@daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa) I had heard of this squash but was not paying attention...might be a very good one to try. Are you picking them small? Maybe 3 inches? Or a larger size? Hey, I would just grow it for the blossoms alone. What species is this? Is it really C. pepo? And the SVBs dont get it? Are you happy with the taste or you have not tasted it yet?

@daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa) sorry I am getting ahead of myself! Its still winter! Its 8 oF where I am right now.

Well, its almost freezing here right now, so I'm not growing them yet. As I said, this will be my first time with Tatume. Looking forward to it. I have seeds. This is indeed pepo, but I guess with much thicker stems. You can look them up, but what I've learned is that for summer squash you pick them baseball-sized, and for winter squash I guess a little bigger. They evidently LOVE the heat, which is an advantage for me.

Here is one good description.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2010/jun/tatume.html

Still a little unclear when exactly to harvest them for winter squash. I've seen it said that you do so when they turn from light green to deep green. They do eventually turn orange, but at least one reviewer says that by that time, they are more like a gourd, rock hard, and somewhat bitter.

Allow me to add to my rant about "SVB resistance". I live in an area where SVBs are pretty endemic, and I've tried, over the years, a number of varieties that are supposed to be "resistant". No success (at least when planted early in the spring). In my mind "SVB resistance" really means that if ten SVBs attack your plants, only five will manage to kill them! Some interpret that as success.

Tetsukabuto is an interspecies cross. C. Maxima - C. Moschata. Developed by Sakata who has patented the process.. It is a sterile plant. They developed several varieties, but Tetsukabuto is the only one sold in the US. Popular in South America, particularly Brazil. First introduced in the 1960's It has been slow to catch on in North America. Flavor is competitive with Buttercups/ kabocha but plant has more vigor. While I have never had SVB attack a C.moschta C. maximas have been SVB magnets.

@daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa) I know how you feel about the SVBs. In my memory it was never this bad or bad at all. Do you find their infestation and damage has gotten a lot worse in the last few years? It certainly has for me. Thank you for the article. I am going to concentrate on reducing the SVB population using Hubbard plants but I just might pop one Tatume in.

I plant in pretty much the same bed every year, and that's not a good way to avoid SVBs. They're in the soil. So planting repeatedly in the same bed is probably going to make SVBs worse. For that reason, even row covers probably won't work for me. I'd just trap them underneath. Fortunately, at least for me, delayed planting works a charm. It will be interesting to see if Tatume really allows me to recover a few months of growing. By the same token, a trap crop might not work if the trap crop is physically very separate from the squash you're trying to protect. That is, a physically separate trap crop assumes that the SVBs are coming from a distance. They might not be. If they're coming from underneath the plants you're trying to protect, a trap crop won't necessarily help.

@daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa) It is such good luck that you can grow some squashes later in the season. I am happy for you. Like you, I have only one area where I can grow my vegetables so not much crop rotation. For the sake of listening to 'wisdom' I did grow squashes way out there in this flower bed or that flower bed and even in the front yard, areas where I have NEVER grown squash. They succumbed everywhere and very quickly too. You cannot hide your squash plants by growing them elsewhere. The borers find them like guided missiles. By that token you can place your trap plants anywhere in your property. Whether you plant them in the ground or in pots. I am not trying to sell trapping. Who knows if it will do anything for me. Just want to win and letting you know my experience. Reducing the population is key. Just like getting rid of weeds.

My point was simply that, if your SVBs are coming from the bed where you're growing your squash, traps on the other side of the yard aren't going to help much. Those guided missles almost won't need guiding.

Its so disheartening. I have been reading some older posts. Its like people give up once the SVB arrive in there garen. Initially they try hard to fight it and then give up.

Maybe the ones in your soil can be depleted forever if they get killed or cannot multiply nearby once they come out of the ground? Its the larvae growing in the stems that enter the soil right?

Exactly right. SVBs are, in my view, the very worst garden pest. If your season is short, the best strategies to avoid them - row covers, vine surgery, vine innoculations, are just a LOT OF TROUBLE. If they come out of the ground under your plants, I really don't know how to kill them in your garden bed aside from crop rotation, which isn't an option for everyone. Maybe spraying your plants over them regularly with a strong insecticide like carbaryl will work, but ... In the olden days, there were soil "sterilizers" that would kill everything in the soil (remember Vapam?), but those are now banned for residential use.