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Old 10-05-2008, 04:29 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible,rec.gardens
Katey Didd Katey Didd is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: May 2008
Posts: 75
Default Squash vine borers


"phorbin" wrote in message
...
In article , says...

"phorbin" wrote in message
...
In article ,

says...
How do you stop them from killing the vines? I tried to cover the
vines
with
soil but that didn't work. I tried Sevin dust. That didn't work
either.
What
are you doing that works? We are growing squash, water mellons and
cantalopes.


Are you talking about them being already in the vines and boring?


If possible I'd like to keep them out of the vines. The seedlings just
came
up the other day.


Ah, OK.

You could be somewhere, where your squash is already in the ground and
well along. The newsgroup is worldwide and your posts appear to be
coming through datemas.de which makes it look like you're in Germany.

I only know our area, and of that I only know our garden well and it
changes according to the weather and climate.


If they're already in the vines, slit the vine near the point of entry,
remove the borers and then immediately cover the slit with earth. The
vine should put down roots at that point.


Oh I heard about this, but they never rooted. They'd wilt and die.
Finding
where the borer is in the vine is not so easy even when the hole is
found.


Could it be that the vines were infected?


I am in the mid south USA. The vines in past years don't appear infected
with yellows. The borers destroy the inner part, the leaves wilt and the
plant dies. Even if borer is found the plant never recovers and fades away.


I'm pretty sure my wife watered at the covered, damage point but I'd
have to ask her, and she's not here right now.

I'd wonder if encouraging rooting at different points along the length
of a vine would be helpful.


Zucchini and yellow crooknecks don't really have vines. They're more bush
shaped.

(Anyone care to comment?) We had one that
was virtually destroyed at the original root butproduced well through
the season from roots along its length.


That must be a more vinelike plant the crookneck and zucchini. These do not
root at the leaf nodes. At least they never did for us.


Google is your friend.


What I like about Google is that it throws up information for farmers as
well as gardeners... We have something between 80 and 120 books on
gardening but they don't deal with the issues in quite the same way.


I was hoping to run across someone that tried something that actually worked
for them.