My luffa never had borer problem but my summer squash and zucchini did
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I have not had any problems growing cucumbers or Loofah, but vine borers get my zucchini every time I try.
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I grow Tatumi and Butta squash and they just keep on going. tatumi vines out like butternut so only good for people with space. Butta zucchini are great and seem to fight off the bugs.
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I’ve had squash vines reroot and continue growing after a vine borer infestation.
I know they suggest trying to cut the larvae out but I wonder if cutting the stem and applying a rooting hormone might be worth an experiment?
Protecting native pollinators is not kumbaya hippie crap and spraying flowering plants is flat out stupid, IMO, and I’m a licensed sprayer of synthetic insecticides. Of course, you are free to believe in and do whatever the label says is legal, I’m not proselytizing here, just offering other alternatives and defending my hippie soul.
I keep my Zucchini covered with row cover fabric until flowers are ready to receive bees- a week after first flowers that never produce any fruit anyway, but its fine to spray plants with bee killing insecticide before flowers open, IMO, even if you might wind up killing a few who come to drink dew. This can be reduced by spraying when the sun is out so pesticide dries quickly, well before plants are covered by dew the next morning.
Some folks use a hypodermic needle to inject BT into the vines, but this year I’m trying an heirloom type that roots out from the vines as do my successful winter squash such as Butternut. Costata Romanesco, from Select Seeds, is an heirloom zucchini that is supposed to do this and be very disease resistant as a result. Another good thing about it is that it is supposedly less productive when it is producing than modern varieties when they are, so your friends won’t have to run away from you to avoid more gift zucchini.
Up to now, using row cover judiciously, I get a brief flood of fruit from plants that die after 2-3 weeks of production and have kept the Zuch coming by starting new plants every few weeks.
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I spray pumpkins with Tempo. Only in the evenings after the flowers have closed. It’s the only thing which will reliably kill squash bugs. I also don’t eat those pumpkins. My neighbor runs what seems to be a squash bug sanctuary, so I’d not get a single long season squash without Tempo.
I’ve elected to just buy pumpkins these last few years.
For borers, inject Thuricide in the stems. That’s an organic solution I’ve found effective. I’ve also had luck cutting out the larvae with a razor, though my success rate there is maybe 50/50.
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Growing SVB resistant crops is also a way to go. Patty pan and yellow squash get SVB but take a looong time to die from it. C. moschata is resistant to SVB, Tromboncino squash is used as a summer and winter squash.
edit to add: I’m trialing SVB traps from vivagrow this year.
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Where borers enter cut vine open and sprays or inject peroxide into vine. Works for me.
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@alan I’ll have to pay closer attention to the heirlooms I grow. I didn’t realize bush type cucurbits could re-root.
I personally grow butternut each year so if my other squash fail I still have something.
An Oglala friend and I were talking about squash pests last year. She was feeling so overwhelmed by them and losing plants every summer. We talked about how this pest pressure must’ve been there before settlers arrived and wondered whether indigenous pest management strategies didn’t get transmitted through the generations. My best guess is that they grew a variety or had selected resistant varieties.
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Good advice, and I don’t consider protecting native pollinators to be “hippie crap”. My choice of worlds wasn’t the greatest, but I assume I was in a rough mood when posting this.
My philosophy isn’t that different than yours.
Thanks again.
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I sometimes don’t use emojis when I should. Let me say, I was typing with a twinkle in my eye.
I should know by about mid-summer if my vine rooting zuch works, although I actually accidentally grew a type that did that a couple years ago that worked well, although disease finally would get the plants anyway, but they were certainly more durable than ones whose vines don’t root. I lost the seed pack and therefore lost track of the variety. The variety gave me the idea of researching whether it was a known trait in certain types. The research led me to the variety I mentioned which was highly touted for its disease resistance- along with the rooting vines.
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I actually might try Trombocino this year, it just takes up so much damn room.
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Grow it up a trellis if you can. Concrete remesh works great.
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Darn thing ate my whole back yard (2 plants) but it was pretty bulletproof with regard to squash vine problems…
I took a year off from growing it, but the wife requested I plant a couple this spring.
Scott
Seven dust works but get the bottoms of the leaves
I grow Cucurbits that have solid core stems like Green Stripped Cushaw and Butternut squash. The vine borers do not attack these. Squash bugs kill every vine, but after I get a lot of squash and I still have time for a fall/winter crop.
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The most benign thing that will reliably kill both (also cuke beetles) is spinosad. Even so, you will need thorough coverage, regular applications (remember to spray after dark to minimize pollinator fatalities) and likely an adjuvant. Active spinosad will have to be present when the SVB larva hatch so that they’ll ingest a fatal dose on the way into the vine. Spinosad is probably more efficacious against squash bug nymphs than the adults, though I’ve seen it off the latter, too.
Mostly, like @poncirusguy, I’ve learned to avoid SVB-susceptible squash and stick with C. moschata and argyrosperma (formerly mixta).
In terms of summer squash, “Lemon” (grown on a trellis) seems to offer some resistance to SVB—at least, I’ve not had any problems the past few years I’ve been growing it.
Is this method safe for the pollinators? Do you spray the entire plant or just the vines themselves?
I’ve been spraying my pumpkins and winter squash vines with Imidan(!) but stop when the flowers appear. Unfortunately, this method usually only protects about half my vines, the other half go from perfectly healthy to dead in a day when the borrers do their thing!
Because the flowers close in the evenings, the inside where the pollinators gather shouldn’t be impacted. I don’t have any scientific evidence to back that up, but it’s what other people around here do. When I spray I try to focus on the stems and leaves.
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