foiling the squash vine borer
 

Crop rotation will help with the borer and squash bugs. Don't plant squash
in the same place for 3 years. They both seem to love summer squash (yellow
and zucchini). You can spray the crop with liquid Sevin and take care of
baby squash bugs, but you will have to catch the adults and "Squash" them.
Pardon the pun. I lay a board on the ground near my plants, then during the
heat of the day, turn it over and kill them as fast as I can. As far as the
borers go, they have been covered pretty well already.

I grow winter squash, because they seem to provide some resistance to both
the squash bugs and borers. The white Egyptian zucchini (In Seed Savers or
Seeds of Change) is a good one. I still have some of them from last summer.
You can use them in every way you can the regular zucchini, except they get
much bigger, are tan in color, and shaped like a honey dew melon, except
larger. They resist both bugs also.

If you need any more help, contact me directly if you want to. I resorted
to chemical control and have been pretty satisfied with that method.

Dwayne








"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
...
First year-- Bought zucchini seedlings from garden center. Planted in
mound the
way you're supposed to. Enjoyed more zucchini than we could eat.

Second year-- Proceeded as first. Got 2 zucchini. Whole big beautiful
plant
died. Heartbroken. Did minimum research. Concluded squash vine borer
was
culprit.

3rd year-- Proceeded as first. Didn't even get 2 zucchini. All dead
before
fruit.

4th, 5th year. Gave up. Turned attention to basil and tomatoes.

6th year-- I'm ready to give it another go.

Instead of making a mound in the vegetable garden in back, we thought we'd
plant
in a half whiskey barrel in the front yard. Maybe the borers will have
trouble
finding the plant if we hide. I'd like to avoid chemicals if I could
though I'm
willing to use them if the zucchini bread warrants. I've read in The New
Victory Garden an idea for foiling the borers-- literally. One puts a mat
of
aluminum foil around the base of the squash vines. The idea is either to
confuse the moth by reflecting a bright light in its eyes or to cook the
eggs to
an uncomfortable temperature. In any case, has anyone tried this? Does
it
work? It sounds too good to be true, a simple non-chemical solution to
the
problem.

Then today there's a new development. I ran into a neighbor today,
another
hobbyist gardener but one with lots more experience than I have. He said
that
zucchini was a sure thing crop, one that nothing could go wrong with. He
said
that whatever my troubles were in the past, they weren't squash vine
borers
because zucchini don't vine. Maybe another sort of borer? In which case,
would
the foil idea be any good?

Help! I'm in New England, zone 5.

--Lia

foiling the squash vine borer
 

there a winter variety that's especially resistent to borers? I might try
some

acorn squash
"Come into my garden, my flowers want to meet you!"

foiling the squash vine borer
 

Julia Altshuler said:

I'm so pleased with myself that I'm ready to plunge into more squashes. Is
there a winter variety that's especially resistent to borers? I might try some
of them too.

Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata) and cushaws (C. mixta) are resistant to
borer damage. My favorite winter squash is a hybrid between two species, a
butternut crossed with a buttercup (C. maxima). The variety is called 'Tetsukabuto'
and is available from Pinetree Garden Seeds (http://www.superseeds.com --
in the catalog section with Asian vegetables). 'Tetsukabuto' has a fruit with the
sweet, smooth texture of a buttercup but the solid, borer-resistant vines and
productivity of a butternut. 'Tetsukabuto' must be grown along with either a
butternut/moschata or a butternut/maxima variety for good fruit set.

The C. moschata varieties include the long-necked types called butternuts and
large, flattened rounded types called 'cheeses' because they actually look like
a wheel of cheese. Years ago I grew a cylindrical type but I haven't seen that
one in a catalog for years.

The winter squashes most vulnerable to vine borers are the C. maxima types
(which include buttercup, hubbard, banana, 'giant' pumpkins) and the C. pepo
types (whoch include 'true' pumpkins, acorn, delicata, and summer squashes).
--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)