23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
I lost all my zukes to SVB last year (knock on wood haven't seen them this year) and squash bugs were bad too. Bagged all the dead plants, even the yellow squash (SVB didn't like that as much) at end of season and I still had lots of SB this year. Read that they'd hide in mulch so was afraid to put hay down but then I did a few weeks ago and WOW lots fewer eggs now - but we've been having a lot of rain too maybe they don't like it wet.
Now anybody got any controls for cucumber beetles? I read Surround but don't know about spraying everything with clay if it's hard to get off. Could do sticky traps I guess, too late for trap crop.
'Now anybody got any controls for cucumber beetles?'
Sure, but most seem intimidated to try this. Cucumber Beetles emerge here in mid May. These are the live over the winter adults. They will immediatley seek out young cucurbits [squash, cukes, cantaloupes, gourds, and watermelon] seedlings. They eat the cotedons and bury in the soil to lay eggs. IF you kill all of them at that time, you will have few to none for the second generation. [Some spotted ones may be driven in on the wind from the south]
At this time, [June-July] if you will carefully spray some Sevin on top of a few of the leaves in the evening, you will decimate the population.....See, you don't have to drown everything with poison!!! A stitch in time saves 899. The beetles love the blossoms, but I believe they also like some bits of green leaves too....that where you get them.
I've got zukes in the garden, zone 3, and have harvested about 7 this year but production is picking up now. The plants are wimpy? How wimpy? Are they stunted? Pics with scale? I've no idea if it's the weather, your soil or what that's causing the situation, but if they're as big as they should be and just not fruiting, then yeah a soil test and correction with the appropriate nutrients, probably non-organic unless you can get ahold of a liquid compost tea would be your best bet to kick start them into fruiting. Make sure the females aren't shrivelling up under your nose from lack of pollination. However, if the plants are stunted or just not growing then perhaps the prognosis is less optimistic for the rest of the season, depending on where you live and the length of your growing season, how hot it gets where you are, etc. Hot weather (high 80's-90's) consistently can harm production. If the soil was tilled well enough, loosened up so it's not packed so hard that the roots don't have room to grow, then you should be able to fix your problem if the plants are growing, just not fruiting... but your yield will obviously be hindered as some of us have already harvested a few fruits by now.
I've heard that in most new construction, the soil is highly compacted (and sometimes filled with crappy soil)
I would start fresh with a couple loads of compost, even some topsoil for regular landscaping.
Get a tiller and load up the compost from the dump (or a landscaping place)
You might want to terrace and/or do raised beds in the hilly area.
But for your current situation, can you find someone who has compost tea? (something you might consider starting, a compost pile!) I just found a place that gives it away (2 gal, able to dilute it up to 10 gal!) To buy the stuff is quite expensive, but if you can find a source......Nancy Good luck and happy gardening!
First: When you see a tiny cuke shrivels and dies, that means that it was not pollinated. That could be due to lack of bees and/or male flowers.
Second, If you do not pick the cukes young, the plant will spend a lot of energy on it to develop seed. That is the plant's ultimate mission. So if your cucumber is called "straight Eight " (just example) pick it when it is about 7".
Thanks all.
conchita.......I hadn't thought of that! I think I'll try that.
Actually......I had a female cardinal hit my window (on purpose) from 6a.m.-9p.m. every day. It drove me nuts. I got my fake owl (which was in my shed with my golf cart, hoping to scare away the mice that chewed the wires)........and put it on a stick and positioned it in front of the window. Worked like a charm! I think she was more scared of it than the mice get though. Oh, yes..I was saying.........I was thinking of putting it by my cherry tomatoes, to see if that would work.
But I have the feeling I'll be picking the tomatoes early.
Agree with Jean. Normal bonemeal is just phos with little to no nitrogen so this must be some special mixture. Plus bonemeal is very slow acting - like 6 months from now it might affect the P level in the soil Meanwhile the damage is done.
Many times we try too hard and by trying to fix what we think might be a problem we end up doing more harm and making the problem worse. Patience costs us nothing and does no harm either.
Dave
My Pumpkin plant is suddenly dying too! I also have a drip irrigation system, so I just don't think it could be root rot. I also have squash bugs, but I keep their population under control. I dug around in the stem, carefully, and couldn't find any sort of root worm. I did find one wire worm, I've had problems with those in the past in my potatoes.
The plant suddenly wilted yesterday, I gave it an extra round of watering, and it perked up to normal last night. It got watered again this morning, and now in the heat of the day it's looking worse and worse. Could it be some kind of wilt?
I did say "almost".... I have kept them out of my garden in a heavy deer area with fencing, but in the winter they get crazed and I have little doubt would jump my fence without blinking, right now they have plenty else to eat... I'm sure someone else will have some suggestions.
Temperatures have been high, in the 90s. I hadn't seen the blossom drop one, just blossom end rot. I just now read it, thank you.
The flower on the bottom HAD opened, for sure, the one above it did not though and there is one over the other side, which also opened. All of them started to shrivel at the same time.
I have at least 3 more female flowers coming up right now, so fingers crossed they do okay. They haven't opened yet, but should within the next couple of days I think. Got plenty of males floating around right now (3 open today, fortunately there are like 5 more currently growing with about 3 at around the right stage for when the females open up!) so I guess we'll see what happens. Would you recommend hand pollinating these new females?
What is the ratio of the mixture you are using? That makes all the difference as heavy application can do more damage than good.
Standard recipe is 1T each of soap and oil to 1 gallon of water lightly misted. But the effectiveness on whiteflies is debatable.
Dave
Dave: I thought the ratio was a 1-2 percent solution. Which is about 2.5-5 TB soap to gallon water.
Veeta: Like Dave said, too strong of a solution can cause more damage than good. Here's what I would do in your case... I'd either use just soap or just neem oil(anti-feeding properties). And with the soap, I'd hit the plants about ever 4 days at dusk for a couple weeks, rinsing them off with water the following morning to prevent any damage from the hot, summer sun. Or...
spend a few extra bucks and order some lacewing eggs/larvae.
JMO.
Kevin