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Old 07-08-2006, 04:59 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
simy1 simy1 is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
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Default Squash pollinators versus cucumber beetle spraying


Pat Kiewicz wrote:

I looked up some sites and the following seemed the best to me

attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/cucumberbeetle.html

It turns out that I have been reasonably lucky. Right now I am growing
the green melon Passport, which is early, and is also listed as #8 out
of ten in beetle attraction. I have always grown Gold Rush zucchini,
because they are substantially earlier than regular zucchini, and
because they are yellow and easy to spot in the jungle. Gold Rush, too,
scores at the bottom as far as zucchini are concerned. I have grown
some winter squash, which are mostly unattractive. The site lists
watermelon as not sensistive to bacterial wilt.

I have to wonder if all these years the cukes have not acted as trap
crops for me and spared me further damage. In fact, by planting year
after year the ultra early County Fair (whose flavor I prefer over
three other varieties I have tried), I may have had a good combination
of trapping by having a early plant up, and decent crops in early July
before the disease prevailed (and incidentally before other non-greens
crops are ready).

Clearly from now on I will select only cucurbita that score well on the
attraction list. The site does list Adios.