You can grow them under netting or under Agribon-15 summerweight row cover, but of course, you have to weigh down all the edges of whatever you use to keep the little grubs from crawling underneath the row cover. For netting, you can use tulle from the fabric store, Micromesh or Biothrips Proteknet. However, you'll have to hand-pollinate your squash flowers because the netting or row cover will exclude the bees. Even during the time you're pollinating a sneaky SVB moth can get in there and lay eggs. The netting must be suspended over hoops that the leaves cannot touch (they cannot touch the hoops or netting). Otherwise, the squash vine borer can sit atop the netting and lay a tiny egg on a leaf through the netting if the leaf is touching the netting.

Or, you can plant the types of summer squash (seed is sold by Kitazawa Seed) that are C. moschata instead of C. pepo or C. maxima. They are listed on the Kitazawa Website as Korean Summer Squash. I grow three different varieties and the SVBs don't bother them. C. moschatas have solid stems the SVB grubs generally cannot tunnel their way through. Sometimes the SVBs don't bother some of the C. agyrosperma like green-striped cushaw, orange-striped cushaw or white cushaw, but I've only grown those 3 as winter squash and haven't tried harvesting them very young as summer squas.

Or you can grow other C. moschata type winter squash but harvest them very young (within 2 to 4 days of pollination) and use them as summer squash. The only real difference in winter squash and summer squash is the stage at which they are harvested----summer squash are harvested young and tender while winter squash are harvested older and with very hard rinds. I use Seminole Pumpkin, which actually is a winter squash, as a summer squash all the time by harvesting the young squash just a couple of days after they are pollinated. A lot of people grow Zuchetta rampicante 'Tromboncino' and harvest them small for summer squash or larger for winter squash.

We have endless rounds of SVBs down here in southern OK, so a late planting doesn't fare any better than an early one most years.

Haven't seen a SVB yet, but the korean squash I got from Dawn at spring fling is doing well. I have little fruit on it now. It's the only squash in my garden that is doing anything.

I have never tried growing winter squash before. I'll go to that website and check out the C. moschata varieties. It would be fun to try something different. I got the little guy down, and now I can browse the web for seeds that I don't need ;)

Speaking of seeds......I'd ordered some seeds for next year from Heirloom Seeds (Pennsylvania??) that had been back ordered, but are now on their way.

Brandywine Black

Aunt Ruby's German Green

Anna Russian

Brandywine (Suddiths Strain)

Kellogg's Breakfast

Matt's Wild Cherry

Nyagous

Omar's Lebanese

Pineapple Tomatillo

Toma Verde Tomatillo

Armenian Cucumber

Mary

You've got a bunch of good ones there. You can plant Armenian cukes for this summer. Have you grown them before? We love them. They are in the melon family, but tolerate heat, pests and disease better than standard cucumbers. You even can make pickles from them if you harvest them small. I let some get huge and feed them almost daily to the chickens in late July and in August when the heat is so extreme. I slice them in half and put them on the ground and the chickens devour them, fighting for every bite. In the evening, I pick up the cleaned-out rinds and toss them on the compost pile. They also are big, vigorous, climbing plants if you have anything you want screened from view or shaded.

Is the Armenian cucumber tasty just sliced up and eaten on a salad too? I picked up a couple of them at the spring fling (thank you) and they're doing well.

My squash are already infested with SVB. Will be pulling them soon.

Dawn, I haven't grown the Armenian cukes, but I will certainly seed some when they get here! How do you normally prepare it?

Oh, btw, I was going to run it on the trellis, if that makes a difference.

I battle SVBs for a ridiculously long time here in Durant. I have no idea why. I caught my first one in the act with a butterfly net a couple of days ago, and offered its carcass up to the gods in hopes that they would like my offering and smote the rest of them. I do not think it worked. In fact, I found a larva inside the stem of a cucumber leaf that was wilting! Granted, there was almost no room for the bugger to grow, but he was still in there anyways. Makes me wonder if that is why my cucumber plants droop and get beaten up so bad in the summer.

Spotted about 5 eggs on the one squash plant I have in a container. I removed all of them and checked all the squash in the beds and it appears they were left alone. Hopefully I caught them in time as I had been out of town for a couple days.

I'm behind on this thread.

Mary, We just slice the young Armenian cukes like cucumbers and eat them on salads and such. You even can make pickles from them. For human use, we harvest them relatively small---generally before they exceed 6-7" in length. For the chickens, we let them get big, and the bigger the better.

Technically, Armenian cucumbers are not cucumbers at all. They are melons. I mostly grow them for the chickens, and I let them get very large. The larger they get, the more their melon-like (but not really tasty) flesh develops, so they aren't good (at least that's what our taste buds say) eating for humans at this stage. The chickens, though, just love them.

I grow both the green-striped ones and the solid green ones. In our back garden in sandy soil, the green-striped ones stay smaller and are more appetizing for humans for a longer period. The big green ones get the size of gigantic, overgrown zucchinis.

kfrinkle, I have long wondered why they are so bad over there, while they do not seem nearly as prolific here just a hop, skip and a jump west of y'all. I have no answers, just questions. I've never seen anyone have as many as you have or for as long as you have them. It is bizarre.

I've never had them get into a cucumber either. You have some weird sort of Twilight Zone thing going on there in your garden. I can see the news headlines now "Giant SVBSs Attack Durant Gardener, Details at 6 pm". I've also never seen cucumber worms here, and I hope that never changes because it would make it almost as hard to get a good cucumber crop as it is to get a good summer squash crop.

sk_ak, I hope you caught them early enough too. Once the squash pests arrive, they are so incredibly hard to fight, and the hotter it gets, the less I feel like fighting them. Ultimately, they always win anyhow. We just combat them as long as we are able, but no one can be out in the garden fighting them 24/7.

Dawn

Dawn, Yeah there is something weird out here in my neck of the plains. They have been going strong for over a month straight. Maybe I do need a break next year. ...