conditions are harsh during the summer. As a result, the past few years gardening has not been as productive as I would like. (And this includes fresh seeds from seed sellers).  Last fall, after talking with a road side vegetable vendor, I decided to go hybrid this season. The vendor recommended Twilley Seed of North Carolina. I purchased all of my tomato, summer and winter squash and melon seeds from them (plus other seeds also).

The last 2 growing summer seasons were a total disaster for my yellow summer squash. This was due to a wide variety of issues from armadillos to squash vine borers to the drought. Also, my heirloom yellow summer squash just didn’t ever seem to produce well. This, along with me watching those volunteer cantaloupe grow very strong and well in the garden – they had to be hybrid and although they were the seeds of hybrids, they grew exceptionally well and strong.  I figured that real h1 hybrid seeds should do exceptionally well.

I planted 2 varieties of hybrid zucchini: 8 Ball and Obsidian. I planted 2 varieties of yellow crook neck squash: Sunglo and Horn of Plenty. While it is quite obvious to tell the 2 zukes apart, I can’t tell the 2 yellows apart.

I am so utterly amazed and thrilled with how totally prolific these hybrids are. I never had this many baby fruit on my open pollinated squash. This yellow squash has 6 babies, in various stages of development.

This zucchini is Obsidian. It has one ready to harvest zuch with buds for more.

This beauty is an 8-Ball zucchini.

You will notice the leaf mulch I use. I have to mulch because otherwise the soil would dry out in a day. It is so hot and dry here. Also, the white powder you see around is diacatamous earth. It’s main purpose is get rid of the excessive number of pill bugs (which DO eat and destroy seedlings) and hopefully damage squash vine borers and their offspring.

This is my very first zucchini harvest of 2012:  (The 8 Balls are coming in at just a few ounces over a pound.  The Obsisian is just over half a pound.

If I can fight off the squash vine borers and am allowed to water my garden, it should finally be a good squash year. Lord Willing!

Real Freezing Weather Has Arrived

Originally published Fall 2011

Finally, by the end of November, after Thanksgiving, REAL freezing weather has arrived. The late summer squash is gone, as are the peppers and even the sweet potatoes in the greenhouse.

Here are some of the late summer squash before the freezes: (The long vine growing on the right side is an unidentified winter squash).

The serious freezes finished off these squash. I covered them with a light horticultural blanket and they survived several light frosts, but a couple of serious freezes finished them off. I circled some of the fruit. This vine was very prolific – too bad it was planted so late in the season. This was a mystery left-over seed – but I don’t recognize what cucurbit moschata variety it is. None of these seeds came up in the spring and I’m not sure how this seed ended up in my left-over seed box.

This plant was an Eight Ball/Tonga zucchini. It was so prolific during its short life. Look at the center of the plant- there were at least5 more baby squash growing. In an earlier post I show a picture of the first fruit of this plant. I also picked several smaller zuches before the freeze. I left these babies because I deemed them too small to try to cook. If you look to the upper left, you can see a baby yellow straight neck squash. I harvested a few straight neck squash before the freeze. It is a real shame that squash plants don’t grow this well in the too-hot, too-dry summers around these parts. Oh, to be just a couple of hundred miles north – gardening would be so much better.

If you look back to the first pic, you will see a late season watermelon in the upper right. This melon was growing in the summer and survived the spider mites. It kept growing after all of the other melons were harvested and the vines died. But, alas, as the weather cooled into the 80s, it was too cool for the melon to thrive!! It never grew much and that fruit never got any bigger. Interesting. Everything in it’s season, right?

White Scallop Squash

Originally published Summer 2011

This is the first year that I grew any type of scallop summer squash.  This is a white scallop squash.  Last evening I treated the stem of each of my scallop plants with BT because I noticed what looked like the sawdust stuff the borers produce and push out of their holes.  The BT did squirt out of other areas of the stem, so the little worms must have been in there.  If the plants do not wilt and continue to grow, then I will know that treatment worked.

Squash bugs really like these plants – as they seem to prefer summer squash, c. pepo, in general.