On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:35:54 -0500, (Pat
Kiewicz) wrote:

Sue said:

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:16:49 -0500, (Pat
Kiewicz) wrote:
Squash will abort fruit (sometimes without the flower even opening) when
they are stressed (by fruit load, pests, or environmental circumstances).

I did some hand pollinating this morning with a paint brush and
noticed that some of the blossoms (the females) had lots of ants in
them. Would those be in the pest category?

Ants? Not usually a pest on squash. (Ants do sometimes become pest
when they nibble soft fruits like raspberries in my garden.) Cucumber
beetles, squash vine borers, and squash bugs are more the pests I had
in mind. Aphids can be a problem because they can carry mosaic virus.
(Unfortunately, this has been a bad year for virus in Michigan.)

I'm awfully discouraged with this gardening business.

There's always next year...though every year it's always something.

Yep. My gentleman friend's hobby is shooting trap. He only has to
wait a week whenever he doesn't do well.


Last year I lost virtually my whole pepper crop (to maggots), but the
corn was great. This year I've got ahead of the pepper maggots and
the corn is awful (one planting every ear but one was smutty).

I mentioned in some post a couple of weeks ago that the only year I
grew corn it was overwhelmed with ants. I never tried again because I
had no idea how to prevent them.


If you haven't done so already, get a soil test. Find out if you have an
obvious shortage in something. (My first test showed that the soil was
low in potassium and high in phosphorous, so the typical 'balanced'
fertilizers weren't really appropriate.)

I've never done that and know that I should. Where does one get a
test kit. I've never seen one but never really looked either. We
have no nursery here which is why my gardening supplies come from
Wal*Mart.


Work in some compost this fall. Maybe plant some garlic. Read
some gardening books. (_Square Foot Gardening_ is good for
beginners, though I think Mel Bartholomew is a bit optimistic on
his spacings.)

You answered my question before I asked. I was wondering what a good
gardening book might be. I have Sunset and some other, but they don't
really go into problems or details. Too general.


Take credit for your successes and for anything else blame the weather!
Too much rain, not enough rain, rain at the wrong time, too hot,
not hot enough--there's always some reason to fault it!

G Good plan. Thanks for your help.
Sue