Have you watered while the sun is strong?

Yesterday the last squash from this family, here, died. It's been an awful squash vine borer year.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Have you checked for squash bugs? They can cause damage similar to what you're seeing.

George, Sorry to hear about your squash.

I've only lost two plants so far, and both to squash bug damage and not to SVBs. Usually by now, SVBs have gotten mine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the plants produce a few more weeks. It is so hard to fight both the SVBs and the squash bugs. This is the worst stink bugs have been in 3 or 4 years, though. I'd rather have the SVBs than the stink bugs because at least the SVBs don't bother the tomato plants.

Dawn

George, sorry to hear about the squash. I have lost one vine sofar. Yesterday I sprayed with murphys oil soap and pet shampoo, it seemed to take care of the squash bug but I still have a tub full of cucumber beetles, also finding a lot of tomato worm damage. I will try BT today, and maybe some Neem. I hate to use anything too strong because I have bees everywhere. (altho I had rather have something other than bees because our little Yorkie is allergic to bee stings)

I also noticed vine bore damage. Today I will try to make somthing very small in dia. and stab thru the vine in several places in hope to stab the bore. I have a steel brush made of .015 dia. wire, may or maynot work. I may have to resort to digging it out with a crochet needle.

Larry

George or Dawn,
My squash is pretty well done also, Do either of you plant squash for fall gardens, if so when?

In the years when I lose them to SVBs or squash bugs, I usually wait a couple of weeks in the hope the pest will move on and bother someone else's plants and then plant new ones in a different area. You can plant seed right now if you want to. In fact, with the cooler weather and rain this week, it might be a great time to replant.

For the fall garden, the OSU-recommended planting dates begin July 15th, with different ending dates depending on whether you're planting winter squash or summer squash, but I don't see why you couldn't plant earlier than that. The conditions now are slightly more favorable under the current weather conditions than they're likely to be in mid-July.

I'm going to go start a fall planting thread and link the OSU recommended fall-planting dates on it because it is about that time.

Dawn

I only water by soaker hose and all my garden is mulched so nothing touches garden soil. Haven't seen any sign of squash bugs or borers either. It perks up at night and early morning then as the day goes on it wilts again. I already have a couple of plants coming on to replace it if I have to but it just started producing!

Ok, so now I know that I don't have svb's. However, I have lost 3 plants now. =(
What I have found is that they have rotted at the base. What is that from? I've not seen that before. Anyone that can help me, I would be greatly appreciative.
I am crossing my fingers bcz my other two plants look puny. I hope I don't loose them too. We love our zucchini and it would be a shame if we couldn't get any out of the garden this year.
mspriggs

I planted 4 straight neck squash and one better boy tomato in the skips in my corn. The tomato was a limb I broke while tying up my tomatoes about a month ago. The squash I had started because I seldom get long life out of my squash.

I started eating my Tendertreat corn yesterday. My garden is no ball of fire this year, but I have seen worse.

Larry

When you only have a very small garden every plant is important so losing one isn't good! I only have room for about 4 tomatoes, one short row of okra and a couple of squash plants. Also have four large tree size pots I plant in and it really extends my space.

I went out and looked at my zucchini again and the stalks are firm and upright so no borers. The only visible sign of trouble are the crispy wilted leaves.

So, contrary to what I said earlier, I do believe I have the svb's!! darn it!! Will they make the base of the plant rot? And, if I started more seeds for a fall harvest, how do I get rid of these dirty suckers?!
mspriggs

OK ----uncle, I cry ---to borrow from another thread.

The SVB's haven't found me, but the Squash bugs have. I pulled my first plant tonight. Since it was in the middle of the row, I feel sure that at least 2 more will be pulled soon. One brave cuss even took a ride in on the produce!!! He's dead now ...as in door-nail. I'll try tomorrow after work to inspect the leaves of the others to try to minimize the damage but I'm sure they will take their toll. I say this as I have 18 zuchs, 23 yellow straight neck and 5 large cukes waiting for their destiny.

I've called in the assistance of my dear daughters. We'll blanch, shread, freeze and then distribute to deserving friends and family. Sheesh....remind me of this next spring??? The rain came at EXACTLY the WRONG time. I feel like Dawn with her plums!

Paula,

Yikes! That's a lot of squash. You know you can make zucchini-chocolate cookies and cake don't you? Of course, 18 zukes would make a lot of cookies, cake, cupcakes, zuke bread, zuke muffins, etc. A whole lot!

I am on the downhill slide of plum madness now. We have harvested every last plum and I've been making jelly and other stuff like an insane plum maniac. The good news? I have less than 100 pounds of plums left, in various stages of ripeness, waiting to meet their fate. The bad news? I need to go outside and pick zucchini today. I have 10 plants so it will be quite a haul. I am so exhausted from plum madness I may 'cheat' and feed most of this week's zuke harvest to the compost pile.

I'll do a plum/canning update later today, and maybe remember to report back on the zuke harvest, but I am now in the vicinity of 200 jars canned in the last 10 or 12 days, but that isn't just plums--it includes peaches, blueberries, blackberries, apples and strawberries. After today, it likely will include some sort of salsa and candied jalapenos. I'm relieved you can't can squash, except as pickles, and I have plenty of pickles so I'm not going to can squash. Oh, and I think I'll can some blueberry honey or blueberry syrup today, or maybe both.

Why can't our gardens produce a nice, steady flow of produce? I hate the cycle of overabundance/underabundance.

Mspriggs, Often when you have that rot near the base it is precisely because the SVBs are tunneling through the stem. That's how they kill the plant. To get rid of them, use a razor blade or box cutter blade or sharp paring knife to gently make an incision in one side of the stalk...don't cut it all the way through...just one side as if you were slitting open a soda straw to remove a BB or something stuck inside of it. You should see the SVB or SVBs inside. Remove them. If this sounds too icky and you don't want to touch the darn thing, wear gloves or take a bamboo skewer out and use gloved hands to remove it, or stick the skewer (or a piece of wire) into it and pull it out. Squish it between your food and the ground, or destroy it in some other way. Push the stem back together, place it on the ground. Pile up dirt around/over it. Pat the dirt down firmly because it is serving as your 'bandaid'. Water well, but not so heavily the dirt washes away. Keep moist. If the plant is going to survive, you'll see new foliage in less than a week.

This year I put nylon stockings around my squash vine's stems when I planted them....some of the stocking went below ground, some above, and I haven't lost a single plant to an SVB yet. I don't know it the lack of plant mortality is related to the stocking excluding the borers or if it is just the luck of the draw. The squash bugs, though, got both plants from Maddie's Peter Rabbit Garden.

I planted a total of 12 squash plants, figuring I'd get enough squash for us to eat and freeze before the SVBs started taking them out. So, with 10 surviving plants, we've had plenty of squash. You can't have too much squash though, since it is easy to shred and freeze if you have freezer space. If I have more than I want to freeze, I give it away. If I'm too busy processing plums to run around town giving dumping unwanted/unloved squash on unsuspecting friends, I feed it to the compost pile.

Every night the deer, raccoons, possums, skunks, rabbits, etc. visit my compost pile and eat whatever I tossed out that day. Lately the deer are having a plum bonanza. I'm not sure how much compost I'm making, but I'm feeding the wild things. Last night I went outside around 7 p.m. to toss a bowl of plum pulp (this is whats's left of the plums after you extract the juice for jellymaking) on the compost pile, and a deer was looking for dinner at the big compost pile out back and a raccoon was looking for dinner at the medium-sized compost pile by the veggie garden.

Dawn

I'm going to try out my new theory of spraying all plants with Neem Oil, including squash plants. So far, I haven't found an organic product that will deal with squash bugs or SVB. Won't hurt and might help. Looking for feedback from anyone's experience with Neem Oil.

I also have 2 grapevines affected by a mysterious leaf muncher that I've been spraying with Neem oil out of exasperation. Last year I lost all my grape clusters to "something". This year with a lot of clusters on the vine, I'm fighting back.

The link I'm posting suggests Neem Oil mixed with a few drops of dishwashing liquid. I do know that if one uses this, it should be in the evening...not hot sun, to prevent leaf scorching or burn.

Dawn,
How do your critters like it when it's hot pepper processing time and the compost fast food diner is open for business? Just wondering.

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: Neem Oil for Organic pest control

SVB's got my Zuckes over two weeks ago. I replanted in different locations and now they are almost big enough to blossom.

Barbara,

I like your can't hurt might help theory. That's mine too. I planted two squash plants this year (one pattypan one long yellow something), and so far they are doing fine on a diet of sunshine,rain, and weekly Neem.

My yellow squash plant is insane. Insane I tell you. It was putting out 2 or so a week, but lately I have been picking a large squash DAILY.

My neighbors have started to decline my excess squash.

I love it! And if it keeps up, we MIGHT even have enough to freeze some!!!

Jo

My squash/zuc's should win some type of 'survivor' award this year. They initially grew into wonderful, full, lush plants that blossomed constantly. But then they sat forever and I didn't think they were ever going to produce fruit. It was suggested that I hand pollinate them but frankly, I'm not sure I want to know my squash on such a deep, personal level so I just respected their privacy and left them alone to do their thing.

Then, the floods came and my backyard turned into a scene from that movie "A River Runs Through It". Running water rushed past with such force that the plants were totally redirected in the way they were laying. Well, I thought they were goners by then and kept thinking every day that I needed to relocate them to the compost pile. Then the fruiting actually began on these poor, pitiful looking plants with literally rotting, nasty, disgusting, busted open stems (my apologies if someone is not through with their dinner yet). Each time I think they're toast, I keep finding more zucc's. Go figure.

Lynn

P.S. I'm growing Gold Rush hybrid squash. It tastes more like zucchini.

Dawn,
How do you attach the nylon stockings to the stem of the squash plants? Also, do you put more on as the plant grows? I just lost two zucchini plants to svb. One plant I lost was large but just now getting ready to put on zucchinis...does that mean the soil was too enriched? The second plant was small but it had produced about five zucchinis. The remaining squash plants look okay so far.
Also, I've seen two squash bugs...how do they kill the plants?
Thanks!
Cindy